There’s a restaurant style Dallas doesn’t make anymore, the kind with mismatched art on the walls, bottomless coffee that never seems to stop coming, and a crowd that ranges from college kids nursing a hangover to grandparents who’ve been coming since the place opened. Cafe Brazil is one of the last ones still doing it exactly right, and it’s been doing it since December 1991.
It started as a ten-seat coffeehouse and grew, slowly and without much fuss, into a small local chain that’s become genuinely beloved rather than just familiar. Despite the name, don’t come looking for feijoada or pão de queijo. This isn’t Brazilian food. It’s an eclectic, all-day breakfast menu built around scratch-made pancakes, stuffed crepes, and coffee that regulars talk about almost as much as the food.
The crepes are really the reason to come. The Chicken Portobello Crepe gets filled with freshly pulled chicken, spinach, portobello mushrooms, and asiago cheese, topped with a spicy cream sauce. The Breakfast Relleno Crepe takes the restaurant’s popular relleno and reworks it into crepe form, scrambled eggs, roasted poblano, chorizo, and cheddar, served with hash brown casserole instead of the usual potatoes. There’s a Chorizo Crepe loaded with cheddar, onions, bacon, tomatoes, and jalapeños for anyone who wants something with real heat.
But the Vegetarian Crepe, packed with spinach, button mushrooms, broccoli, bell peppers, onions, and tomatoes, and finished with a tangy tomatillo sauce, is our favorite on the menu. It’s the dish that makes you forget you ordered something meatless in the first place, and it comes with dry wheat toast and seasonal fruit on the side instead of red potatoes, which somehow makes the whole plate feel lighter without losing any of the flavor.
Beyond the crepes, the menu keeps going. The Loaded Breakfast Bowl and Chicken Bacon & Waffles both have their own following, and the pancakes deserve a mention on their own, stuffed with fresh berries and bananas, served with homemade crème anglaise and raspberry sauce. Come late at night, and several locations keep the kitchen running 24 hours, pouring out steak and eggs, chilaquiles, and French toast for anyone who needs breakfast food at 2 a.m.
Cafe Brazil has locations across Dallas and the surrounding suburbs, each with its own personality but the same bottomless coffee and easy, unhurried pace: Deep Ellum at 2815 Elm St., Upper Greenville at 6420 N. Central Expy., Bishop Arts at 611 N. Bishop Ave., along with locations in University Park, Richardson, Carrollton, and Denton.
Come hungry, come slow, and don’t rush the coffee. This is a place built for lingering, not for looking at your watch.
