Best Sunday morning football breakfasts

Home Bar and Grill's kalbi shortrib with kimchi.

Confession: I don't actually watch football. My husband is pro-sports monogamist in a serious relationship with the NBA (not that I watch that either…I'm not that good of a wife). But there's an upside to football season—some of the best kitchens in town finally pay attention to breakfast (best meal of the day!).

The play by play:

Home Bar and Grill

Food: The fact that I don't watch football is so obvious that the instant I stepped into Home Bar and Grill, the manager and chef asked what I was doing there. I used to work with the chef, Neil Nakasone, and honestly, I don't think he should have been surprised that I dragged myself out of bed at 6 a.m. for a good meal. If you need to sober up or beat down a hangover this early in the morning, Home is definitely the place to go. Which isn't to say this is sloppy food—this former Alan Wong chef fries up the best tater tots (for breakfast, think of them as mini hash browns) anywhere and the braised kalbi shortribs are ridiculously meltingly tender. (The Sunday breakfast menu changes from week to week, depending which cook is working the shift.)

Drink: This early, just coffee. It's served in a styrofoam cup, but it's not bad.

Vibe: It's not packed—the crowds taper off as the season progresses and people opt to stay home—but there's still enough people to keep it lively. Here, we saw the most people with laptops and iPads to track their fantasy leagues.

Home Bar and Grill, 1683 Kalakaua Ave., 942-2237. Breakfast served until 11 a.m.

Pint and Jigger's coconut milk French toast.

Pint and Jigger

The food: The most refined breakfast of our Sunday morning crawl. Creamed potato and eggs are a mix of Spam, potatoes, onions, peppers and fresh corn, topped with eggs, and the French toast could quite possibly be my favorite on the Island. This is coconut milk battered sweet bread—lighter than most with a great, browned crust. An agave lime syrup instead of maple syrup adds sweetness and zing.

Drink: Mimosas and Bloody Marys are $5! And, though we had our doubts, the Beermosa works: orange juice with beer. Sounds weird, but with Hoegaarden, it's a match. The full cocktail menu is also available in the morning, and it turns out, the Drawn and Quartered, a bitters-based drink (2 ounces of it!) is just as good at 8 a.m. as it is in the evening.

Vibe: Only two other tables were occupied.

Pint and Jigger, 1936 S King St., 744-9593, pintandjigger.com. Breakfast served until noon.

Side Street Inn on da Strip. Left: pork chop loco moco, right: BLT Bloody Mary.

Side Street Inn on da Strip

The food: The breakfast menu includes four loco mocos—meatloaf, chili, fried rice and pork chop. Side Street Inn's famous fried pork chops over rice, and topped with two eggs and gravy? The fans go wild.

Drink: The Bloody Mary ($4) comes with a strip of bacon. Actually, the entire Side Street Inn menu could be responsible for the upcoming bacon shortage.

Vibe: Lively, yet not rowdy.

Side Street Inn on da Strip, 614 Kapahulu Ave., 739-3939, sidestreetinn.com. Breakfast served until 11 a.m.

Bloody Mary bar at Wahoo's Fish Taco

Wahoo's Fish Taco at Kahala

Drink: When I suggested Wahoo's, friends looked at me as if I were a replacement ref from the Lingerie League making a bad call. But I had heard rumors of a Sunday morning Bloody Mary bar, a concept much too scarce in Honolulu, but something I love as much as not watching football. The bar is a buffet of fixin's—over a dozen hot sauces, Clamato, jalapeños, pepperoncini, olives, pickled cherry peppers, carrots, celery—by the time I was done, I had a salad in my drink.

Vibe: Pretty crowded, and the loudest crowd was cheering on its favorite…golfer.

Wahoo's Fish Taco at Kahala, 4614 Kilauea Ave., 732-9229,. Breakfast served until 11 a.m.