French toast is the best breakfast food out there, and it is, without a doubt, far superior to waffles. French toast is the food of the people, while waffles are the food of the elitists.

Let’s start with the cooking process of these two breakfast foods. French toast only requires a skillet for cooking, which is a common cooking appliance with many uses. Waffles, on the other hand, require an iron.

The waffle iron is for elitists. It is a single-use cooking appliance. You can only cook one thing in a waffle iron. Unless you’re having waffles far too often, you’re only using your iron once a month—if that—which makes it incredibly specialized for a food that isn’t all that good.

French toast, on the other hand, is the food of the people. Not only is it made using a multi-use cooking appliance, but it is also designed to use up old bread, while waffles require you to mix up a whole new batter.

French toast will cook much faster than waffles will, not to mention the fact that it is far easier to clean a skillet than it is a waffle iron. If you’re making waffles at a hotel breakfast bar, you’re going to be eating a little bit of everyone else’s waffles too.

With French toast, once you’ve started the cooking process, you have a lot more control over how you want your food done, because you can easily check it without messing it up, unlike with a waffle iron, where one ill-timed peek can ruin your breakfast.

Now, let’s look at flavor, starting with the two breakfast foods in their most basic forms, without any additional toppings—not even syrup. Waffles bring only their typical bread flavor, while French toast, with its egg batter, brings its own flavor along for the ride.

What’s more, waffles on their own do not measure up to French toast in terms of texture. They are either dry or squishy, never especially desirable, whereas French toast consistently has a crisp exterior with a soft bread interior. Though syrup improves the flavor and texture both of these foods, it’s doing a whole lot more work on waffles than it is on French toast.

Now, it must be said that waffles are a versatile breakfast food. They can come with any number of shapes and flavorings, and they can even be made into an entirely different meal, with chicken and waffles. However, French toast’s versatility is quite underrated.

It is true that French toast cannot really compete with waffles in the different shapes department, but it must be noted that each of those shapes requires an entirely new waffle iron. If you’re desperate for a breakfast food that comes in a circle instead of a square—and of course, if you have the money—the purchase might be worth it, but otherwise, you’ll be stuck eating food that’s only one shape, just like everyone else.

Though you cannot add as many flavorings inside the French toast as you can with waffles, you can add almost all of them as toppings instead, which gives you the same taste, though in a somewhat less exciting format.

French toast can also be made into different meals, as it can be made into a savory dish by swapping out sugar in the egg batter for salt and pepper and adding any number of savory toppings. This is a dish that is far better than any savory combination that waffles have to offer.

It must be noted that this is not a slight at chicken and waffles, because that meal is traditionally served with syrup, which means that it is not a dish that turns waffles into a savory meal, rather it turns chicken into a sweet one.

Finally, there is one form with which waffles simply cannot compete: stuffed French toast. You simply cannot stuff a waffle full of goodness in the way that you can with French toast.

A waffle sandwich is not the same; it does not have the same compact, cohesiveness that stuffed French toast does, and you cannot add syrup or other toppings, because you need to be able to pick it up, unless you intend to take on the monumental task of attempting to cut through two waffles while keeping the sandwich intact.

French toast is clearly a better breakfast food than waffles. Waffles may not even be top five (I personally have pancakes and crepes ahead of them, and I see a strong case for some of the savory breakfast foods to get in there as well), while French toast, the breakfast food of the people, is pushing for the top spot.