The breakfast sandwich is, in its best form, the platonic ideal of a morning meal — a filling and deeply satisfying indulgence that is the polar opposite of a quinoa bowl. Often there is bacon or another smoky meat involved, but a simple egg and cheese, especially if it's on great bread or a croissant and doused with the right condiment, can be perfect enough on its own. Below we bring you what we think are the most shining examples around town — though no doubt many of you have a corner deli that does you right, here are some ideas of special treats to seek out any given Sunday.

4505 Burgers & Barbecue
The grits and egg vegetarian sandwich at 4505 Burgers & Barbecue has been challenging pernicious stereotypes that vegetarianism is healthy since 2014. The works: Roasted green chili peppers, mild cheese, an egg, and a fried patty of grits served on a buttery burger bun. While this sandwich might certainly serve as dinner, it's available from 10:30 a.m. onward for an adventurous mid-morning meal. As for the meatier version that you might expect from this place, that's reserved for their Ferry Building stand on weekends, where it comes with a delicious sausage patty. —Caleb Pershan
705 Divisadero Street between Grove and Fulton Streets

The Bagel & Egg Sandwich at Arlequin Cafe
Honored by many as a surefire hangover cure of choice, Arlequin's Bagel & Egg Sandwich is a so-buttery-you'll-be-wiping-your-arm bagel topped with a fried or scrambled egg, cheddar cheese, and your choice of bacon or ham. It's the prefect combination of carb, salt, and fat to soak up whatever bad decisions you made last night, and to set you up for even worse ones tonight. — Eve Batey
384 Hayes Street near Gough Street

The Breakfast Sandwich at Bacon Bacon
While you might be tempted, come breakfast, to order a simple "bacon bouquet" at this bacon-loving spot, or their breakfast burrito stuffed with both pulled pork and bacon, their version of the humble breakfast sandwich — with thick-cut bacon, obvi — is an excellent one. For a condiment, it doesn't need anything more than the bacon jam that's on it, and the runny yolk of its double eggs, but a dip in some ketchup won't hurt. It's served on a nicely griddled, poppy seed brioche bun, and comes topped with cheddar cheese unless you say otherwise. Do note, the breakfast sandwich is available at both cafe locations, and from the Bacon Bacon truck. — Jay Barmann

The Breakfast Sandwich at Devil's Teeth Baking Company
In my many years in SF, I've come to realize that the buttermilk biscuits I took for granted in my home state of Indiana aren't as easy as they seemed. I've had a lot of crappy, Southern wannabe biscuits in this town! But not at Devil's Teeth, where two scrambled eggs, cheddar cheese, and applewood smoked bacon rest between two buttermilk biscuits that my Home Ec teacher would have awarded an A to. I don't dig on swine, so when I order their sandwich I do so sans meat, and they usually offer to sub in avocado or tomato. Go with the latter, it cuts through the (delicious, delicious) grease nicely. — Eve Batey
3876 Noriega Street between 45th and 46th Aves

Flour & Co.
In the unimpeachable tradition of McDonalds' "Egg McMuffin," Flour & Co.'s breakfast sandwich is made with an english muffin, only this one is made fresh and shares most of its DNA with a biscuit. Inside: fluffy eggs cooked with gruyere and topped with bacon or ham. Owner Emily Day expanded Flour & Co. to Berkeley from Nob Hill in 2015, as Eater reported at the time, and surprise surprise, now they're also doing a pretzel bun breakfast sandwich... with kale. —Caleb Pershan
1030 Hyde Street between California and Pine Streets, and 1398 University Avenue between West and Acton Streets

The Grove Breakfast Sandwich at The Grove
With smoked ham or applewood-smoked bacon, scrambled eggs, sharp cheddar, and arugula (the vegetarian option includes zucchini), the breakfast sandwich sits atop a toasted Semifreddi’s brioche bun and calls to many a stumbling patron on Saturday mornings. The sandwich is large, and is not playing around. Add an avocado for the full experience, and don't skip the rosemary hash browns. — Jack Morse
301 Hayes Street at Franklin Street

The Morning Melt at Kitchen Story
Kitchen Story offers you three ways to do their Morning Melt: You can go veggie, with mushroom, asparagus, arugula, red onion, avocado, and cherry peppers. Or, if you're more adventurous, there's one with chicken mango sausage, spinach, roasted tomato, sweet basil, and mild cheddar. Or there's the classic BEC, with applewood smoked bacon, eggs, and Vermont white cheddar. They all come on their pain de mie and are slathered with cilantro aioli (so if you're an anti-cilantrite, you'll want to skip that bit) and come with an organic side salad to make you feel extra virtuous. — Eve Batey
3499 16th Street at Sanchez Street

