In the midst of winter, the mere thought of a hot, hearty breakfast can lure us out of a comfy bed and into the cold day, especially if we know that someone else will make it. From rich and spicy Mexican meals to the quintessential breakfast burrito to a sublime stack of pancakes, here are five delectable breakfast dishes served in iconic Santa Fe restaurants. Any one of them will give you a reason to rise and embrace the day.  

Mighty Huevos Motuleños

Breakfast is served until 3 p.m. at the longtime downtown favorite Cafe Pasqual’s, which is good news if you’re not an early riser. Fittingly named after the patron saint of cooks and kitchens, Pasqual’s heavenly food is influenced by New Mexican, Mexican, and Asian cuisines, and the restaurant landed an “America’s Classic” title from the James Beard Foundation in 1999. Blintzes, omelets, and cornmeal pancakes all tempt the palate, but huevos motuleños is my go-to breakfast dish in this colorful corner café housed in a former Texaco gas station a block from the Santa Fe Plaza. Their spin on the traditional Mexican dish is a feast of corn tortillas layered with black beans, feta, green peas, eggs any style, and mole or red or green chile. (Order Christmas to double the flavor.) Sautéed plantains round out this savory dish with a creamy sweetness that pairs perfectly with the saltiness of feta and the heat of chile.

“I first tasted a version of this at the now-defunct Nifty Cafe on Old Las Vegas Highway back in the eighties,” says Cafe Pasqual’s owner and chef Katharine Kagel, who opened her venerated restaurant in 1979. “This is a classic Mexican breakfast from the village of Motul. I made our version vegetarian friendly by eliminating the traditional ham ingredient. This hearty plate boasts a balanced combination of salty, picante, and sweet all at once.” The flavors linger long after your plate is clean.

📍 121 Don Gaspar, Santa Fe, 505-983-9340

Crave-Worthy Chilaquiles

That long-gone Nifty Cafe on Old Las Vegas Highway also occupied a former gas station, and employees famously wore T-shirts promising “Same Day Service.” In 1992, Harry Shapiro and his wife, Peyton Young, opened Harry’s Roadhouse in the Nifty Cafe’s erstwhile space, creating a dynamic dining destination that has endured for more than three decades. Harry’s menu roams the country—and world—with dishes inspired by the cuisines not only of the Southwest but of Vietnam, Mexico, Italy, and the American South, among other regions, and the place is famous for scrumptious pies, cookies, and other desserts that people drive for miles to eat. 

Inviting breakfast choices include blue corn waffles and tres leches French toast. I like to order the chilaquiles. A standby for breakfast and brunch with regional variations throughout Mexico, chilaquiles are an ideal comfort food and the perfect way to use leftover corn tortillas and salsas. At Harry’s, fried tortilla wedges are slightly softened by tangy tomatillo salsa, topped with a combo of queso asadero and cotija, and served with eggs any style. I order mine over medium, so that, when broken, the sunny yolk slowly melds with the flavorful cheeses and salsa. The dish is served with black beans and a folded flour tortilla to scoop up the deliciousness. 

📍 96 B Old Las Vegas Hwy, Santa Fe, 505-989-4629

Divine Cloud Cakes

A few miles south of Harry’s on Old Las Vegas Highway lies Cafe Fina, also housed in a former gas station. (If you’re thinking of opening a restaurant, it might be worth looking at shuttered gas stations. It’s apparently a formula for success.) This wildly popular eatery serves mighty good food for breakfast and lunch until closing time at 3 p.m. You don’t have to show up early for pancakes, but you should because the Cloud Cakes are a dreamy way to start the day. Fluffy, moist, and golden brown, served with fresh berries, cream, and real maple syrup, this dish is aptly named—one bite and you’re walking on air.

“The recipe comes from my sister Mary’s restaurant, the Dream Cafe, in Dallas,” says chef and owner Murphy O’Brien. “The whipped whites and creamy ricotta are what make them special. No overmixing. Serve with real maple syrup, and cooking with clarified butter doesn’t hurt either. I’m not sure where the original recipe came from, but our family has been flipping these for over thirty-five years.” Try a stack, and you’ll likely flip for them too.

📍 624 Old Las Vegas Hwy, Santa Fe, 505-466-3886

An Unbeatable Breakfast Burrito​

Back in downtown Santa Fe, the revered family restaurant Tia Sophia’s serves some of the tastiest traditional New Mexican cuisine in the city. The breakfast burrito is legendary—made to order, smothered in housemade red, green, or Christmas, and nearly impossible to finish in one sitting. “There’s no trick to it and there’s no secret; we just have excellent ingredients and very ample proportions,” says owner Nick Maryol, whose parents, Jim and Ann Maryol, opened the restaurant in 1975. “We’ve just never varied from our formula.” While the restaurant’s bestselling version is stuffed with bacon and scrambled eggs (that’s my favorite too), Nick prefers his with housemade chorizo and an over-medium egg on top. “I like having the fried egg on top instead of scrambled inside,” he says. “That’s the way my dad liked it too. He always thought if you got your eggs scrambled, the flavor got lost.”

📍 210 W San Francisco, Santa Fe, 505-983-9880

Mouthwatering Mexican Shakshuka

The Mexican shakshuka at Plaza Café Southside, located in San Isidro Plaza, is a sassy serving of two poached eggs, housemade chipotle salsa, feta, guacamole, cilantro, pickled onion, and hash browns served atop a tortilla. It wakes up all the senses in a way that even three cups of coffee can’t achieve. Shakshuka means “shaken” or “mixed up” in Arabic. The dish, traditionally made with eggs poached in tomato sauce, is thought to have originated in Tunisia. The café’s version is deliciously inventive. “The shakshuka is a mixture of things, and we came up with the recipe because we like to try new dishes here,” says restaurant manager Andy Razatos, whose parents owned the sister Plaza Café, Santa Fe’s oldest restaurant. (Their children now run both restaurants.) “And this seems to be one that customers have really enjoyed.”

Razatos credits a key ingredient for the dish’s success. “I know exactly what makes it taste so good, and that is the chipotle salsa,” he says. “We jar it and sell it, because we love it so much.” Pick up a jar while you’re there. Who knows, the salsa’s sensational smokiness just may inspire you to crawl out of a warm bed to create your own mouthwatering breakfast.

📍 3466 Zafarano, Santa Fe, 505-424-0755

Lynn Cline
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Lynn Cline is the award-winning author of The Maverick Cookbook: Iconic Recipes and Tales From New Mexico. She’s written for Bon Appétit, the New York Times, New Mexico Magazine, and many other publications. She also hosts Cline’s Corner, a weekly talk show on public radio’s KSFR 101.1 FM.