The Astronomical Number Of Eggs Waffle House Serves Every Year

Waffle House has approximately 2,015 locations in 25 states, mostly east of the Mississippi and south of the Mason-Dixon line. Its specialty may be waffles, as the name implies, but the restaurant also serves eggs — fried, poached, scrambled, and turned into omelets. With so many restaurants and a menu so heavily dependent upon eggs, it's no wonder Waffle House reports that it goes through 272 million eggs every year. In fact, Waffle House goes through more eggs than any other item with over 4.6 billion served since 1955 (compared to 2.1 billion waffles served in the same time frame).

It takes a lot of chickens to produce 272 million eggs each year, and according to the Waffle House website, its eggs are sourced from over a dozen farms across the U.S. However, half of its eggs come from an egg producer called Rose Acre Farms — the second-largest in the U.S., with multiple locations across the country. 

Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that egg prices have skyrocketed. The cost of a dozen eggs has doubled since August 2023, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) predicts prices will increase another 20 percent in 2025. If you're feeling the pinch, imagine how Waffle House feels. 

While egg prices have been trending upward for years, an outbreak of bird flu that spread to poultry farms in the U.S. has led to a 2025 egg shortage that has caused grocery stores to limit the number of eggs consumers can buy. The sheer number of eggs served at Waffle House every year, combined with the egg shortage, left the company with no other option than to impose a 50 cents per egg surcharge in February 2025. 

According to Waffle House, this surcharge is temporary, but that didn't stop a competitor from throwing shade. In response to the Waffle House surcharge, Cracker Barrel offered a week of double reward points for egg dishes as a "hospitable" alternative. Still, given the astronomical number of eggs used at Waffle House and the huge number of customers who visit its thousands of locations each year, we doubt the chain's feathers were very ruffled.