If you’re looking for an imaginative breakfast in a playful environment, you’d better head to the Bongo Room early. Even 30 minutes before the doors open, the sidewalk outside this Wicker Park standby is packed with hungover urbanites anxiously awaiting a table. The breakfast burrito filled with guacamole and fluffy scrambled eggs is a favorite, but most come here for the outrageously sweet concoctions that mix breakfast with dessert, such as Oreo cookie pancakes or chocolate tower French toast. The spot is a little less crowded when lunchtime rolls around, when the kitchen offers inventive fare like a tasty maple-and-mustard-roasted pork loin sandwich and a delectable baby spinach, golden beet and duck confit salad. If you can’t stomach the interminable brunch wait, try the South Loop location, where it’s slightly—note, we said slightly—less crowded.

Bongo Room Information:

• Contemporary American menu. Breakfast, lunch, Saturday-Sunday brunch.