Matt’s Big Breakfast: Morning Comfort Food Rising in Phoenix

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Restaurant Phoenix

If you choose to go small for breakfast in Phoenix, don't bother Matt.

Los Angeles has some good breakfast spots, but none are on the level of Matt’s Big Breakfast, a two-room brick box in downtown Phoenix. Matt Pool and wife Erenia have set the bar so high that it’s hard to imagine eating breakfast anywhere else in the desert, Sonoran or otherwise.

Of course we had to wait for a table, but as nearby Pizzeria Bianco previously proved, some meals are worth the wait.

What sets Matt’s apart from the competition is their deft touch in the kitchen, and commitment to high-quality ingredients. The restaurant’s limited menu is also crammed with pork products (always a plus), including bacon, pork chops and ham. Our waitress posed an important question: pork chop or ham? Easy decision: both! The scintillating foot-long ham steak featured sweet meat and salty char.


Breakfast Phoenix

Chop & Chick ($8.50) featured two cage-free eggs, a skillet-seared Iowa pork rib chop and a choice of hash browns or home fries. The chop was a revelation, thick cut, ideally seasoned and practically spurted pork juice once my knife plunged through the golden char. Golden hash browns were first-rate, crispy and crunchy on the outside and buttery inside.

Breakfast Phoenix

The textbook Belgian-style waffle ($6.95) was made from scratch and supported a generous scoop of sweet cream butter and a miniature pitcher of real maple syrup. The meaty, thick-cut bacon was a savory foil to the subtly sweet waffle.

Breakfast Phoenix

My supple Texas toast slices came with a dish of tangy blackberry preserves.

Pig Breakfast

Matt’s utilizes an appropriate mascot for its doorstop, given our meal.

We ate at five Phoenix restaurants over the course of 24 hours. Matt’s Big Breakfast delivered the only blog-worthy meal, but breakfast was so good that our four wasted stops suddenly didn’t matter.

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Joshua Lurie

Joshua Lurie founded FoodGPS in 2005. Read about him here.

Blog Comments

Loved my trip to Matt’s. I had the “Chop & Chick”. I broke my over-easy egg onto the perfectly cooked hashbrowns. Then the juice from the chop worked it’s way in, creating an amazing breakfast. I followed each bite from my plate w/ a bite of their thick toast and blueberry preserves. Savory + sweet, so harmonious!

Mort, glad to hear you had a great trip to Matt’s. That’s a special breakfast spot. Can’t wait to return.

Josh, I ate here in November at the urging of some locals and it was fantastic!

Glad you liked Matt’s Big Breakfast. In most years it would have been the runaway winner for Best Breakfast.

it is amazing! it is… i will go today. I swear on it!

damn this place looks amazing! i must visit my namesake restaurant.

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