The Biggest Breakfast Challenges On Man V Food

Adventurous eaters interested in some of the biggest breakfasts in America need look no further than the travel series "Man v. Food." After briefly profiling a couple of restaurants in an American city, each episode culminates with its host — Adam Richman in Seasons 1 through 4 and Casey Webb in Season 5 and beyond — attempting an eating challenge. While these culinary conquests occasionally revolve around tolerance for an extreme level of spice, the majority simply require the consumption of an excessively large amount of food.

From giant omelets to unwieldy breakfast burritos and plenty more, our list consists of the biggest breakfast challenges featured over the course of the decade-plus run of "Man v. Food" in chronological broadcast order. Although hosts Richman and Webb were each able to complete at least a couple of these challenges, every single one pushes the limits of just how much breakfast food a human being can finish in one sitting.

Even after taking into account over well 100 episodes that have aired since 2008, the very first breakfast challenge on "Man v. Food" remains one of the biggest in the series' history. In "Man v. Food" Season 1, Episode 5, Adam Richman attempts to eat eight overstuffed breakfast tacos at an Austin, Texas-based diner called Juan in a Million.

Each taco the restaurant serves as part of its breakfast taco challenge weighs three-quarters of a pound and is filled with what can only be described as a small hill of bacon, eggs, cheese, and potatoes. Mid-challenge, after Richman finishes his fourth taco, restaurant founder Juan P. Meza claims that the "Man v. Food" host has already surpassed 90% of the thousands of competitors to have attempted the feat in the past. However, even after a lengthy break, Richman is unable to finish his fifth breakfast taco, falling just under four tacos short of victory. Nevertheless, Richman finds out that his performance is the fifth-best in the challenge's history. Completing the challenge, then, may well have been impossible, and eating about nearly four pounds of breakfast tacos was an achievement in its own right.

In Season 1, Episode 12 of "Man v. Food," Adam Richman visits a decades-old diner in Seattle, Washington, called Beth's Cafe. The restaurant's signature challenge requires participants to finish a 12-egg omelet called the Southwestern Exposure.

"Man v. Food" begins by showcasing how the omelet is prepared in the kitchen at Beth's Cafe. On top of a sprawling bed of eggs are cheese, sour cream, salsa, and beef brisket chili. That's all served with a large portion of hash browns and a side of toast. Before attempting to eat all of that himself, Richman decides to raise the stakes by racing against a previous winner of the Southwestern Exposure Challenge, Adam Houghton. For the entirety of the competition, Richman maintains a healthy lead, but with what he estimates to be just two bites of food left on his plate, he finds himself virtually unable to finish. While Richman ultimately wins the head-to-head when Houghton taps out, it's the omelet that wins out against both men.

The signature food challenge at Jack-n-Grill in Denver, Colorado, asked adventurous eaters to take a stab at finishing a breakfast burrito that weighed a whopping 7 pounds. Of course, Adam Richman was up for the task, attempting to down the so-called Monster Breakfast Burrito in "Man v. Food" Season 1, Episode 16.

At the time of the episode's filming, more than 2,000 had attempted the challenge. Only about 100 of them succeeded. Richman, however, was unable to count himself among the challenge's success stories. While he passed an estimated halfway point after about 30 minutes, by the time he taps out, what appears to be at least a few pounds of burrito remain on his plate. Unfortunately for anyone inspired by Richman's attempt at the Monster Breakfast Burrito, Jack-n-Grill is no longer in business as of 2018, despite a bump in popularity courtesy of this very "Man v. Food" episode.

Adam Richman leaves the contiguous 48 in "Man v. Food" Season 2, Episode 6 in order to attempt the Mac Daddy Challenge at a diner called M.A.C. 24/7 in the Waikiki neighborhood of Honolulu, Hawaii. Comprising the Mac Daddy are 3 pounds of pancakes and a pound of toppings — competitors can choose from among a few options, and Richman decides on blueberries and butter. Everything must be eaten within 90 minutes.

About 300 diners attempted the challenge before Richman, and only four of them succeeded. Competitors are allowed order whatever additional items they want, and Richman enlists the aid of a cup of coffee and a plate of bacon to cut through what quickly becomes a monotonous flavor. About 24 minutes after starting, Richman is able to down half of his pancake platter. Of course, it's that second half that poses the biggest challenge, and he's unable to finish with what he estimates to be just over a pound of blueberry pancakes remaining.

Season 3, Episode 1 of "Man v. Food" has Adam Richman visiting a breakfast spot called the Broken Yolk Cafe in San Diego, California, to attempt the restaurant's Iron Man Challenge. Diners are tasked with finishing a plate that boasts a 12-egg omelet smothered in chili as its centerpiece. That's accompanied by an absolutely non-negligible serving of hash browns and two large biscuits on the side.

