Los Angeles - Best Breakfast Places, by Local Standards

 You're in Los Angeles, you're just waking up, and you're hungry. Where can you get a good breakfast? Well, hungry friend, look no further than this list: the five best Los Angeles breakfast places, according to local standards (as opposed to national tourist ranking devices, who needs 'em?) Sit back and enjoy your eggs and bacon, or grits and biscuits, if that's what you're into. Here are the five best Los Angeles breakfast places you'll find.

5. Grub 911 Seward St Los Angeles, CA (323) 461-3663

For the chill, laid-back, down-home style breakfaster, Grub offers a fun, creative menu of breakfast dishes whose names are almost as flavorful as the food itself. Take the Friggin' Amazin' French Toast, a fruity breakfast of cinnamon-vanilla toast, Los Angeles sightseeing tickets offers raspberry butter and maple syrup, plopped next to a pile of actual fruit. Or the Are You Yolkin'? Egg Sandwich, a buttery egg-cheese-bacon creation on a croissant with dill butter. All amazing in an Uncle-Billy's-house kind of way, and not aggressive on the prices. Located away from the Hollywood crowds just south of Santa Monica and Seward, its violet-lined outdoor patio tends to attract huge carpenter bees, so keep a steady eye.

4. Blu Jam Cafe 7371 Melrose Ave Los Angeles, CA (323) 951-9191

This one is a little less known than other entries on this list, but Blu Jam cafe deserves to be recognized as a go-to on more than a neighborhood level. This bohemian diner, which once served as a below-the-radar blues and jazz hangout, offers a small sidewalk setup to accompany its slightly rustic, red-brick-and-exposed-beam interior. The breakfast menu includes genius entries such as the Toscana Scramble, an eggs-and-sausage affair that brings in pesto, mozzarella and cherry tomatoes to party in your mouth, and the chocolate, banana and candied walnut crepe, which would excite any French chocolate fiend. Breakfast is served all day, and your table top will never be wont for fresh bread.

3. Griddle Cafe 7916 W Sunset Blvd Los Angeles, CA (323) 874-0377

One could talk about the Griddle's egg creations, its French toast, or even its respectable lunch menu, but one would be missing the point. Because the claim to fame of this Sunset Boulevard eatery is its pancakes, which if held in the air overhead, would create an eclipse of the sun, or at least serve as a reliable umbrella. The wide, thick, ridiculously tasty pancakes served here are big enough to cover your entire plate -- and if that's not enough pancake, you get three of them. They also cover four entire pages of the menu, with flavors such as pumpkin, apple cobbler, chocolate chip cookie, Baliey's and Kahlua, and raspberry-lemon. Can you say full?

2. Jinky's Cafe 8539 W Sunset Blvd West Hollywood, CA (310) 659-9670

If East Hollywood has Home, the West Hollywood crowd has its favorite breakfast spot in Jinky's Cafe, the traditional-style diner on Sunset, just west of La Cienega. Besides its spot-on, never-miss-a-beat service, this establishment combines the typical face-stuffing breakfast food with healthy West Hollywood sensibilities, happily specializing in options such as egg-whites-only, vegetarian sausage and whole grains. Southwestern tendencies create an inviting California-style menu, and their Italian coffees are raved about.