Five great eggs Benedict

Illustration: Andy Mora

Eggs Benedict at the Bristol
The smoked ham on this Benedict is thick-cut and tender, but it’s the pungent edge of mustard hollandaise that takes the dish over the top. $11.—David Tamarkin

Lemon crab-and-shrimp cake Benedict at m.henrietta
The base is brioche, and yet this Benedict feels light. Chalk that up to the bright lemon notes in the hollandaise, and the crab-and-shrimp cake atop the bread. (Even pan-fried seafood is lighter than pork.) $11.95.—DT

Big Jones Benedict at Big Jones
Housemade lard biscuits come topped with poached eggs and a distinctive cured- and smoked-in-house ham, simmered in Kilgus Farmstead cream and cut into thick slices. $13.—Julia Kramer

BLT Benedict at Old Town Social
The B: pork belly. The L: arugula (yeah, kind of a stretch). The T: tomato hollandaise. What the acronym doesn’t describe is the perfect balance of each layer, bookended by a supple poached egg and fluffy biscuit. $9.—Laura Baginski

Short rib “eggs Benedict” at Sprout
In this deconstructed dish, fried green tomatoes stand in for English muffins, thick drizzles of red-wine reduction steal the show from hollandaise and short ribs are so fall-apart rich you don’t even want bread. $18.—Marissa Conrad