The brunch menu continues to transcend time and trends, filling restaurant tables all across the country.
Consumers from every demographic enjoy the relaxed midday dining experience. Restaurant owners, managers and chefs enjoy an opportunity to increase sales. The best restaurant brunch ideas keep dining rooms full and profits up.
Basics That Build the Best Brunch Menus
As a foodservice professional, you understand the value of smart menu development and how it brings in business. Engineering a brunch menu inspires back of house to work with new recipes.
As a restaurant manager, you can work with prix fixe, a la carte and buffet options. Whether you’re running the kitchen or the dining room, start with these basics for building the best brunch in town.
Authentic Ethnic Cuisine - Engage customer interest with culturally diverse breakfast themes. Showcase French cuisine with housemade croissants and brioche. Celebrate Italian flavors with rich breakfast stratas. Highlight Mexican breakfast classics like huevos rancheros with baked eggs. Use authentic ingredients to develop signature recipes exclusive to your restaurant.
Elegant Traditions – Restaurants in New Orleans enjoy world renown for their gourmet brunch menus. Take a cue from the Big Easy by upgrading traditional breakfast dishes. Make elegant French toast from baguettes, sprinkle caviar over scrambled eggs, and drizzle waffles with almonds and chocolate syrup.
Healthy Options – Leave plenty of room on brunch menus and buffets for healthy selections. Mediterranean frittatas, oat flour waffles and vegan hash are all tasty options. Whip up nutritious Brussels sprout smoothies and strawberry yogurt shakes.
Enticing Variety – Balanced menu selections offer multiple options for breakfast proteins and carbs. Let customers choose between bacon, pancetta or rashers. Banana bran muffins, blueberry bread and cinnamon rolls are sweet alternatives to sides of toast.
Comfort Food Favorites – Give guests a taste of the comfort foods that make them feel at home. Fluffy omelets made to order and waffles topped with seasonal berries are just two brunch favorites.
Inviting Presentation – A well-developed menu combined with beautiful presentation adds up to a highly successful brunch. Dining guests visually graze buffet options before they fill their plates, so make first impressions irresistible.
11 Restaurant Brunch Ideas That Bring in Business
Cultural Cuisine Crossovers
1. Creamy Frittata With Napa Cabbage
This brunch recipe serves up an Italian favorite with an impressive take on the basic.
Finely chopped napa cabbage gives the creamy baked frittata a wonderful texture. Curry, cayenne and crumbled feta balance the fresh veggie's slightly sweet taste.
Recipe Inspiration: Try substituting sour cream, yogurt or cottage cheese for the recipe's creme fraiche.
2. Oven-Baked Huevos Rancheros
One pass through the buffet line may not be enough when you offer hearty huevos rancheros. Dining room guests are sure to circle back for seconds.
The traditional Mexican breakfast also streamlines valuable staff time with quick prep and one-dish buffet serving.
Recipe Inspiration: The recipe gives customers an excellent vegetarian brunch option, but it's easily modified with cuisine-centric proteins like chorizo, carnitas or even barbacoa.
3. Very Veggie Shakshuka
Premium produce adds extra flavor and satisfying texture to a Mediterranean classic. Chopped broccoli, shredded Brussels sprouts and thinly sliced napa cabbage hearts transform the poached egg dish into a very healthy shakshuka.
Recipe Inspiration: Complement the fresh take on eggs and spicy tomato sauce with sides of fresh-made crusty challah bread or pita bread.
Comfort Food Favorites
4. Ultimate Comfort Quiche
This recipe brings hash browns, bacon and quiche together as the ultimate comfort brunch trifecta.
Top the trio with fresh asparagus and Gruyere, and you have a dish that impresses guests with some of their favorite mid-morning flavors.
Recipe Inspiration: The richly satisfying quiche can be retrofitted with fresh spinach and Swiss cheese, elevated with blue crab meat or topped with caramelized onion.
5. Simply Perfect Waffles
Warm up appetites with a simple brunch waffle. Garnish with chopped pecans, drizzle with maple syrup, and serve to guests who appreciate the perfection of a timeless midday meal.
The quick-cook dish is an excellent choice for a designated staff-run waffle station at the buffet.
Recipe Inspiration: Offer customers a choice of tempting toppings such as blueberries, strawberries or banana slices.
6. Simply Brighter Pancakes
Yes, it's possible to improve the basic pancake with just one adjustment: Brighten up flapjacks with the tangy taste of fresh oranges. This easy trick works especially well on fluffy buttermilk flapjacks, turning plain pancakes into inviting headliners on your brunch menu.
Recipe Inspiration: Dress up the pancake batter before cooking by blending in additional flavors with dried cherries, cranberries or a toss of fresh blueberries.
