Break of Dawn

Some of the worst service I’ve ever had at a restaurant. Four people were all served at separate times. The first was done eating before the last food came. Our attempts to ask for food were ignored. Would never return.

I was so excited to try this place because it’s hard to find a good, casual breakfast spot. I also heard the hype (like other reviewers mentioned).
Unfortunately, while the ambiance is laid back and welcoming, the food wasn’t all that great. I got the Veggie Casserole which was more like tomato soup with some chunks of cauliflower, zucchini and tofu. Then you throw in some cheese which sounds like a good idea but was SO difficult to eat. It became stringy and almost annoying to get to the actual food. The best part was the fried egg on top that made the meal actually fulfilling.
I wish that the look and feel of the place matched what looks like a great menu but still needs some help.

My brother and I came here a long time ago and we were so disappointed! I don’t understand the hype. WHAT.SO.EVER.
So let’s fast forward and to now. My friend recommended a few restaurants and wanted to come here for brunch and all of these feelings/​memories came back and this is what I said to her:
I only said meh because the only memory that i have from it is when Anthony got green eggs and hAm and the poached egg that came out looked like a bag of drugs the guy pooped out. Like a cop pulled the chef over… Turns out he had a few warrants out for his arrest so took him to jail. He had a little bag of «fun» with him and didn’t want to get caught with it so stuffed it up his butt and when he got out of jail, 24hrs later, pooped it out BUT because we’re in a drought, the system didn’t give him enough water and he tried SO freaking hard to squeeze this sack of poop out that it LITERALLY was shaped like this _​_​_​_​_​_​ (which was the gas puff emoji) but with green sauce all over it.
I remember my brother posting a picture of it but I wasn’t able to locate it :(I just remembered it being expensive for what we got and the food was just MEEEEH. Never went back.
Btw, You’re welcome, Kris! LOL

Never again. I had high hopes for this restaurant, but after eating here, I won’t go back.
1. The food is not worth what you paid for it — I got the sausage and egg plate, and it came with one small bowl of rice, topped with papaya salad, one fried egg, and one (just one) piece of Hawaiian sausage… Which was just kielbasa btw. Nothing special. $ 14. Plain coffee. $ 4.
2. Service was seriously lacking. No one came by to ask us about the food or refill coffee. But they did come by the tables next to us. They even took forever with the check.
I wasn’t satisfied with any part of my meal. I can get he same at home.

NOT pescetarian or vegetarian friendly. Really only 1 option for pescetarian if you’re strict since the Octupus has meat still. Also, their menu specifically stated no modifications or substitutions… not very accomodating.
Small portions, bland/​mediocre food, overpriced. Not sure why this place is so hyped up and overrated. Maybe it is just the meat dishes?
They don’t give glasses of water – must purchase bottles. Also, service was pretty bad in general. When we tried ordering bottles of water since they wouldn’t give us water, she walked away before my friend finished talking…
2 stars because I tried a bite of my friend’s French Toast dish and that was actually pretty good.
If you’re in Irvine and looking for a foodie spot, do yourself a favor and find some Taiwanese food cause that is what the area is known for. If you want good brunch fare, go up to Downtown LA/​Hollywood/​Santa Monica/​Venice.

Very simple menu. My family loved their meals. My son especially loved the french toast. While the food was very very good, it wasn’t over the top 5 star amazing.
This place has been consistent enough for me to return 3 – 4 times and write a positive review.
Very clean and relaxing atmosphere.

I’m not very adventurous when it comes to breakfast. I like egg whites, toast, potatoes, bacon, etc. I found that Break of Dawn’s menu was kind of limited and didn’t include a lot of classic breakfast items.
Another thing I found odd was that the only Bloody Mary they have on the menu is watermelon/​tomato. We weren’t crazy about it… it neither tasted like watermelon nor tomato, almost like a V8 fruit juice, and was too spicy for me.
Regardless, I ended up ordering the Rancho (Ranchero?) omlette/​skillet and was really pleased with it after making some modifications (egg whites, no chorizo). The portions are pretty big, so be sure to come hungry.
Service was great and I’m sure we’ll come back soon.

