There’s no denying that you can create a stack of pancakes from the comfort of your own home and spend less than a fiver doing so, but if you want the truly decadent experience, head to Manchester, England’s Opus One restaurant, where in honour of Pancake Day, one chef dreamt up the £800 pancake. The pricey dish contains Scottish Paradise lobster, Russian Beluga caviar, Hulle Verge truffles, Scottish mussels and langoustines served with Dom Pérignon Rosé hollandaise sauce.
Not many people can deal with a giant steak first thing in the morning, but we're all for it. At London's Heliot Steak House, the brunch menu includes the decadent Meat Mountain Stack, made up of six American-style pancakes, a USDA prime rump steak, six rashers of streaky bacon, two Cumberland sausages, a fried duck egg and lashings of maple syrup. True carnivores can also opt to just have a steak to start the day, with options including fillet, sirloin, rib eye and NY strip.
While it may be more strictly a brunch item than a breakfast item, if you're the kind of person who can't stand breakfast before it gets to midday, this $2,000 pizza may be up your street. New York restaurant Industry Kitchen has dreamt up the eye-wateringly expensive brunch dish, which boasts plenty of pricey ingredients: stilton cheese, foie gras, platinum Osetra caviar and truffle and 24-karat gold leaf. There's even an additional $700 Almas caviar supplement offered as an option for extra bling.
Why opt for any old omelette when you can have a $2,000 frittata? Offered in Manhattan’s Le Parker Meridien Hotel, the Zillion Dollar Lobster Frittata contains American Sturgeon caviar, a whole lobster and a healthy helping of eggs, cream and chives. The menu teases: “Norma dares you to expense this”. Somehow, we don’t think your boss would approve.
If normal eggs sound too mundane, you need to take a trip to London’s Florentine Restaurant & Bar. As part of their full English breakfast, you can choose to top your sausages with their signature ostrich egg. Feeding up to six people (or four, if overly ravenous), the dish is priced at £90, and includes an entire egg fried or scrambled, accompanied with generous helpings of portobello mushrooms, heritage tomatoes, streaky bacon and black pudding.
If you can't stomach more than a hot drink at breakfast time, you can't get a much more decadent cup of coffee than Emirates Palace Abu Dhabi's Palace Cappucino. Sprinkled with real 24-karat gold flakes, the gold cappuccino is served on a polished silver tray and comes with a date and a dark chocolate. It's not cheap, obviously, considering the drinkable bling: you'll pay 60 AED, or about £12.50, for the privilege.
We’re sure you’ve heard of cronuts, the tasty hybrid between doughnuts and croissants, but have you heard of the Luxury Zebra Cro, the ultimate in cronut extravagance? Costing a princely £1,500, the creation, by London’s Dum Dum Donutterie, contains Iranian saffron-infused butter croissant dough, Cristal rosé champagne caviar, gold leaf, French delicacy Normandy butter, powdered Nutella and the eye-waveringly expensive Amedei Porcelana chocolate.
For a breakfast experience that’s more than just about the food, head to one of the 13 Nikki Beaches around the world, whether in Saint Tropez, France, Marrakech, Morocco or Koh Samui, Thailand. Every weekend, the Amazing Sundays Brunch features international delicacies, live music and entertainment. The buffets are never-ending, with options including sushi, fresh seafood, carved meats and Belgian waffles, while there are DJs, musicians and drummers on hand to get the crowds going.
If money is no object, head to the Maldives, and start your day the expensive way by opting for Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa's luxurious champagne breakfast, which costs up to $777 a couple. You can enjoy dishes such as truffle-scented potato and carrot rösti, lemon soufflé pancakes and green tea crepes, washed down with a pricey bottle of Cristal 2005 in unbeatable surroundings.
Named the best buffet in Las Vegas, Caesars Palace’s Bacchanal Buffet was completely reinvented in 2012 with a $100 million budget. No expense has been spared, with hundreds of different breakfast offerings with Instagram-perfect presentation. There's everything from seafood laksa and fresh sushi to carved wagyu and chilled crab legs, with plenty of sweet treats like dessert crepes, red velvet pancakes and chocolate lava cakes. It's a bargain, for this list anyway, at $98 per person.
If you often grab a cupcake on the way to work, pay attention now: The cupcake to end all cupcakes has been created, and it costs a whopping £645. Created by Bloomsbury’s Cupcakes in Dubai, the sweet treat is made from only the finest, most expensive chocolate and is wrapped in 23-karat edible gold sheets.