The Breakfast Club

Breakfast. The most important meal of the day. If it is so important, why not do it right? Why settle grabbing something from McDonalds or Taco Bell? This article will show you how to do breakfast right with the top five spots to grab breakfast before or after one of your classes. These places vary in price range. But the good news is all these places are within a four mile radius of El Camino.

1. The Pan, 16601 S Western Ave, Gardena. 1.3 miles away from campus.Opened just a few years ago, The Pan exploded with wide-spread popularity because of their breakfast even though they serve lunch and dinner also. With a delectable variety of specialty pancakes like cinnamon roll pancakes, chocolate peanut butter pancakes and blueberry pancakes to the handcrafted omelets this place is the heavyweight of breakfast. Best of all breakfast is served all day and The Pan is closed on Tuesdays.

2. Los 3 Potosino’s Mexican Food, 16323 S Western Ave, Gardena. 1.2 miles away from campus.

For you college students not trying to break the bank and have a good, quick breakfast then this is the place for you. The breakfast burritos are some of the best in the area and only $4, you can’t beat it. They make their burritos with a warm flour tortilla, eggs, cheese, potatoes and your choice of meat. Also as an added incentive if you buy your breakfast burrito between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. you get a free drink. Now that’s a deal for someone on a college budget.

3. Bob’s Hawaiian Style Restaurant, 15926 Western Ave. Gardena. 1.4 miles away from campus.

For everyone who loves a good, hearty Hawaiian breakfast, Bob’s is the place for you. This breakfast diner has all of the local Hawaiians raving about the food. The ambience here is very authentic and the servers really give you that “Aloha” vibe. “Da Big Hawaiian” ($12.50) is a breakfast that will leave you with a full stomach and making you say “Mahalo” when you leave. This massive breakfast consists of three slices of spam, three Portuguese Sausage, three Vienna sausage, three eggs, three scoops of rice and a short stack of pancakes. After a stressful test this is the place where you want to eat your feelings away.

4. Pastor Chef Asian & American Grill, 16300 Crenshaw Blvd Ste 109, Torrance. 0.2 miles away from campus.

Pastor Chef is Filipino/American grill that has top-notch food across the board. The head chef was a culinary graduate from Le Cordon Bleu, one of the finest culinary schools in the world. The TODO TODO breakfast plate ($9.95) is the most popular breakfast dish. It comes with fresh garlic fried rice topped with two eggs, Filipino breakfast sausage, beef tapa (cured marinated beef), chicken tocino (sweet marinated chicken) and corn beef hash. Breakfast is also served all day here.

5. Gardena Bowl Coffee Shop, 15707 S Vermont Ave Gardena. 2.6 miles away from campus.

This Oriental/Hawaiian coffee shop is located inside the Gardena Bowl Bowling Alley. “The Loco Moco” is one of the highlights of this place. They start with a bed of fried rice with onions, then they add two homemade hamburger patties. Afterwards they layer on two eggs of your choice and to top if off with homemade gravy. Every bite makes your feel like you are in Hawaii. The only downside is the parking and occasional slow service.

The only thing I don’t like about this place is the parking and the service can slow sometimes. That is the reason this place isn’t higher up in my rankings.