Of course Clayton Wells, the wunderkind behind Automata, also has game at breakfast. At his daytime eatery, we're into the pillowy grilled mortadella and fried egg in a potato roll, and the curried scrambled eggs on an English muffin with small pork sausages from neighbour LP’s Quality Meats. Revolutionary? No. Detailed? Intensely.

The most creative, well-executed menu anywhere on the Lower North Shore. One plate has a dollop of burrata – flown in weekly from Napoli – alongside roasted apricot jam, all swimming in curry leaf oil and served with dark rye sourdough.

Fancy an octopus scotch egg for brekkie?

Kirribilli’s Cool Mac crew bring cod roe melts and soba noodles to the inner west.

Whether you hit up the Surry Hills, Barangaroo or North Sydney location, you're in for much the same thing: rich, flavoursome food that's wilfully ignorant of the boundaries between cuisines. The menu's real mainstay is Breakfast with the Sakuma’s – a log of miso grilled salmon, a 63-degree egg, smoked eel croquettes and radish salad.

Bill Granger didn't invent avo toast, but he's certainly responsible for popularising it. Ditto for ricotta hotcakes. His breezy, licensed cafes (also in Darlo and Surry Hills) are still some of the best places in Sydney for a daytime meal, regardless of tastes or dietary requirements.

Dressed up and unconventional all-day meals in a laid-back and sunny setting.

Even in the age of food designed for Instagram, Little Jean's artful platings stand out. The thing is, each creative dish tastes as good as it looks, whether you opt for a fluffy ricotta pancake with fresh berries and salted caramel; or comforting dukkah eggs with hash browns.

Health-focused food doesn't usually taste this good, nor have a sense of humour about itself. Try the Breakfast with Gwyneth: two fried biodynamic eggs with sauteed quinoa, kale, spinach, garlic and chilli. Or maybe a beautiful fruit plate.

Ordinary, extraordinary and everything in between in a 1920s Orient Express like setting. We'd expect nothing less from the canny operators of Sydney's most successful cafe.

The breakfast menu here offers traditional congee, Thai egg dishes and a selection of toasts.

Lankan's morning meal is not your typical smashed avo with poached eggs. Even dishes that sound familiar aren’t really. The crisp fried egg roll, for example, is dolloped with fermented chilli sauce and pol sambol.

For bagels and all kinds of pickled, cured and smoked New York deli-style dishes.

Andy Bowdy's chaotic, beautiful cakes will no doubt draw your eye as you enter his cafe. Do yourself a favour, though, and take some time to look at the concise menu, which features corn pudding topped with a poached egg and potato latkes (pancakes) with cured salmon.

If you're looking for something to disrupt your egg-and-bacon routine, this Middle Eastern restaurant is just the ticket. Breakfast is available Sundays only, but it's one of the best in town. Try the Baalbek fried eggs. Three eggs are cooked so that when poked the yolk erupts over tahini, lamb and flatbread.

This architecturally striking cafe has food to match the sophistication of its surrounds. Order the classic avo on sourdough, made here with cucumber ribbons and "everything but the bagel" seasoning. For the less health-conscious, there's also a killer fried chicken waffle with maple bacon gravy.

The three owners of Shuk serve the kind of meals that they ate with their families in Israel. Which is to say, a modern interpretation with a few global influences. Great – but we still love the classic shakshuka or slow-cooked lamb with hummus.

For inimitable breakfast ramen with a buttered-toast broth, bacon and eggs.

$35 per person gets you a full Turkish spread, including pastries, cheeses, olives, fruit, sausages and more – thick, granular and heavily caffeinated coffee included.

Central and South America are the jumping off points for this unusual menu, where unfamiliar but entirely delicious dishes such as "choripan" (an Argentinian hot dog, essentially) are the stars. Also, the fried chicken is a classic.

Former fine-dining chefs lighting up Bronte and Rosebery with light, fresh and zingy takes on familiar breakfast dishes.

On weekend mornings it ditches meat for the most decadent vegetarian brunches you've ever seen. If you'd like to splash out $36, for example, you can have shiitake mushroom, egg yolk and a carrot & black olive XO sauce.

Pan-fried barramundi with crispy skin at 8am? Done. Or maybe grilled octopus with charred eggplant and za'atar flatbread? Easy.

Bottomless mimosas and cured salmon with labneh and dill on weekend mornings.

Straight from the oven to your plate.

Polished Italian breakfasts on a well-heeled street.

Mediterranean-influenced, vegetarian breakfasts and outstanding vegan doughnuts.