This restaurant is located in the corner next to Road Runner. The ambiance reminded me of being in a log cabin because of the wood décor. One side of the tables had benches and the other had chairs.
Came on a Saturday morning. Wait time was 10 mins. There is outdoor seating too if you don’t want to wait, but it was too cold to sit outside.
Food was absolutely delicious. We had the coconut brûlée French toast and Corned Beef with sweet potato hash and poached eggs. The French toast was the best I ever had. It was a raisin french toast with a coconut brûlée custard as its base. Just heavenly! The caramelized sugar was crispy.
The corned beef hash was juicy and the potatoes were not dry. It came with pickled cabbage. Yum! The poached egg was perfect.
We had the fresh squeezed OJ and the Bloody Mary. The OJ was fresh and sweet. Best OJ I had. The Bloody Mary came with a crispy bacon and was refreshing. Wish it came in a larger glass. This restaurant only serves bottled water but it was cheap, around 25 cents.
Service was excellent! They always check up on you and our server even opened our bottled water for us. We will definitely be back to try the other items on their menu.

I really don’t like restaurants that don’t allow you to modify your dishes in any way. It’s pretentious. Like the chef knows your preferences more than you do. The chef also has weird rules, like adults aren’t allowed to order pancakes; only children.
When you have rules like that, you’d better serve incredible food. Unfortunately, the food here tastes like the chef is trying too hard to be creative, but failing. The food is awful.
I’ll start with the menu, which is designed to make you think you know nothing about cooking or food. The menu purports to list all the ingredients used in the dishes, but you are served more than what you asked for, and not in a good way. I ordered the lamb ragu and my girlfriend ordered the bison sausage.
My lamb ragu came with all sorts of ingredients that weren’t mentioned on the seemingly comprehensive list of ingredients under Lamb Ragu. The dish was beautifully presented, but that’s where the good stops.
The dish smelled really bad. I couldn’t identify the smell, but it was very unpleasant. I also couldn’t identify the food I was eating, other than the lamb and the arugula. The meat was sort of dry, and didn’t have much flavor. I couldn’t tell what I was eating at all. Everything on my plate tasted the same, and it really wasn’t good. I couldn’t have more than just a few bites before I gave up. The dish was hopeless.
I also tried my girlfriend’s bison sausage. It was better than mine, but it just tasted like hot dogs. Neither of us could tell there was bison. The non-​bison parts (which made up the majority of the dish) didn’t have any flavor to them.
They don’t serve tap water, due to the drought. But then they sell Nestle bottles of water?! Nestle bottles its water in California, and is currently facing a PR nightmare because of that. It doesn’t make any sense not to serve tap water to save California water, but then charge for water bottles that also use California water. If anything, you are hurting the environment more due to the usage of water bottles.
I would give another star for the friendly, attentive service and the presentation of the dishes, but on top of all the negatives, the prices are way too high.
For example, a cup of diner coffee costs $ 4, and our total breakfast including two coffees was about $ 50, before tips. This is not a fine-​dining establishment. It’s just a casual eatery in a strip mall. Such a place cannot command these prices for below-​average food.
There is such a thing as being too creative in the kitchen. In this case, it is a disaster, and a very expensive one. Also, from reading the other reviews, it sounds like the chef has an ego problem, which confirms what I said in the first paragraph. I’ll never be back and I wouldn’t recommend it.

This isn’t just gourmet foo-​foo-​shi-​shi, the brunch here is legit-​stick-​to-​your-​bones goooood. My favorite go to is the meatloaf — it has a Vietnamese French flare and the gravy is to die for. But what really makes the meal for me is that homemade hot sauce. Mmmm… you will crave it and you will find yourself coming back for more.
The salmon plate is great, the stew with intestines is delicate, but hearty.
Note the corned beef comes with a braised green (I think cabbage) so if you’re looking for the hash, it’s not there.
They poach most their eggs to perfection, but if you don’t like runny eggs, go for a long poach.
The graffiti on wall contrasts with a warm décor, but makes this place just right. Dee goes for flavor and is not shy on going big with ingredients. His hand at cooking is balanced, artful, & distinctly, positively memorable. Most mornings his Dad is there working — a family-​owned, local business through and through. Highly recommend.

