12 Restaurant Breakfast Special Ideas to Fill Your Seats

Do you find that your restaurant resembles a ghost town in the morning? If you’re not selling at every moment of the day, you are wasting money on keeping your location open and paying your employees.

To run a profitable business, you need to implement some restaurant breakfast special ideas that will have people hustle to buy your menu items.

Try the following suggestions to see an immediate improvement in the number of breakfast clients:

Why you must implement restaurant breakfast ideas

Here are some benefits you will enjoy if you start experimenting with restaurant breakfast special ideas at your place:

• Reach a new audience: if you haven't served breakfast until now, this is your chance to reach the crowd that enjoys eating breakfast at a restaurant. For example, busy office workers who want to grab a quick bite or upper-middle-class people who want to meet friends over a delicious breakfast;
• Increase your visibility: adding new breakfast menu items and promotions allows you to promote your business. Tempt people on social media with mouth-watering pictures of your new dishes and they won't be able to resist;
• Sell more food: you pay the operating costs for your business for the whole day, so why not make the most of them? If you serve clients at breakfast time, you will increase your profit.

7 restaurant breakfast special ideas

Use the following tips to fill your seats during the breakfast hours:

1. Create breakfast combos

People enjoy finding breakfast combos at restaurants for two main reasons:

• It makes the decision process easier: people may either be in a hurry or they just might get overwhelmed if they have to choose from many dishes. Make it easier for your customers by providing breakfast combos that include all they may need such as a small dish, a small dessert, and a coffee;
• It provides value for money: make sure the combos come at a smaller price as opposed to buying all the dishes separately. Coffee is usually a high-profit item because you can sell it at a very big price compared to what you pay for the raw ingredients, so you can easily add it in a combo at a reduced price.

2. Offer a to-go box

To sell as much as possible during breakfast, you must cater to all types of breakfast customers, including the ones who don't want to eat at the location.

Invest in an efficient online ordering system that allows people to request both delivery and pick-up. This way, customers can place the order on their way to work, pick it up from your place, and enjoy your delicious food while handling their business.

3. Try breakfast promotion ideas

While people may see your breakfast online and think it looks delicious, they often need a small incentive to take the big step and order. If they see an irresistible promotion, they will be tempted to try the dishes they desire.

Here are a few breakfast promotion ideas you must try:

• 5% discount on certain breakfast items: if you notice some of your breakfast items are not selling as well as others, you can convince people to order them by adding a small discount;
• Buy one, get one free for coffee: tempt people to enjoy breakfast with friends by offering a free coffee for each purchased one;
• Get a free coffee for an order over $30: increase your average check value by offering a free coffee if people order items over a certain amount.

Find out how easy it is to set up restaurant promotions with the best online ordering system:

Read more: Implement these 10 best restaurant promotions right now to increase your sales

4. Cater to tourists

Another usually untapped market is tourists. They are on vacation and because they can't cook at their hotel, they must find a place to enjoy breakfast. Check out these tips to attract tourists to your restaurant:

• Add breakfast dishes appreciated by tourists: sometimes tourists like to be adventurous with food, but other times they enjoy the comfort of familiarity. Great options are cream cheese bagels, pancakes with different toppings, and different variations on egg dishes;
• Leave flyers in the foyer of local businesses: Collaborate with local hotels and bed-and-breakfast businesses so they can send interested tourists your way. This will also help you gain insights into creating a successful bed and breakfast business plan;
• Be active on TripAdvisor: update your profile to include your breakfast offerings and encourage people to leave positive reviews

Read more: How to Attract Tourists to Your Restaurant & Become a Master of Culinary Tourism

5. Offer free wi-fi

Some people want to be able to enjoy breakfast while also working. Getting more paying customers is great, but you should also impose some limits, so you don’t get all your tables filled with people who only buy one coffee:

• Require people to register with an e-mail to get access to Wi-Fi: this way you gather contact information from your clients so you can send them email campaigns later on. With efficient email marketing, you can persuade them to come back again and again;
• Have a flyer visible with the acceptable hours for using a laptop: both at the entry and throughout the restaurant, so clients won’t be disgruntled when the service changes to lunch;
• Have servers remind customers about the laptop rule when seating them: let customers know they are welcome to enjoy their breakfast while working on their laptop, but only until a certain hour. Explain that after that hour, the restaurant will start to prepare for the lunch service.

