Whether it’s coffee and a croissant or pan of shakshuka, here’s where to start your day the finest way.

Like corduroy, Mr Alan Bennett, and all else that is seemingly timeless, breakfast usually transcends fashion. Yet, of late, the morning meal has been metamorphosing, becoming something quite different than its usual incarnation as the “meal most likely to be skipped or eaten at your desk”. Breakfast has gone haute – not least in terms of menu style, with most either specialising obsessively in a single dish, or brandishing eclectic ingredients and influences. Even a bowl of oats, hitherto enjoyed for its austerity, is today likely to arrive with a plumage of nuts, dates, and single estate honey, exquisite-looking and Instagram ready. Aesthetics aside, there are some old-fashioned requisites that remain de rigueur for a decent breakfast destination. Substance and style are key, with flavour the linchpin. Taking this into account, here’s our guide to the best places to wake up and smell the coffee.

When kitchen legends Mr Sam and Ms Sam Clarke announced Morito in east London would introduce breakfast, bloggers, Instagrammers and journos alike swung through the doors to inspect the offering and chew the cud. News (and fandom) quickly spread across the UK’s capital as the Clarkes’ head chef Ms Marianna Leivaditaki dazzled with her Cretan-influenced Mediterranean food, inspired by her family recipes. As Evening Standard restaurant critic Ms Fay Maschler said: ‘‘For someone who loves Greece (eg, me) this Cretan bias to the menu at Morito in Hackney is as seductive and stirring as a Psarantonis melody.” Of course, everything is made in-house, from the cloud-soft breads to the bougatsa, Cretan filo, fresh cheese, sugar and cinnamon. The punchy Bloody Mary with harissa, fresh cucumber, apple and mint juice, beetroot and pear juice is the go-to weekend drink. The clientele is a mix of rakish twentysomethings reviving themselves from last night’s antics and older design-types sipping soya flat whites and reading The Guardian. We love it.

What to order: poached eggs, spinach, chilli butter, seasoned yoghurt and crispy sage

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Kepos Street Kitchen, on the backstreets of the Redfern suburb in Sydney, is timeless. This airy restaurant emits sunny vibes, filled with a casual crowd dining out on complexly flavoured food. Chilli, coriander and custard-yellow eggs are dropped on plates with zeal, making breakfast here a as mood lifting as a Mr Paul Cézanne canvas. Growing up in Tel Aviv, head chef and author of Hummus & Co, Mr Michael Rantissi (previously at The Bathers’ Pavilion), is renowned in Aussie food circles for his elegant Israeli cooking. Yet he describes his menu at KSK as a medley of Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and European – think falafel drizzled in hummus, tomato, labneh, pickled chilli and egg, or “Kepos benedict”: smoked salmon, green tahini, steamed leek and poached eggs. One caveat, however, is that there’s no reservations for breakfast on the weekend, so expect queues. Alternatively, muster a big group to book the sun room with its riot of geometric Arabic-inspired tiles and long tables.

What to order: keep it simple and delicious with the egg and bacon brioche roll _ Find out more here _

Atelier September in Copenhagen may be on the small side, but its impact has been as outsized as a Vetements hoodie. A tribute to Danish design with white-washed floors, distressed wood bars and communal tables, it is a breakfast institution in the capital city, run by bucket-hat-wearing chef Mr Frederik Bille Brahe, who has cooked alongside Noma founder Mr René Redzepi and trained in London and Paris. Unsurprisingly, it is much copied. The style of food, like the room and the exquisite earth-patina ceramics, is focused on simplicity; nothing too fancy, everything very Danish and rye bread abounds. As his girlfriend is model Ms Caroline Brasch Nielsen and his sister, Sophie, an acclaimed Danish jeweller, you’ll be ingesting your coffee, roasted by Koppi, or yoghurt granola with lemon balm and saffron pickled carrot, next to a high ratio of Copenhagen’s chisel-cheekboned fashion set.

What to order: grapefruit and blueberries with granola and an iced coffee

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Federal Café in Barcelona’s Sant Antoni quarter might sound a little, well, governmental. Anything but, in fact – it is a riot of joy. Proprietors Messrs Tommy Tang and Christopher King took a decade to find their perfect location in the city and it nearly is perfect, too. There’s leafy rooftop terrace atop three levels of timber floors and low-slung banquettes, where Catalan hipsters and creative freelancers (there’s free Wi-Fi, naturally) can be found gorging on the modern Australian grub – think muffins, fruit toasts and oven-baked eggs with halloumi. The pair has another establishment in the Gothic quarter, as well as Madrid, Girona and Valencia. Why not take a tour of all five?

** What to order:** eggs and bacon

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Kismet (meaning fate) is an apt name for LA’s restaurant in the Los Feliz neighbourhood. The duo behind it, chefs Mses Sarah Hymanson and Sara Kramer (both formerly of New York’s Glasserie), packed up their pans, leaving Brooklyn for California, taking a risky decision to crack the Golden State’s culinary scene. The move paid off, big time. Kismet, which opened in 2017, already sees throngs flooding in for the veg-centric Middle Eastern fare. Palate-pleasers like fruits, nuts, and aromatic herbs are sprinkled jauntily across the daytime menu. Everything’s made from scratch from the date butter for the brioche toast, to the labneh whipped with preserved lemon and honey. Besides the alluring menu, delightful furnishings include napkins from the local Block Shop Textiles (who craft prints from Rajasthan’s pink-hued city, Jaipur) and handmade porcelain pendant lights by ceramicist Ms Helen Levi.

What to order: Turkish breakfast

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If there’s anywhere you should be breaking bread across the planet, it’s the aptly named Firebake, a bakehouse-cum-restaurant on the East Coast Road in Singapore. Breakfast comes from a leviathan woodfire oven, hand-built from 37 tonnes of bricks – and bread is the preoccupation. According to chef/owner Mr Konstantino Blokbergen, “Firebake is an experiential destination, where we encourage diners to appreciate breads through food.” In the morning, visitors come to nibble on toast, flame-licked to perfection with a freckle of char, in the red-tiled restaurant, and to pick up a loaf of sourdough (there are four different options) for the road. There’s a veranda, if you want to brunch al fresco, and refreshing concoctions like the CocoLoco, an organic, unpasteurised, preservative-free, Thai coconut water, complete this breakfast nirvana. Reservations are obligatory.

** What to order:** asparagus, grilled chorizo and scrambled egg

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At MR PORTER, we are over the portmanteau foods, like the croloaf, cronut and dossant. All those things are just daily staples that have collided with sublime croissant, so, er, why not just go with a croissant? At Lune Croissanterie in Melbourne you’ll find a team dedicated to the fine art of the croissant as nature intended. Former aerospace engineer Ms Kate Reid and her brother Cam, work in an exposed-brick warehouse, taking a three whole days to produce each one. Hours of proving is essential. Butter content is carefully considered (a mark of a decent croissant is 22-25 per cent butter). Then there’s the intricate layering process to master. As we said, quite the art, but far better is pre-paying online and booking a seat at the nine-seat bar by the “Lune Lab”, a  sealed glass cube in the centre of the warehouse, where the siblings bake and then duly unveil their creations. There’s one sitting a day and edacious guests can indulge in a three-course pastry romp, while watching the process. Lune states on its website: “Lune is not a shop, and not a factory. It is a space to find inspiration in.” We agree.

What to order: croissants in just about any guise they offer them

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