I had to come on here and leave a comment to address some of the concerns some Unilocalers have.
First off, the water crisis in California is real. Yes, they charge you for bottled water. The charge? $.25 per bottle. As you can clearly tell this is not a profit making move, this is simply to address the need for more water to wash dishes and fill your glass. I feel @ $.25 it is well more than reasonable.
Secondly, the food here is not your average «American breakfast» If that is what you’re expecting there are a couple of menu items which would fit your needs (Skillet). If you’re like me and my lady you’d clearly try anything NEW on the menu because Dee’s flavor profiles are remarkable.
Regarding the waiter situation. I’ve had days where they where they weren&

I came here the other day to have breakfast for lunch. So many choices but I decided on the Portuguese sausage, eggs and rice, a traditional Hawaiian breakfast. It was nothing but awesome. So the dish has a sausage, which was spicy, oily and delicious, fried rice topped with a pickled salad, and two overeasy eggs, but the kicker was a scallion purée underneath. Smoky, with a hint of ginger, but the flavors mixed in with the yolk, rice, salad and sausage just works. And with a few dashes of their homemade habenero hot sauce, incredible!
I finished the meal with a Mexican chocolate crème brûlée which was rich and also really good. The brûlée reminds me of cookies and cream, but with punches of chocolate. Delicious.
My most recent trip was a few days ago, and not knowing what to order, other than skipping breakfast, was to go with bacon and eggs. Don’t expect «just» bacon and eggs. The «bacon» is a thick cut of crispy pork belly. Salty fatty fried goodness! All the major bacon food groups! And the «egg» was a poached egg battered in tempura and then deep fried. Or something to that effect. You get something like a scotch egg with a tempura shell, which when cracked, spills out all that yolky eggslut pornography that’s NSFW on a plate. And that comes with a scoop of rice and pickled cabbage/​kimchi.
I can’t wait until the next time I’m there.

I discovered Break of Dawn through a friend who was hosting her birthday brunch at the restaurant, and since then i’ve absolutely fallen in love with it. The food is definitely unique, and you can see that from its menu and entrée descriptions! I walked in thinking i’d have a simple, standard meal of hotcakes, bacon and eggs – a classic American brunch, but boy was I wrong!
Everything on this menu is a unique twist on classic dishes, and I loved it! We ordered many of the dishes from the menu, and everyone left satisfied with their meal. Smoked salmon, bacon and eggs, egg scrambles – they were all incredible! All the dishes were cooked in such a creative, delicious style, despite their seemingly «normal» titles. I personally ordered the potato skillet, and it was amazing!
Brunch fans in the area need to give this place a try, you won’t regret it!

If you are looking for American breakfast & brunch options, steer away from Break of Dawn. Out of their 20 item menu, I would say 3 items would be classified as breakfast & brunch. The french toast, ranchero omelette, and the skillet.
Everything else boarders lunch & dinner Asian Fusion cuisine. Even if you were to be looking for Asian Fusion cuisine, I’d still have to say Break of Dawn falls short. They definitely get the Fusion part, but the dishes tasted flat and needed more richness.

