It’s the big one, the fast food breakfast menu against which all other fast food breakfast menus are measured. McDonald’s is not only one of the biggest fast food chains in the world, but also a leader when it comes to what you crave early in the morning (or at an airport, or in the afternoon, etc., etc.)
From the Egg McMuffin to the McGriddle, McDonald’s breakfast is iconic. But you still might have some questions about it, like when the breakfast menu ends at McDonald’s, whether they have a gluten-free menu, and what a “number 2” is on the McDonald’s breakfast menu.
Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Here’s everything you need to know about McDonald’s breakfast, as of July 1, 2024.
Does McDonald’s have a breakfast menu?
Oh, you know McDonald’s has a breakfast menu. We just spent several paragraphs talking about that! Unlike limited-time items (Shamrock Shake, the McRib), McDonald’s breakfast is year-round, and it is spectacular.
Does McDonald’s have a dollar breakfast menu?
Though McDonald’s doesn’t have a breakfast-specific dollar menu, there are items on the McDonald’s $1$2$3 menu, aka their cheaper grab-and-go items. The four items included on what, for simplicity’s sake we’ll call the dollar menu, are the Sausage Biscuit, the Sausage McMuffin, the Sausage Burrito, and Hash Browns.
Can you order the breakfast menu all day at McDonald’s? When does the breakfast menu end at McDonald’s?
To crib a bit from my 6th-grade essay: McDonald’s breakfast hours are a land of confusion and wonder. There was a time when McDonald’s breakfast hours were limited to, well, breakfast hours. Then the restaurant chain made a lot of hay in 2015, expanding the breakfast hours to around the clock. So where do we stand in 2024?
As of August 25, 2023, here’s what McDonald’s had to officially say about breakfast hours:
“Local breakfast menus and hours may vary by restaurant, which Co-Ops and franchisees decide at their discretion, but you can often get your favorite breakfast item from the time your local restaurant opens until 10:30 or 11:00 AM local time.”
Confusing, right? The short answer here is that many McDonald’s will open around 5 am or 6 am, and serve breakfast up until 10:30 am or 11 am, when they’ll switch over to lunch. 24-hour locations, the same sort of thing, they may only have that breakfast window in the morning for about five or six hours.
But! Some locations serve breakfast for longer, or around the clock. Ultimately, it’s up to the franchise manager how they want to handle it. So unfortunately for you, you may not know whether the McDonald’s you’re headed to has breakfast available or not until you get there. For more on this, go watch the 1993 movie Falling Down.
Does McDonald’s have a gluten-free breakfast menu?
Are you gluten-free? Then high-key we recommend being extremely careful when Googling whether there are gluten-free options available for breakfast. The short answer here we’ll get out of the way up front is that McDonald’s does not maintain a gluten-free kitchen and therefore cannot guarantee anything is gluten-free.
To further confuse the issue, a 2018 post from McDonald’s in Great Britain incorrectly labels certain items as gluten-free. Those items include: “Hash Browns, Eggs, Back Bacon and our Sausage Patty.” However, according to more current info (from 2023) on the United States website, the Hash Browns are not gluten-free. Neither is the Oatmeal, by the way.
See? Confusing. Basically, you can ask the manager if certain items are gluten-free, but even something like the eggs or sausage patty could potentially get contaminated in the kitchen, so please use caution.
What is a number 2 on the McDonald’s breakfast menu?
A number 2 on the McDonald’s breakfast menu is a Sausage n’ Egg McMuffin, aka the classic McDonald’s breakfast order. So there you go! Order a number 2 and they’ll treat you like a regular.
What is the McDonald’s breakfast menu (as of July, 2024)?
Unlike other fast food chains, the McDonald’s breakfast menu is pretty straightforward. There are no real categories – other than the aforementioned items on the dollar(s) menu. Instead, it’s just a big long list of delicious-sounding stuff. That said, for ease of reading we’ve broken it down into items and meals.
As also mentioned above, some menus have numbered items so you can order that way. But we’ve also seen menus that are just a list. To that end, check out what is on the McDonald’s breakfast menu as of July 1, 2024, below.
McDonald’s Breakfast Menu, Individual Items:
Bacon, Egg & Cheese Biscuit (460 calories) - Bacon, egg and American cheese on a buttermilk biscuit.
Egg McMuffin (310 calories) - Canadian bacon, egg and American cheese on an English muffin.
Sausage McMuffin (400 calories) - Sausage and American cheese on an English muffin.
Sausage McMuffin with Egg (480 calories) - Sausage, egg and American cheese on an English muffin.
Sausage Biscuit (460 calories) - Sausage on a buttermilk biscuit.
Sausage Biscuit with Egg (530 calories) - Sausage and egg on a buttermilk biscuit.
Bacon, Egg & Cheese McGriddles (430 calories) - Bacon, egg, and American cheese on a syrup-flavored griddle cake.
Sausage McGriddles (430 calories) - Sausage on a syrup-flavored griddle cake.
Sausage, Egg & Cheese McGriddles (550 calories) - Sausage, egg, and American cheese on a syrup-flavored griddle cake.
Big Breakfast (760 calories) - Scrambled eggs, sausage, a biscuit and hash browns.
Big Breakfast with Hotcakes (1340 calories) - Hotcakes, a side of butter, syrup, scrambled eggs, sausage, a biscuit and hash browns.
Hotcakes (580 calories) - 3 hotcakes, side of butter, syrup.
Hotcakes and Sausage (770 calories) - 3 hotcakes, side of butter, syrup, and a sausage patty.
Sausage Burrito (310 calories) - Eggs, sausage, cheese, green chiles and onion wrapped in a flour tortilla.
Hash Browns (140 calories) - Hash browns. You know what they are.
Fruit & Maple Oatmeal (320 calories) - Two servings of oats, cream and brown sugar, with red and green apples, cranberries, and two types of raisins.
McDonald’s Breakfast Menu, Meals:
As usual with fast food restaurants, the meals include a drink and side. In this case, we’re counting that as a small coffee and a hash brown, which is the default. And for ease of browsing, though these menu items are repetitious of what’s above, we’re posting them here as well so you don’t have to keep scrolling up… Only 8 of the 16 individual items are offered a meal.
Egg McMuffin Meal (455 calories) - Egg McMuffin, coffee, hash browns.
Sausage McMuffin with Egg Meal (625 calories) - Sausage McMuffin with Egg, coffee, hash browns.
Sausage Biscuit with Egg Meal (675 calories) - Sausage Biscuit with Egg, coffee, hash browns.
Bacon, Egg & Cheese Biscuit Meal (605 calories) - Bacon, Egg and Cheese Biscuit, coffee, hash browns.
Bacon, Egg & Cheese McGriddles Meal (575 calories) - Bacon, Egg and Cheese McGriddles, coffee, hash browns.
Sausage, Egg & Cheese McGriddles (695 calories) - Sausage, Egg & Cheese McGriddles, coffee, hash browns.
Sausage McGriddles Meal (575 calories) - Sausage McGriddles, coffee, hash browns
Sausage Burrito Meal (455 calories) - Two sausage burritos, coffee, hash browns.