Richman hits the ground running and makes it halfway through his Iron Man Challenge in only 12 minutes. Eight minutes and another quarter-portion later, however, his food starts to become cold. Coupled with his stomach growing fuller, the "Man v. Food" hosts struggles with the omelet and hash browns remaining. This is where Richman's expertise comes into play — he orders a side of guacamole that he strategically deploys for a reinvigoration of flavor. This play pushes him to the finish line, allowing him to complete the Broken Yolk Cafe's Iron Man Challenge in 32 minutes.

"Man v. Food" Season 4 introduces a new format in which host Adam Richman is no longer competing in food challenges himself. Instead, he's ceding all the glory in each episode to a new competitor or sometimes a whole group of competitors. Season 5, meanwhile, is the first to feature Casey Webb as the host. For whatever reason, both seasons are lacking in the breakfast food department. Season 6, however, brings breakfast challenges back to "Man v. Food" with a vengeance. The first time Season 6 earns a spot in the show's breakfast food challenge Hall of Fame occurs in Episode 2, when Webb visits Flann O'Brien's Pub in Boston, Massachusetts.

Flann O'Brien's dares adventurous eaters to down a 4.5- pound Irish breakfast, consisting of staples like sausage, eggs, baked beans, potatoes, tomatoes, toast, and more. Complicating matters is a 30-minute time limit. Before Webb, about 400 people had tried their hand at the Guinness Irish Breakfast Challenge. While roughly 50 of them succeeded, about half of them did so when the challenge was markedly easier and had less food. Utilizing a sort of "when in Rome" philosophy, Webb washes everything down with a pint of Guinness — an optional addendum that earns finishers a hat as a bonus prize. That decision ultimately proves unwise, though, as Webb reaches the time limit without finishing his more-than-full Irish breakfast.

In "Man v. Food" Season 6, Episode 6, Casey Webb takes a trip to Burlington, Vermont, in order to try his hand at a food challenge at a historic diner called Handy's Lunch. There, customers can attempt to eat a sandwich that shares a name with the storied star of action movies and cheugy mid-2000s memes, Chuck Norris.

Comprising the Chuck Norris are four French toast sandwiches, each of which contains egg, cheese, and a different kind of meat. They're stacked on top of one another to form a single, 3.5-pound sandwich tower. Two ramekins of Vermont maple syrup accompany the Chuck Norris, and while they're not necessary for the challenge, Webb eventually adds some syrup to his Chuck Norris to introduce some variety to the salty meat monolith. With the help of some coaching from a professional Taekwondo instructor, Webb ends up finishing the entire monstrous sandwich.

"Man v. Food" returns to San Diego for a second breakfast food challenge in Season 6, Episode 8. This time around, Casey Webb visits a diner called Brian's 24 to attempt what the restaurant calls the Pancake Monster Challenge.

The so-called Pancake Monster that competitors must finish consists of five plate-sized pancakes. In between each one is a different food — a ham steak, potatoes, three strips of bacon, two sausage patties, a country fried steak, and three eggs. The whole thing weighs in at just about 5.5 pounds and must be finished within an hour. Webb kicks his meal off with the strategic decision to separate the meat and eggs from the pancake stack, presumably because carbs are heavier than protein. He finishes most of those proteins before digging into the pancakes. While Webb makes it past the halfway point, he doesn't get much further than that, tapping out while he still has about 20 minutes left to go. Simply put, such a humongous pancake platter may just be too much for most human beings to handle.

In what's quite possibly one of the biggest breakfast challenges of them all — featured on "Man v. Food" or otherwise — Season 6, Episode 10 sees Casey Webb attempt the Classic Whale Sandwich Challenge at Spread Bagelry in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Two things make the Classic Whale Sandwich Challenge unique from typical "Man v. Food" fare: The sandwich is intended for three people, and the challenge had yet to be successfully completed at the time of filming.

The Classic Whale Sandwich is a 4-pound bagel housing a whopping 9 pounds of toppings: smoked salmon, whitefish, cream cheese, tomato slices, raw red onions, and capers. Complicating matters further is a 30-minute time limit and a $250 price tag for teams that don't finish. Webb and two Spread Bagelry regulars make solid progress on the gargantuan bagel through the first half of the challenge, but one of the regulars bows out with time to spare. With just 5 minutes to go, Webb estimates that only 20% of the Classic Whale remains. Even after Webb's teammate makes a surprise return, however, that last bit proves too formidable as the clock strikes zero.