There are many inconsistent reviews about Break of Dawn and I completely agree with where they are coming from. I find that this place is a lot of hits and misses.
The menu is changing and the dishes are unique. You can really see how talented the chef is and the creativity shows through.
Come with an open mind and an empty stomach because both are crucial for a great meal.
Ranchero Omelet is my all time favorite

I have been meaning to try this place for so long, and that seems to be a common line in a lot of the reviews here.
I honestly had no idea what to expect coming here. The description says Asian Fusion, but I dont think I would describe it as that, at all. I dont know how I would classify it, either.
The menu, was overwhelming a bit, but not large. I say overwhelming because almost every dish had something extraordinary in it. It also states «No modifications» which I found a little hard to work with. Maybe I am just too simple to eat here, I dont know.
We went for breakfast, and I ended up getting the Mac and Cheese. Bacon fried eggs, Sicilian sausage, Short rib, Parmesan-​Tomato cream. I just… I dont know. The eggs were not fried. They were more over-​easy. I do not prefer my eggs this way. There was a spice used in this dish that I just couldnt get past. It wasnt spicy, but it was just a flavor that I did not like. At all.
My friend ordered the Potato Skillet… and I tasted that as well. Eh. I dont know, I just couldnt like the food.
I will say, we both ordered a Cheddar Jalapeño Biscuit, which is not a side on the menu, but is able to be ordered… and that was fantastic. The butter it came with, was hard, so it was really hard to spread it, but if you let it sit a minute, the warm biscuit melted it. It was delicious.
Im not sure if they were having issues with their water, but when we ordered water, we received a plastic bottle of water. It was cold, so I was happy.
I just dont know if I would come back here. The service was great, I just dont know that I would be happy with what I ordered.
There was a lot of seating out front, if it is crowded and there is a wait, there is plenty of room to sit and wait, which is nice!

A friend and I visited Break of Dawn on a Saturday around the brunch hours. It’s located in the corner of a shopping center and has a long, narrow interior. They also have an outdoor patio on which no one was sitting because it was windy and there was a bit of a chill in the air. There was a 10 minute wait for our party of two and we waited outside on one of the benches. Luckily the wait was actually only 10 minutes.
The menu it’s very long but it’s still somewhat overwhelming. We had a hard time choosing what to get because it was hard to imagine the combination of ingredients blending well together and it was difficult to predict what they would even taste or look like. An effort was definitely made to add a great deal of creativity to the menu, which I appreciated so we decided to be open minded and ordered a few different dishes to try.
The goat chili — morita chile, chickpeas, Mexican chocolate and goat cheese: woa! This dish is really spicy. My friend ordered this and casually mentioned it was spicy and when I tried it myself I found my ears starting to burn. She said that the side of rice was helping her make it through the bowl. It was hard to get a solid understanding of what the flavor was like because the spice overwhelmed the chili.
Corned beef — sweet potato hash, poached egg, cabbage, whole grain mustard sauce and tarragon: I liked the flavor combination. The cabbage was a bit on the sour side and when combined with the warm poached egg and sweet potato, was actually quite good but the actual chunks of corned beef were somewhat dry and salty. I ended up leaving most of the beef on my plate.
Mac n cheese — bacon fried egg, short rib, pumpernickel, Sicilian sausage and Parmesan-​tomato cream: interesting combo of ingredients, right? The final product was underwhelming. I didn’t taste much of the rib and sausage and the overall meal tasted like egg and macaroni mixed with some tomato sauce. My suggestion would be a stronger cheese and less but more prominent meat flavors.
French toast brulee — chocolate-​coconut custard, raisin brioche and soy caramel: this was definitely our favorite dish. We were served 4 halves of bread slices which was a perfect amount after our savory dishes and I loved that the bread was surrounded by a layer of custard. It wasn’t too sweet and the chocolate, coconut and caramel flavors blended really well together. I’d recommend this dish.
They did offer free refills of organic coffee and my friend enjoyed her Vietnamese iced coffee. Although our server was generally pleasant, he forgot to put in half of our order and we sat waiting for a good 25 minutes before we considered that he might not have put in our french toast and mac n cheese. Based on the dishes we tried, I can’t say I’ll be coming back in a hurry but there are so many flavor combinations left to try on that menu that if someone suggested coming here again I wouldn’t protest.