7. Egg Smash Toast
Give your midday dining room guests a deliciously different way to enjoy toast and eggs. Soft-boiled eggs nestled on sourdough slices offer an irresistible hand-held version of the original comfort breakfast.
A Greek yogurt spread makes it extra flavorful and creamy.
Recipe Inspiration: House-made sourdough bread ensures a fresh supply for the recipe, and it's an excellent side for dinner service appetizers such as Caprese salads, hummus dips or tapenade spreads.
Enticingly Sweet Options
8. French Toast and Custard Casserole
Blend bites of French toast with a rich custard, and bake the dessert casserole the night before brunch service. Enhance its sweet flavors with brown sugar, pecans and maple syrup, and keep warm in crowd-sized chafing dishes.
Recipe Inspiration: Think outside the traditional French toast bread box by making the brunch casserole with babka, Japanese milk bread or Hawaiian rolls.
9. Very Chocolate Waffles
Waffles made with a chocolate syrup batter and plated with a chocolate syrup topping deserve dessert designation.
This recipe earns extra brunch points as a customer-pleasing selection that's simple to prep and serve at your buffet's designated waffle station.
Recipe Inspiration: Stock the station with bowls of fresh berries so that guests can custom garnish their chocolate waffles with strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and cherries.
Brunch-Friendly Cocktails
10. Terrific Tropical Mimosas
Make your restaurant's midday mimosas deliciously different with a pineapple and triple sec puree. The very fresh recipe adds a tasty tropical touch to the soft fizz of a favorite champagne brunch tradition.
Recipe Inspiration: Blend up a mocktail version of the tropical mimosa using citrus sparkling water, non-alcoholic sparkling wine or chilled ginger ale.
11. Elegant French 75s
Refreshingly sophisticated, the French 75 fulfills guest expectations for a champagne brunch. Made with Cognac or gin, the apéritif can easily become one of your restaurant's signature brunch cocktails.
Recipe Inspiration: Craft an eye-catching pink French 75 by substituting a sparkling rose wine for the regular champagne.
Tips for Planning Your Restaurant's Best Brunch Service
Think Outside the Breakfast Box – Give guests a delectable bridge between classic breakfast brunch and traditional lunch menus. Offer breakfast salads, sides and entrees. Include unique selections like shrimp cocktails in baby iceberg lettuce bowls or grilled cheese croissant sandwiches.
Set Up Inviting Stations – Dazzle guests with staff-run stations that impress by serving all types of brunch dishes.
Showcase made-to-order omelets as breakfast options and carved rib roasts for lunch plates.
Always use quality equipment, including chafing dishes, cold trays and serving utensils.
Build customer interest at the buffet with tiered tables that make it easier to reach different selections.
Design attention-grabbing buffet layouts around brightly colored fruits and vegetables.
Introduce new house specialities by placing attractively framed informational cards alongside debut dishes.
Stay Fresh With the Season – Most premium produce is available year-round, but many favorites are strongly associated with summer, spring or fall. Turn their popularity into healthy brunch ideas linked to the season. For example, transform a breakfast quiche into a late-summer classic with rainbow chard.
Serve Sensational Cocktail Selections – Cocktails have always been a brunch favorite. Transform the traditional brunch marketing idea into a signature feature of your restaurant by offering signature cocktails. Put an in-house twist on bloody Marys, bellinis and mimosas. Serve tasty nonalcoholic options too with a variety of intriguing mocktails.
Do It Your Restaurant’s Way – Make sure your brunch matches the ambience and cooking style that brands your restaurant. The simple strategy keeps loyal customers happy and introduces new dining guests to your restaurant’s unique culinary character.
Serve buttermilk pancakes with housemade syrups.
Bake breakfast breads, biscuits and pastries in-house.
Source local farmers markets for smoked bacon, sausage and ham.
Dedicate a beverage station to seasonal fresh-pressed juices.
Cater to the Casual Crowd – If your restaurant brand trends toward casual, keep brunch simple. Focus on easy, delicious selections that streamline kitchen prep and please regular dining guests. Satisfy customers with everything they expect, and hold their interest with new ideas like housemade cinnamon buns and hearty breakfast casseroles.
Cater to the Younger Crowd – Don’t forget your youngest brunch guests. Put smiles on kids’ faces with veggie breakfast burritos, gluten-free mini quiches and berry-topped French toast.
Inspiration That Keeps Them Coming Back
The best brunch menu ideas keep loyal customers coming back and turn new guests into regulars. Make the midday service a part of your restaurant’s schedule, and enjoy a measurable increase in sales.
It’s our pleasure to share foodservice ideas that help you run your restaurant from back to front of house. Whether you oversee the kitchen or direct the dining room, you can always count on Hitchcock Farms for fresh inspiration.
