I will never understand people who “Don’t do breakfast”.  That is so strange to me.  Breakfast is awesome.  It’s the reward for waking up.  You survived another night!  You’re a fucking bad ass.  Here’s a pancake!  Whether it’s a down home Southern feast of grits, biscuits and ham made with love or left over Cool Ranch Doritos and flat cherry coke because you’ve hit rock bottom, everyone should enjoy breakfast.  It should be the law.  My friends and I are BIG into breakfast.  So much that we often eat it for dinner.  Brupper.  It’s a thing.

One of the several hot spots in San Diego for breakfast is The Mission, located in the neighborhood of North Park.  I LOVE North Park.  It’s home to so many awesome things.  You can hit up a bar with coin-op video games from the 80’s, shop at my favorite vinyl record store, pick up some KFC and take a stripper fitness pole dancing class on one block.  Granted, the parking is pretty miserable and you sometimes have to shoo away a smug of Hipsters on Friday nights, but North Park is still the business.  A lot of my friends had been to The Mission before and were surprised I’d never been there.  What can I say?  My sheltered-ness knows no bounds!

Joining me for breakfast were:

Abby-Swim instructor, Disneyland buddy, Stresses about making food for my other food-savvy friends

Aimee-Roommate since the 90’s, BFF, allergic to hot dogs and therefore labeled a commie by many

Amy-Vegetarian Belle, Author, Event Planner

Joe-Theatre and beer enthusiast, podcast co-host, Co-Creator of World’s Cutest Baby

Lily-World’s Cutest Baby (a Joe & Nicole production)

Nicole-Stage Manager, Cupcake diva, Co-Creator of World’s Cutest Baby

Post coffee smiles. Because “Pre-coffee” would’ve been cruel.

The Mission is one of those places where it’s usually crazy busy unless you get there in the morning.  As we were there at 7:45am, we got prime seating with a high chair so Lily wouldn’t have to eat on the floor like some sort of Depression-era orphan.  in addition to traditional American breakfast favorites, The Mission also offers a wide variety of Mexican breakfast food.  While I can usually be counted on to order something sweet at breakfast, I chose instead to order the California Burrito because I lack any originality before 9am.  Eggs scrambled with cheese, scallions & tomatoes wrapped in two handmade tortillas.

Simple, tasteful and full of potatoes. Like me.

There is something to be said for good execution of a simple dish and this plate had it.  While it was comparable to just about any breakfast burritos I’ve had, it was tasty and well done.  The rosemary potatoes were nice and I loved that I could have them instead of black beans, which saved me the trouble of flinging my plate across the room.  I also enjoyed the bacon because bacon.

Nicole ordered the Cinnamon French Toast, which was my favorite dish at the table.  Just sweet enough to satisfy and spicy enough to balance the dish out.  Also it was presented beautifully.  Who doesn’t love being presented with something pretty first thing in the morning?

See? It’s got fruit! It’s healthy!

Amy ordered the house-made granola with almonds, honey, fruit and yogurt.  She found the flavors to be on point but did note that the proportions of each ingredient on the dish were odd.  Pretty standard fare.  Abby ordered Granola Banana Pancakes with a side of chicken sausage.  The taste was good but the portions were large to the point where the pancakes almost seemed to seep up every drop of syrup and left the cakes feeling dry.  Both Amy and Abby ordered the Mexican Hot Chocolate, which they both very much enjoyed.

Aimee ordered the banana blackberry pancakes.  While she found them tasty, Aimee experienced much the same problem as Abby with her pancakes.  3 seemed to be a bit too much, though the flavors were on point.  Her big problems were with the overcooked bacon and eggs that seemed to lack any seasoning.

This breakfast was last seen stomping Tokyo.

Joe had Blueberry Pancakes, eggs and bacon.  While he deemed the eggs “just okay”, the pancakes were huge and delicious, as all breakfast should be.  Lily ate a bit of Nicole’s breakfast while fending off fans from other tables (She’s like crack for Grandmothers at nearby tables).

The final verdict on The Mission is: good.  While the food is nothing ground breaking, it is some pretty solid eats.  I can’t be sure I would make it a “Have to” on the list San Diego restaurants but it was certainly a good breakfast and when you love breakfast like we do, that’s a good thing.

Further reading: http://www.themissionsd.com/