The food was good, but way too expensive.
FOOD
Bacon and Eggs $ 14 — The tempura eggs were interesting but not really worth the money. I would skip this one.
French Toast Brulee $ 16 — Good, and not too heavy/​sweet, but it just feels like you’re eating dessert. Get this to share.
Rabbit $ 16 — I had no expectations for this dish but it’s actually very good. The meat is perfectly tender and carrots are nice and soft.
Smoked Salmon $ 16 — Good, but nothing special in terms of salmon flavor. Something you can make at home.
They don’t offer tap iced water due to the drought, so bottle water costs 25 cents.
AMBIANCE
Tables are nicely spaced apart and the vibe is very relaxed. Some of the larger tables are re-​purposed manual sewing machines with the table top switched out, which is pretty cool. There’s both inside and patio seating.
SERVICE
We came here for brunch and stayed for 2 hours but were never rushed to leave, which was good. Our server checked up on us often.
OVERALL
The food is decent but so overpriced that I don’t think I will come here again. This is not a place I would go out of my way for, even if the price was normal.

Well it has been over three years since my last visit here, and since then there have moved to a bigger location in the same complex. We stopped in here on our way back from San Diego, and were pleasantly surprised to be able to walk right in, and be seated. I seem to recall the last time we were here, people were lined up in the pouring rain to get a seat.
The food was just as good as I remembered. I had the Ranchero Omelette. It had Chorizo, Charred Tomatillo, Epazote, Queso Fresco, Avocado. My husband stuck with the sausage and eggs with Hawaiian fried rice and green papaya salad.
We got a chuckle when we overhead a couple at a nearby table ask the server «do you have any regular food here? We’re from Texas and were not up to this weird stuff «! Well they certain came to the wrong place for that!

Came here on a Sunday morning at 10am and surprisingly got seated right away. The crowd started to pick up around 10:30/11am so come early to be safe!
There’s indoor and outdoor seating, but the outdoor area is definitely more spacious and less chaotic. The service was attentive, fast, and very accommodating when some people of our party arrived late. Friendly atmosphere all around!
I ordered fresh OJ and the smoked salmon… definitely a ⁵⁄₅! They give you just the right amount of smoked salmon, poached egg, pancake, and the amazing sauce. Not too light, and not too heavy — highly recommend! The French toast is another thumbs up; I was worried the brûlée would make it too sweet, but they’ve definitely conquered this dish — totally worth ordering! The mac & cheese is certainly different (it is a fusion restaurant after all), and although good, it’s not worth raving over. The omelette was tasty, but the turkey dish was a tad too dry for my liking. Break of Dawn, i’ll be back to try your lamb and your stew!

An Asian-​Fusion breakfast joint. The food is interesting, as they have traditional American breakfast items but spin it w/​Asian influences (IE: they add egg on top of a lot of stuff, tempura battered stuff, etc).
Crème Brulee French Toast — $ 15 — Decent 3.5÷5
I thought the dish was OK. It was a bit too sweet but it was enjoyable. The toast was also a bit soggy, and I prefer it just a tad crunchier. An overall decent dish; I typically don’t like my entrees over the top sweet so if you like it, go for it. Served w/​4 slices of bread.
Mac ‘n Cheese — $ 15 — Enjoyable — 3.5÷5
This is an interesting dish. It basically tastes like lasagna + an omelet. It’s mac ‘n cheese baked, and wrapped in an egg, w/​something similar to spaghetti sauce. I think it’s an enjoyable dish and I’d recommend to try it at least once.
PROS:
–Food is interesting, in a positive way.
–Presentation of food is really pretty
–Food comes out really quick — like within 3 – 5 minutes of ordering.
CONS:
–No free water. $ 0.25 charge for bottled water
–Kinda pricey at $ 15 a plate
–Portions on some of the food are kind of small.
TIPS:
–Located right next to a bicycle shop.

Uniquement petit déj et lunch, mais les meilleurs du monde, haute cuisine vietnamienne dédiée au pancakes.
Successful fusion vietnamese/​european/​us dedicated to the art of the brunch. Every thing is great and original.
Edit: Really the best place for a brunch in all OC, you should try everything,