Review | The 10 best breakfast sandwiches in the D.C. area

Forty-nine years ago, during the sweltering summer of 1975, McDonald’s introduced diners across America to the Egg McMuffin, which quickly became the most famous, if not the first, breakfast sandwich in the land. The dish had been developed a few years earlier by Herb Peterson, a McDonald’s operator in Santa Barbara, Calif., whose savvy extended to a special tool he designed for this morning glory: a Teflon-coated ring that forms the perfectly round egg at the center of the Egg McMuffin.

Ray Kroc, the guy who made McDonald’s a household name, knew the item would be a hit. The Egg McMuffin was originally served open-faced, which Kroc thought kooky. “But then I tasted it, and I was sold,” Kroc wrote in his memoir, “Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald’s.” “Wow! I wanted to put this item into all of our stores immediately.”

Four short years after its introduction, the Egg McMuffin was already imprinted on the public imagination. Phyllis C. Richman, then food critic for The Washington Post, glowed about the sandwich (and its accompanying oval of crispy hash browns) in a 1979 roundup of fast-food breakfast options.

“McDonald’s isn’t on top of the heap for nothing,” Richman wrote. “Its Egg McMuffin — English muffin, fried egg, cheese and Canadian bacon — and its golden hash browns are high on the list of historic American inventions.”

For at least two generations, this fast-food mashup — its English and Canadian influences name-checked in its very ingredients — was America’s idea of a breakfast sandwich, even if we had been consuming handheld stacks in the morning long before the Golden Arches came along. In the 1970s, the Egg McMuffin’s name rolled off our tongues as easily as those CB radio hits that inexplicably dominated the airwaves back then.

A half-century later, the Egg McMuffin has so much more competition, some from chefs who still appreciate the streamlined architecture of this fast-food legend, whose lingering appeal whispers a message to those willing to listen: Don’t overthink things in the morning. Use only a few building blocks, but perfect each one.

As I embarked on this hunt for the best breakfast sandwiches in the D.C. area, I wasn’t exactly conscious of the Egg McMuffin’s influence. I was more interested in learning how chefs had deviated from earlier norms — and how they were using the breakfast sandwich as a way to express themselves and their identity. But an interesting thing happened along the way: Many, if not all, of the sandwiches below ultimately followed the keep-it-simple formula of the Egg McMuffin, which I noticed only after consuming more than 90 specimens to identify the 10 standouts.

The major difference? Most of these 10 sandwiches draw from the rainbow blaze of cultures that make up this country of ours. Some can trace their inspiration back to Mexico. Others to South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Colombia and the Palestinian territories

If Herb Peterson was trying to reimagine eggs Benedict with the Egg McMuffin, some of the chefs here are now trying to redefine this portable meal for a new generation that wants to see itself reflected in the food it eats. These inventions don’t just cross cultures, expanding the flavors available for our morning repast. They confirm a fundamental truth about America: We’re far stronger when we come together, even with just a breakfast sandwich.

10

Breakfast Bandit from Buffalo & Bergen

As a teenager, Gina Chersevani worked at a bagel shop in the Elmont area of Long Island. The experience left a mark. “I swore that I would never, ever, ever make bagels again,” said Chersevani, founder of Buffalo & Bergen, a growing chain of freewheeling dinettes. “And here I am.” The bagel at the base of her breakfast bandit has a direct connection to her youth: The dough is prepared daily at A&S Bagels in Franklin Square, N.Y., not far from the streets where Chersevani developed a taste for a bagel and schmear. The kitchen at Buffalo & Bergen adds seasonings to the raw dough and bakes every bagel fresh, ready to load for this sloppy, indecent, irresistible sandwich. The Bandit is layered with housemade carnitas, slow-braised with lager and tomatoes, followed by avocado, manchego cheese and a fried egg, its yolk set to pop. A trio of pickled hot peppers — Fresno, poblano, jalapeño — cuts the richness like a hot knife through butter, adding equal parts acid and heat. Your choice of bagel is important: An everything round can lend a bitter edge to the Bandit. Chersevani prefers an onion bagel, and once again, she’s right on the mark.

$11.50. 240 Massachusetts Ave. NE, 202-525-3350; 1309 Fifth St. NE, inside Union Market, 202-543-2549. buffalobergendc.com.

9

Bistek at Lapu Lapu

One of Javier Fernandez’s favorite dishes as a child was the bistek his mother made. For her beef, Gwen Fernandez relied on the grilled rib-eye that her husband would bring home from his job as a personal chef in Bethesda. It added an unmistakable smokiness to a Philippine dish that traditionally leans on soy sauce, calamansi juice and sauteed onions for flavor. Javier considers his mom’s bistek last-meal-on-earth good. At Lapu Lapu in the Kentlands neighborhood of Gaithersburg, the chef has developed a version that’s not just a nod to his mom; it’s a riff on something perhaps more familiar to Americans: the Philly cheesesteak.