The Breakfast Torta at La Torta Gorda
The Tortas at 24th Street's La Torta Gorga are things of beauty. Although they can, of course, be eaten anytime of the day, these huge sandwiches make for one of the best breakfasts in town. Overflowing with queso fresco, avocado, beans, jalapenos, and carnitas (they also do a vegetarian version), the "regular" size sandwich is enough for two people to split — or one very eager person to chow down on. If you're looking for something to balance out the meal, the restaurant also offers freshly squeezed carrot, orange, and grapefruit juices (but that's totally not necessary — focus on the sandwich). Once you eat the torta here, you'll wonder why you haven't been doing so for years, and never look at a sandwich the same way again. — Jack Morse
2833 24th Street between York and Bryant Streets

The Original Breakfast Sandwich from Lou's Sandwiches Cafe
Lou's Original Breakfast Sandwich is "officially" bacon, ham (or both), eggs, American cheese, hash browns, and Lou's special sauce, all on a ciabatta roll. Here's what I do: I nix the meat, swap the American for cheddar, and get extra Lou's sauce (which is spicy, salty and delicious). The result is so good that it's dangerous. But with tons of bread, cheese and meat options on their menu, you could enjoy a different, custom version of the sandwich every day for months on end. Find your own danger! —Eve Batey
5017 Geary Boulevard at 15th Avenue, 100 Pine Street between Battery and Front, and 1508 Taraval Street between 25th and 26th Avenues

The Breakfast Sandwich at Marla Bakery
The house-made English muffin is just one of the things that the breakfast sandwich at Marla Bakery has going for it. The combined flavor of the carrot jam, sautéed onions, fried egg, gruyère, and roasted pork would account for the rest of the experience — one that you'll desperately try to relive over and over. If you happen to be there on a weekend, you can order the Marla English muffin — a similar sandwich with the key addition of roasted cauliflower. Either way, it's going to be good eating. — Jack Morse
3619 Balboa Street between 37th and 28th Avenues

Merigan Sub Shop
Liza Shaw, formerly chef and partner at A16, has four breakfast sub choices with which to tempt/torture you at her three-year-old East Coast-style shop in SoMa. There's one with pork, one with mortadella, and one, you'll forgive her, with marinara sauce. But the true breakfast sub to rule them all is the porchetta option, with lemon slaw, a fried egg, cracklins, and her signature spread, "hots." Porchetta, for those who are unfamiliar, is a magical boneless pork roast with stuffing and fat, and Doctors have determined that eating it every morning will lead to an early, happy death.—Caleb Pershan
636 2nd Street between Brannan and Townsend Streets

The Fried Egg Sandwich Plow
No doubt this place can get ridiculous on weekends, and there are even lines on random weekdays, but should you manage to squeeze your way in, you will fall in love with this simple and perfect breakfast sandwich. It's just two fried eggs, cheddar, aioli, and frisee, with the option of Nueske's bacon. And yes, with the bacon, this is a $14.75 breakfast sandwich ($12 w/o the bacon), but in a town of $20 burgers and (ahem) $4 toast, you should be used to this. Note that you can't get takeout here on weekends, but on weekdays it's fair game. —Jay Barmann
1299 18th Street at Texas

The Egg Sandwich at Reveille Coffee
Now with two locations and a truck in San Francisco, including their newest on 18th Street in the Castro, Reveille serves a limited breakfast menu every day including this awesome sandwich with a toad-in-the-hole on top. It's a hearty, comforting beast, made with dense Della Fattoria levain, thick-cut bacon, gruyere cheese, and a mixture of braised kale and leeks, making it the perfect thing to eat on a foggy morning when a biscotti just isn't going to cut it. —Jay Barmann
200 Columbus Avenue, 4076 18th Street, and the truck is usually parked at 768 Sansome

The Fried Chicken-Prosciutto Egg Sandwich at Salumeria
At the weekend brunch formerly known as Central Kitchen's brunch, served on the same patio but now in a more fast-casual way via the counter at next-door Salumeria, there is a breakfast sandwich so indulgent that you might have to split it, depending on how delicate you're feeling. It features a boneless piece of fried chicken, topped with an egg, with the addition of prosciutto and spicy chile hollandaise. It's so good, I wrote about it separately here last year, and I welcome anyone to challenge that assessment. But this is the kind of brunch decision that you make during a mild hangover, along with a couple of brunch cocktails, knowing full well that the day is pretty well shot afterwards and that's OK. — Jay Barmann
3000 20th Street at Florida, available Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The Bagel and Egg Sandwich at Wise Sons Bagel
Let's just say for the sake of argument that you or a friend don't eat pork, and yet you would still enjoy meatiness with your breakfast. There's always the traditional lox sandwich on a bagel, but at the new Wise Sons Bagel in the Fillmore, you can also get an egg and cheese on a fresh bagel, toasted, with "pastrami" breakfast sausage — a well spiced beef sausage, heavy on the fennel. A little extra aioli, and that's some bagel sandwich bliss right there. — Jay Barmann
1520 Fillmore Street between Geary and O'Farrell

Related: The 50 Best Brunch Spots For Every Occasion In SF And Oakland

Photo: Facebook