6. Have a special edition breakfast on Sundays

I am sure you have heard of the term Sunday- Funday. While the first day of the weekend is traditionally reserved for errands, Sunday is the day for relaxation.

Tempt people to choose your restaurant for breakfast by implementing a special menu. With GloriaFood’s menu creator, you can have a different menu for every day of the week. Furthermore, you can set it up in minutes.

Consider extending the time period for breakfast to cater to people who want to have a late start on their free day.

Read more: How to Write a Menu for a Restaurant: Complete Guide with Examples

7. Organize a contest to promote your breakfast menu

You may have altered your opening hours and added new breakfast menu items, but how will your clients know about the change? Start by adding a banner on your website inviting people to join you at breakfast.

Afterward, turn to social media and organize a contest. For example, have people share a professionally taken photo of your best breakfast menu item to win a breakfast for two.

Or go more out of the box, and have people leave a comment with their favorite breakfast food to win a meal for two.

Read more: 21 Restaurant Competition Ideas to Gain Visibility and Attract Customers

5 breakfast menu ideas for restaurants

If you don't get as many clients at breakfast as you wish, it may be time to try some new restaurant breakfast special ideas. Check out these easy-to-implement tips:

1. Elevate the classic egg breakfast

An egg breakfast is as classic as you can go as most people tend to enjoy this protein at the start of the day. The good news is that it can be prepared in a variety of different ways. Here are some breakfast menu ideas for restaurants to help you stand out from the competition:

• Fondue baked eggs
• Bacon and egg pie with sage
• Shakshuka with white beans
• Polenta with corn, eggs, and feta
• Shirred eggs with leaks

2. Offer sweet options

Many people want to start their day with a sweet treat. If your chef is not experienced in patisserie, consider collaborating with a local bakery to supply clients with fresh croissants, cinnamon rolls, and other baked goods.

If you pride yourself in in-home dishes, try out these simple restaurant breakfast special ideas:

• Scones with clotted cream and jam
• Pancakes with Nutella, fresh cream and berries
• Crepes with bananas, nuts, and honey
• French toast with strawberries
• Vanilla rice pudding with cinnamon and apples

3. Cater to different diets

Some people want or have to stick to a strict diet such as vegan, vegetarian, dairy-free, or halal. If you want to reach a new audience, consider adding some menu items that cater to a specific diet.

If you use our restaurant menu creator, you can easily mark each menu item as Hot, Vegan, Vegetarian, Gluten-free, Halal, Nut-free, Dairy-free, or Raw.

Here are a few vegetarian restaurant breakfast special ideas:

• Apple cinnamon breakfast muffins
• Raspberry and blueberry oats
• Humus avocado toast
• Chia pudding with nuts and fruit
• Vegan waffles with agave syrup and berries

4. Add allergen information to the menu

There is an increasing number of people who suffer from allergies. Some of the most common are cereals, eggs, and milk, which can easily be found in restaurant breakfast menu items.

If you want to help allergy-prone people feel safe at your restaurant, you can list all the allergens a dish contains. With the GloriaFood menu builder, you can do it in minutes and the allergen information will be visible just under the ingredients.

Read more: Restaurant Allergen Information: How to Make Customers with Food Allergies Happy

5. Include nutritional information

In many countries, adding nutritional information to a menu item is required by law. Even if that is not the case in your area, showing this type of info will help you attract the health-conscious people, the dieting crowds, and the gym-goer clients.

Just like the allergen information, you only need a few free minutes and our efficient online ordering system to add nutritional information to your menu items.

Final Words

Take advantage of the restaurant breakfast special ideas mentioned in this article to increase your sales at the start of the day. Make it a goal to include ingredients with a high-profit margin so you can skyrocket your profit while attracting more customers.