“When you think about it,” Javier Fernandez says about the word “bistek,” “it’s almost like saying ‘beef steak.’” Perhaps you think eating a cheesesteak in the morning is a crime against breakfast? Let me disabuse you of that idea. This preparation — sliced rib-eye braised in soy sauce, beef bouillon and lemon juice, then tricked out with lettuce, pickled red onions, white American cheese sauce, garlic-adobo mayo and a sunny-side-up egg on a pandesal bun — is steak and eggs of the finest order. Even if Fernandez’s mother doesn’t agree. “She likes hers more,” the chef says.

$15. 216 Market St. West, Gaithersburg, Md., 240-477-7764. lapulapubreakfast.com.

8

Bacon, egg and cheese on biscuit at Meats and Foods

The shattering crackle of bacon. This sensuous pleasure — the sound and the fury of teeth against crispy pork belly — shouldn’t come as a surprise, but it does when you bite into this bacon, egg and cheese beauty from Meats and Foods, the cramped custom-sausage shop in Shaw. Years of experience have trained my brain to expect bacon to release from a breakfast sandwich in one long, rubbery strip, perhaps dragging other ingredients along the way, like a drowning victim.

Scott McIntosh and Ana Marin, the husband-and-wife partners behind the business, employ a multistep process to ensure their bacon renders into strips that crack and rattle with the force of good brittle. They cure and smoke their own pork belly, but here’s the key: The couple slices the bacon thin, then crisps up the strips on a flattop before finishing them in the oven. When piled onto the bottom half of a housemade biscuit — built with three types of flour and lard — the bacon realizes every single gram of its potential. You remember why you fell for bacon in the first place. Now the bad news: This biscuit-based sandwich is available on Sundays only, though you can order it on a roll other days.

$11.50. 247 Florida Ave. NW, 202-505-1384. meatsandfoods.com.

7

Egg, pesto and smoked Gouda on focaccia at Green Almond Pantry

About a year ago, a customer approached Cagla Onal-Urel to ask whether the chef and owner of Georgetown’s Green Almond Pantry could whip up a quick breakfast sandwich. Looking at her available ingredients, Onal-Urel fried up a pair of eggs — loose enough for the yolks to release their nectar at the slightest prick. She paired the eggs with pesto and smoked Gouda, all layered between slices of the chef’s housemade focaccia, which occupies this gossamer space between air and Earth’s crust. The customer returned, the chef recalls, and “said that that was the best sandwich she ever had, but it was like, maybe she was just hungry.”

The anecdote reminds me of what I admire about Green Almond and its perpetually worried founder: Her ego never seems to catch up to her creativity. Her palate is impeccable, and this sandwich, now a permanent fixture here, shows off her skill at coaxing flavor from just a few ingredients, including her bread, which radiates rosemary and garlic even though you’d be hard-pressed to find traces of either on the focaccia. The bonus? The sandwich comes with cut tomatoes, to pop at your pleasure, a reminder of how Onal-Urel used to eat breakfast in her native Turkey.

$11. 3210 Grace St. NW, 202-290-1698. greenalmondpantry.com.

6

Breakfast sope at Taco Bamba

For a hot minute, I considered adding a breakfast taco to this list, partly because I love them but mostly because I had an opening: In May, an Indiana judge ruled tacos are “Mexican-style sandwiches” in a Fort Wayne, Ind., zoning battle. In the end, though, I understood that tacos inhabit their own world. Besides, I had another Mexican option: the breakfast sope at Taco Bamba, the rapidly expanding chain from chef Victor Albisu. Sopes are their own thing, too, I suppose, but in this particular case, I am the judge and jury. I ruled that this elongated masa cake — slathered with refried beans; sprinkled with chorizo and cotija cheese; topped with pickled jalapeños and avocado; drizzled with crema; and made complete with a fried egg, its yolk still wobbly — is an open-faced breakfast sandwich. One that I would eat anytime — and can because Taco Bamba serves it all day. After talking to Albisu, I learned there’s an unidentified element smuggled onto his sope: a salsa verde, blended from roasted tomatillos, pickled jalapeños and cilantro. It’s available only on the chef’s sope, a singular breakfast sandwich by any measure — and any name.

$1o or $11, depending on location. There are multiple Taco Bambas in the D.C. area and beyond. Find the closest one at tacobamba.com.

5

Pepperoni, egg and cheese, or PEC, at Tonari

Katsuya Fukushima lived for a spell in New York, where he learned that the bacon, egg and cheese sandwich is the spark that jump-starts the city every morning. He wanted to create his own version of the bodega classic, but within the conceptual boundaries of Tonari, the Penn Quarter restaurant where the chef injects Japanese flavors into pizza and pasta as part of a cuisine known as wafu Italian. Fukushima tried some of the obvious subs for bacon — prosciutto and mortadella among them — but it wasn’t until he landed on pepperoni that he found a meat that clicked. The kitchen warms the pepperoni just enough to release its oil and aromatics, which envelop the soft curds of the Jacques Pépin-style omelet at the center of this weekend-only sandwich. The finishing touches are a housemade condiment — part tonkatsu sauce, part mayo, part ketchup — and a slice of Kraft American cheese. Fukushima makes no apologies for the processed cheese or ketchup. “I love ketchup over eggs, so I wanted to sneak that into it.” Then he laughs, amused by the secret that all good chefs keep: Delicious ingredients come in many forms.

