Plum, Essenwood Road, Berea 031 201 7079
This colourful modern boutique hotel seems just made for the business breakfast. Party because it’s so small you can take over the whole premises, partly because there’s an outside area with sofas and bright cushions where smokers can lounge. One day recently staff had just reorganised the restaurant as a group of conferencers moved to another room, when12 people arrived for an informal meeting and coffee. And what to eat? As well as the standard items, there are versions of Eggs Benedict (here with bacon) and Onassis (smoked salmon) with champagne hollandaise. There’s smoked salmon with a dill crumpet and crème fraiche, scrambled egg with wild mushrooms and parmesan shavings on health bread, poached egg with spinach and a smoked cheese sauce, and various omelettes. More unusual are new potatoes, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and chorizo skewered on rosemary stalks, with potato and carrot fritters and more of the smoked cheese sauce. Can’t be a bad way to start the day.
Caffe Java, Umhlanga Plaza, Umhlanga, 031 561 2511
The former Zara’s is still the hot spot for business-bound workers, weekend cyclists and idle locals, the pavement setting making it a great place to see and be seen. But this could be just any other coffee shop if the former owner’s standards hadn’t been maintained. The menu offers more interesting choice for breakfast than most other places in town. Try the Cypriot version with eggs, grilled haloumi, tomato relish and mushrooms. Omelettes and scrambles include fillings like creamy spinach and feta. There are specialities like a tortilla wrap filled with scrambled eggs, topped with Napoli sauce, feta, spring onions and bacon, and hash browns topped with haloumi, a spinach pattie, bacon, poached eggs and mushroom sauce. Without the bacon, that made a vegetarian friend happy. Striking are breakfast towers filled with scrambled egg, savoury mince and mushrooms. But my best of the bunch is Welsh rarebit with bacon and a poached egg. Continental breakfasts include croissants with smoked salmon, cream cheese, avo and spring onion, and savoury muffins served with cheddar, caramelised onion and homemade tomato jam. Open seven days a week from 6am.
Bellevue Café, Bellevue Road, Kloof, 031 717 2780. 
This new venture from, inter alia, Chris Black of award-winning Aubergine in Hillcrest, has been flying since it opened its doors, with good reason. In the airy atrium-style room attached to the former Vanille, it has an open kitchen so you can watch the chefs – or interfere, whichever takes your fancy. Breakfasts cover the usual bases, with a range of breads available for toast, homemade banana bread, and freshly baked croissants and muffins. There’s homemade muesli with thick yoghurt and fresh fruit salad, hot porridge with brown sugar and cream, and French toast stuffed with Belgian chocolate and banana for the sweet-toothed. I’d rather opt for Eggs Benedict; baked beans with smoked ham hock, a poached egg and toast; a toasted bagel with grilled chorizo, mozzarella and egg mayonnaise; or scrambled egg with smoked salmon and chives. One might as well watch the kitchen sweat a little. Sit outside on the leafy patio on a sunny day and you’d struggle to find a more pleasant spot to start the day. Open seven days a week, from 7.15am (8.30am weekends).
Lingela, Elangeni Hotel, 63 Snell Parade, 031 362 1300
Catering mostly for (obviously hungry) hotel guests, Lingela’s breakfast buffet is almost as big as its evening one, drawn up in line with modern eating trends, after consultation with Diabetes SA. The main buffet is halaal, with a detached pork table, and there is a full vegetarian section uncontaminated by meat products. The cold selection includes a salad station, with Mediterranean low-fat dips, feta cheese and olives, a Midlands cheese platter, cold meats such as Swiss-style smoked beef and pastrami, fresh fruit compotes and berry preparations, low-fat and fat-free yoghurts, low-GI cereals and spreads, nuts and dried fruits. The pastries are baked in house every morning, including scones, low-GI muffins, Danish pastries, bread made from stone-ground flour, and gluten-free rye and sourdough breads. There are all the eggy options, and hot accompaniments like sausages, savoury mince and mushrooms. And if all that healthy food sounds too worthy, for the kids (in all of us), there’s a fun section with ice cream, pancakes and toppings. And Starbucks coffee, sourced from Fair Trade suppliers, to wash it all down. Open seven days a week from 6.30am.