Quick Bites
- Veselka — 144 2nd Ave. Weekend brunch 9am–3pm. Pierogi, blintzes, eggs — almost everything under $15.
- B&H Dairy — 127 2nd Ave. The $7 breakfast special (two eggs, challah toast, potatoes, coffee) is a small miracle. Cash only.
- San Marzano — 117 2nd Ave. Brunch Fri–Sun 11am–4pm. Eggs benedict, omelettes, paninis under $15. $4 mimosas.
- Westville East — 173 Avenue A. Sat–Sun 10am–4pm. Big market-veggie plates and weekend egg classics.
- Café Mogador — 101 St. Marks Pl. Moroccan tagines and brunch eggs since 1983.
- Sunny & Annie’s — 94 Avenue B. 24/7 bodega. The BEC and Obama sandwiches travel beautifully to Tompkins Square Park.
The Sunday Math on Second Avenue
There’s a stretch of Second Avenue in the East Village where the dollar still does what it used to do. Three of the city’s most loved budget brunches sit within a four-block walk of each other — and none of them require a Resy ambush at 9 a.m. on a Tuesday. Sunday in the East Village is what New York brunch was before brunch became a $38 mistake.
This week’s cheap-eats edition heads east. The premise is simple: a real brunch, a real menu, a real address, and a real bill under $15 a person before tip. Bring a friend, take the L or the 6, and pace yourself — you can hit two of these places in one walk if you skip the second coffee.
Veselka — The 24-Hour Anchor
144 2nd Avenue (at East 9th Street)
Veselka has been on this corner since 1954, which is longer than most of the brunch crowd has been alive. The Ukrainian diner runs weekend brunch from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and the brunch pierogi — bacon, scrambled eggs, Vermont cheddar, chipotle ketchup — is the move. Bowls of borscht, kielbasa plates, and challah French toast round it out. Almost the entire menu lives under $15.
One scheduling note: Veselka brought back its all-night Friday and Saturday service in April 2026, so if you stayed out too late on Saturday, a 2 a.m. plate of pierogi is back on the table.
B&H Dairy — The $7 Breakfast That Refuses to Die
127 2nd Avenue (near St. Marks Place)
B&H Dairy has been a kosher vegetarian lunch counter since 1938 and somehow still serves a complete breakfast — two eggs any style, two slabs of challah toast, a hill of home fries, and a coffee — for around $7 if you arrive before 11 a.m. It’s a counter-seat experience, no reservations, no pretense, and the matzo ball soup is made with vegetarian stock. Cash only. There is no website prompt you to download — just a door, a counter, and a regular who’s been there longer than your barber.
Stack the breakfast plate with a bowl of borscht or a blintz and you’re still walking out under $15.
San Marzano — The Mimosa Math
117 2nd Avenue (between East 7th Street and St. Marks Place)
San Marzano is the spot that locals quietly resent telling you about, because the line goes around the block as soon as the weather warms up. Brunch runs Fridays, weekends, and holidays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The food is the point — eggs Benedict, omelettes, paninis, all under $15 — and the math gets even better when you add $4 mimosas. The Lump Crab Benedict is the one most people order twice.
Arrive at 10:55 a.m. or accept that you’re in for a wait, especially when the NYU crowd is on. If outdoor seating opens up on Second Avenue, take it.
Westville East — The Vegetable Argument
173 Avenue A (at East 11th Street)
Westville’s East Village outpost is the rare brunch spot where the vegetable side is actually the reason to go. The Market Plate lets you pick four sides from a rotating list of more than two dozen — roasted beets, charred broccoli, mac and cheese, whatever’s in season — and pairs with eggs or pancakes from the brunch menu. Weekend brunch runs Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Most singleton plates stay under $15 if you order with discipline.
Café Mogador — A Moroccan Detour
101 St. Marks Place (between First Avenue and Avenue A)
Café Mogador has been a family-run Moroccan and Middle Eastern fixture in the East Village since 1983. Brunch leans into the menu’s strengths — Middle Eastern eggs, halloumi plates, lamb sausage, and the classic Moroccan tagines pulled forward for the morning crowd. It’s a step up in price from the diner tier (think upper teens for some dishes) but the brunch-specific options keep an under-$15 plate or two on the table if you order strategically. Reservations on Resy will save you the sidewalk wait.
Sunny & Annie’s — The Tompkins Square Picnic
94 Avenue B (between East 6th and 7th Streets)
Some of the best brunch in the East Village isn’t brunch at all — it’s a bodega sandwich eaten on a bench. Sunny & Annie’s is a 24-hour deli with a sandwich menu that has the cult status of a real restaurant. The bacon-egg-and-cheese is the entry point, but the deli has built its reputation on inventive specialty subs (the pho-style, the bulgogi hero, the Obama) that mostly land under $12. There are no seats. Walk it across Avenue B to Tompkins Square Park and you have a brunch with a better view than half the rooftops in Manhattan.
The Order of Operations
If you only have one stop in you: Veselka. If you want the cheapest sit-down breakfast in the neighborhood: B&H Dairy. If you want the mimosa-and-eggs experience: San Marzano. If you want vegetables to do the heavy lifting: Westville East. If the day’s 70 degrees and you’d rather eat outside: Sunny & Annie’s and a bench at Tompkins.
The East Village is the rare NYC neighborhood where the cheap option isn’t the worse option — it’s often the better one. Get there before noon, bring cash for B&H, and pace the mimosas.