$8 for two eggs, $9 for three. 707 Sixth St. NW, 202-289-8900. tonaridc.com.

4

Egg arepa at Royal

In Paul Carlson’s memory, his mom made arepas all the time when he was a boy. Sometimes — maybe when she was homesick or just wanted to give her children a taste of her native Colombia — Gloria Carlson would serve the corn cakes as part of a breakfast spread with avocado, fried eggs and fresh, crumbly costeño cheese. Some assembly was required. When the Carlson family — Gloria and her husband, Ronald; Paul and his sister, Katrina — opened Royal in LeDroit Park in 2015, they paid homage to Gloria’s Colombian foodways with, among other plates, this breakfast arepa, already stuffed for your convenience.

This arepa is unlike any other cradle for a breakfast sandwich; its griddled exterior ruptures with a kind of waxy crackle, revealing softer, lusher ingredients inside the cake: avocado, cotija cheese, a slice of tomato and a fried runny egg. The grace note here is the ají, a condiment common to every Colombian household. Royal’s ají is assembled with cilantro, vinegar, scallions, tomatoes and a wee bit of chili to electrify every bite. Add it liberally to your egg arepa and notice how it comes alive.

$13. 501 Florida Ave. NW, 202-332-7777. theroyaldc.com.

3

Scallion, egg and cheese sandwich at Rose Ave Bakery

When done right, the Taiwanese scallion pancake is one of life’s great pleasures, a street snack that revels in both texture and the sweet, deeply savory aroma of warm green onions. Rosie Nguyen is not Taiwanese. She’s a Vietnamese American who grew up in Philadelphia, but her Rose Ave Bakery in Woodley Park seeks inspiration throughout Asia to reimagine doughnuts, pastries and, yes, breakfast sandwiches. Her scallion, egg and cheese sandwich can trace its roots back to Taiwan, but only after a layover in France.

After she has laminated the dough for her croissant, she will sprinkle fresh scallions, garlic powder, salt and pepper while rolling out the sheets, so that the seasonings and green onions infiltrate every layer. Once the croissant is baked, Nguyen will coat the pastry with butter and toss it with fried garlic, furikake and more seasonings. A thick brick of baked eggs, topped with cheddar, is tucked into this Taiwanese-inspired croissant. When you take that first bite, you’re showered with buttery shards, the errant flakes of a croissant facing imminent destruction. You’re also left with an unmistakable impression: This is one ingenious breakfast sandwich.

$9.25. 2633 Connecticut Ave. NW, 202-506-4380. roseavebakery.com.

2

DL’s Egg Drop at I Egg You

The Egg Drop chain — or EGGDROP, as the South Korean company prefers to holler its name — has been around for just seven years. But in that time, Egg Drop has become a cultural phenomenon in Korea and beyond, opening hundreds of shops that specialize in diner-style sandwiches served between thick slices of brioche, everything sprinkled with granulated sugar, not unlike the Korean hot dogs now rolling through America. Danny Lee — one half of the team responsible for the hot, heavenly mess that is Capitol Hill’s I Egg You — finally tried an Egg Drop sandwich in Korea last year after scrutinizing photos on social media, wondering where these bites rate on a spectrum between toothsome and nasty. He was blown away, enough so that he built his own version. His interpretation, dubbed DL’s Egg Drop, leans into marinated bulgogi meat, the Korean barbecue staple that always activates a drool response. The thin ribbons of beef are paired with a fontina cheese egg scramble, chives and a spicy gochujang aioli that balances out the sweet, toasted milk bread that holds the sandwich together. Barely holds it together, I should say. To eat this beast, you’ll need a fork to chase down every last morsel.

$17. 517 Eighth St. SE, 202-621-7480. ieggyou.com.

1

Za’atar egg croissant at Yellow

Before the pandemic, when Albi chef and owner Michael Rafidi was sketching out plans for a casual daytime cafe, he envisioned a place where diners could luxuriate over a traditional Middle Eastern breakfast. Maybe a spread of hummus, labneh, olive oil, meat pies and lots of warm pita bread to dip into the sundry bowls. Such a feast, of course, would require time around a table with friends, an everyday indulgence that was cut short when covid-19 entered our lives. Out of necessity, Rafidi’s Yellow cafe instead embraced our American obsession with grab-and-go breakfast fare, snacks custom-built for a society too stressed out to stop and smell the hummus. But Rafidi found ways to inject Palestinian flavors into his morning pastries and sandwiches, none more successful than his za’atar egg croissant at the Yellow cafes in Georgetown and Union Market. This striking specimen of the sandwich-making craft so thoroughly smothers a croissant in za’atar that you’d be hard-pressed to realize there’s a pastry underneath that tight sweater of herbs and spices. The kitchen tucks smoked piquillo and pickled Fresno peppers into the croissant before adding a sunny-side-up egg and labneh. The sandwich exudes smoke. It provokes curiosity. It radiates innovation and identity. It’s clearly the best breakfast sandwich out there.

$12. 1524 Wisconsin Ave. NW; 417 Morse St. NE. yellowthecafe.com.

Honorable mentions