If there's one factoid adventurous eaters should know about Elvis outside of his life as a rock star, it's that he had a thing for peanut butter, jelly, and bacon sandwiches. It wasn't Elvis who invented that combination, but he did help popularize the combo. One of his favorite versions was served at a restaurant in Denver known for its Fool's Gold Loaf — an entire loaf of bread sandwiching a jar's worth of peanut butter, a jarful of jam, and a pound of bacon. Casey Webb attempts to eat a version of Elvis' favorite sandwich in "Man v. Food" Season 8, Episode 5 at a Kansas City, Missouri, brunch spot called Succotash.

For what it's worth, the Fool's Gold Loaf at Succotash utilizes an almond butter and a homemade blueberry jam as well as six eggs, six slices of cheese, and 12 slices of the requisite bacon. Diners must finish the loaf in 30 minutes. That time limit proves difficult for Webb. Nevertheless, with less than a minute left on the clock, he downs his last bite of the sandwich, adding the Elvis Challenge at Succotash to his list of "Man v. Food" victories.

In Season 8, Episode 6 of "Man v. Food," Casey Webb treks to Omaha, Nebraska, to try his hand at what Bailey's Breakfast & Lunch calls the Porkasaurus Challenge. At play is a plate loaded with a wide variety of breakfast foods that weighs in at 3.5 pounds.

Naturally, the pork in the Porkasaurus refers to a large amount of pork and pork-derived breakfast meats like sausage, hot links — which are different from hot dogs — Canadian bacon, bacon, and ham. Accompanying that meat are a biscuit, eggs, toast, potatoes, gravy, and more. Everything must be downed in 30 minutes or less, and winners walk away with a commemorative T-shirt. While the plate lacks anything out of the ordinary, eating all of those breakfast staples in such large quantities unsurprisingly turns out to be a challenge for Webb. Eventually, he whittles his plate down to just some ham, sausage, and hash browns with five minutes left on the clock. However, the challenge ultimately proves too difficult, scoring a point in the win column for the mighty Porkasaurus.

"Man v. Food" Season 8, Episode 12 features a food challenge at Old Tymers Cafe in Red River, New Mexico, that's plenty simple in theory but absolutely daunting in practice. Competitors must finish a mere three pancakes — but each pancake boasts a formidable 15-inch diameter and weighs more than a pound. It's aptly called the Four-Pound Pancake Challenge.

Those up to the task of eating 4 pounds of pancakes have an hour to do so. In the 12 years prior to Webb's visit, only 50 customers were brave enough to take a stab at the Four-Pound Pancake Challenge. Just two of them were successful. Perhaps scaring some customers away is Old Tymers Cafe's wall of shame, requiring anyone who fails the challenge to have their photo taken as they wash their pancake dish in the restaurant's kitchen. Unsurprisingly, even after finishing well over two of his three pancakes, Webb is unable to eat the 4-pound platter in its entirety. After tapping out with 16 minutes left on the clock, Webb earns his place on the wall of shame.

"Man v. Food" Season 9, Episode 4 tasks Casey Webb with completing the Corned Beef Omelet Challenge at The Egg Bistro in Virginia Beach, Virginia. In this challenge, ambitious eaters must finish a corned beef omelet, which weighs a grand total of 3.5 pounds. As it turns out, Webb is the first diner to even attempt this challenge at the time this episode was made.

The Egg Bistro prepares its gargantuan corned beef omelet with 16 ounces of corned beef, 12 eggs, 10 slices of Swiss cheese, a generous helping of sauerkraut, and Thousand Island dressing. Rounding out the dish is a side serving of corned beef hash. Even with just 30 minutes on the clock, Webb is able to eat the whole thing with about a minute to spare. His prize is an outdated T-shirt reading "keep calm and egg on."

In "Man v. Food" Season 10, Episode 5, Casey Webb makes a trip out to one of the cities responsible for some of the best clam chowder in the U.S., Newport, Rhode Island.  There, he tries his hand at The Hungry Monkey Cafe's Go Bananas Challenge. While no monkeys are harmed in the making of the episode, the same can't be said of Webb, who walks away from the ordeal uncomfortably full — but that's just another day at work for the "Man v. Food" host.

Challengers must finish a plate of French toast weighing 4 pounds, courtesy of ample helpings of cream cheese, bananas, blueberries, strawberries, whipped cream, powdered sugar, and maple syrup. On the clock are just 30 minutes. Webb, it turns out, is the Go Bananas Challenge's very first contestant, though The Hungry Monkey Cafe dared diners to finish a gargantuan omelet in years past. Webb clears about half of his plate in roughly half of his allotted time, but unsurprisingly, he starts to slow down after passing that halfway point. In the end, the clock strikes zero while he has a good eight or nine slices of French toast remaining, proving that even trained stunt eaters just aren't meant to consume that much food.