Сегодня утром мне хотелось не столько омлета, сколько тёплого кефира и кусочка батона.

Мне хотелось is an impersonal way to say I felt like / I wanted.

Russian often uses хотеться for a spontaneous desire, craving, or feeling, especially with food, drink, sleep, rest, etc. The person who experiences the feeling goes in the dative case, so мне literally means to me.

So the structure is not really I wanted X, but more like to me, there was a desire for X.

This makes the sentence sound a bit softer and more natural for a passing appetite:

• Я хотел омлет = I wanted an omelet
• Мне хотелось омлета = I felt like having some omelet

Because хотелось is being used impersonally.

In the past tense, Russian impersonal predicates often appear in the neuter singular form by default. There is no nominative subject like я controlling the verb, so the verb does not show the speaker’s gender.

That is why you get:

• мне хотелось
• ему хотелось
• ей хотелось

The form stays хотелось regardless of whether the speaker is male or female.

They are close, but not identical.

• Я хотел(а) sounds more direct and deliberate: I wanted
• Мне хотелось sounds more like an inner feeling, urge, or craving: I felt like, I was in the mood for

In this sentence, because it is about what someone felt like eating or drinking in the morning, мне хотелось is especially natural.

This is a very common Russian pattern meaning:

not so much X as Y
or
rather Y than X

So here the idea is that the speaker was not mainly in the mood for an omelet; they were more in the mood for warm kefir and a piece of bread.

Important nuance: this does not necessarily mean the speaker rejected the omelet completely. It just means the stronger desire was for the second option.

Because не столько..., сколько... is a fixed correlative construction, and Russian normally puts a comma between its two parts.

So:

• не столько омлета, сколько тёплого кефира...

This comma is standard and expected.

After хотеться, Russian very often uses the genitive for things someone feels like having, especially with food and drink.

This often gives an indefinite or partitive feeling:

• омлета = some omelet
• кефира = some kefir
• кусочка = a little piece

This is especially common in everyday Russian when talking about appetite or cravings.

A learner will often notice that food after хотеть / хотеться is frequently in the genitive:

• хочется чаю
• хотелось супа
• хочется мороженого

There are two things happening here:

1. кусочка is the genitive singular of кусочек because it is part of what was wanted after хотелось
2. батона is also genitive because after a word meaning piece of, Russian uses the genitive for the thing being divided

So:

• кусочек чего? = батона

This is exactly like:

• стакан воды = a glass of water
• чашка чая = a cup of tea
• кусочек сыра = a piece of cheese

Also, кусочек is a slightly softer, smaller-sounding word than кусок. For food, кусочек often sounds more natural and friendly.

Not exactly.

Батон usually means a loaf of white bread, often a long soft loaf. It is not the general word for bread in all contexts. The general word is хлеб.

So:

• батон = a white loaf / loaf-style bread
• кусочек батона = a piece or slice of that loaf

Also, it has nothing to do with the English word baton.

Because тёплого modifies кефира, not батона.

It agrees with кефира in:

• gender: masculine
• number: singular
• case: genitive

So:

• тёплого кефира = warm kefir

The sentence does not say that the bread was warm. Only the kefir is described as warm.

If the speaker wanted to say both were warm, Russian would normally need a different structure, for example by repeating the adjective or rephrasing.

Утром is the instrumental singular of утро, but here it functions as a time adverb meaning in the morning.

So:

• сегодня утром = this morning

Russian often uses forms like this without a preposition:

• утром = in the morning
• днём = in the daytime
• вечером = in the evening
• ночью = at night

So this is a very normal time expression.

Yes, Russian word order is flexible, and other orders are possible. But this version is very natural.

The sentence starts with the time frame:

• Сегодня утром

Then it gives the experiencer:

• мне

Then the feeling:

• хотелось

Then the contrast:

• не столько омлета, сколько...

This order sounds smooth and easy to process. It presents the situation first, then the person, then what they felt like.

You could move things around for emphasis, for example:

• Мне сегодня утром хотелось...
• Не столько омлета мне хотелось, сколько...

But the original word order is perfectly normal and probably the most neutral in context.