86Gail's Carriage Inn Restaurant & Pancake House86, Des Plaines

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day–which is why it's served from open 'till close at Gail's Carriage Inn Restaurant & Pancake House. Inside the homey, welcoming restaurant, guests dig into toasted pecan rolls, hearty bowls of oatmeal flavored with peanut butter, bananas, and honey, and stacks of old-fashioned hotcakes topped with warm syrup. Savory specialties of the house include steak benedicts, veggie skillets, and breakfast burritos. But the cafe's real draw is Gail's signature dish: the grilled spuds omelet, which is grilled on the stove and completely encased in hashbrowns.