This Bostonist hates brunch. Hates it. He has no idea what would possess so many thousands of people, of otherwise sound mind, to wait in 20-person-long lines only to pony up anywhere between $12 and $20 to buy food that cost a restaurant a buck fifty in the first place and that you could totally cook at home.
A particular mystery has long been the Centre Street Cafe in Jamaica Plain. What draws such a motley array of hipsters and retired hipsters to form a phalanx a block long every Sunday, never mind the driving snow or, worse, the PIRG petitioners?
It's a mystery that was compounded in recent weeks when Bostonist discovered that local sushi joint JP Seafood Cafe, only a block away, was also in the brunch business. And that its brunch is delicious.
Consider the choices. Centre Street Cafe offers a 30-minute-long wait, cramped seating, and overpriced "home cooking"—precisely the type of food that is better cooked at home. There's no wait at JP Seafood. You can order a bento box of fresh sushi, Teriyaki salmon or chicken, or Karen's fabulous pancakes, each for a few dollars cheaper than most of the things on Centre Street's menu.
JP Seafood's brunch box comes with miso soup, a protein (sashimi, salmon or chicken), a green salad dressed with a delicious ginger sauce, gyoza (a Japanese dumpling), vegetable koroke, fruit salad, and home fries. That's a serving from every sector of the food pyramid, plus a few from the special hangover treatment extension pyramid. An actual sushi chef prepares this stuff, and the quality of the brunch boxes is generally on par with the generally very good food that the restaurant always serves. Plus, you get to eat brunch with chopsticks.
For those with friends (or parents) who are averse to Japanese cuisine, JP Seafood also offers a smattering of Western brunch options. Though we are ashamed to admit that we have never tried Karen's fabulous pancakes, we did enjoy the eggs Florentine, the beneficiary of an extremely delicate Hollandaise sauce. (One of the eggs was slightly over poached for our admittedly delicate taste; a flaw that could probably be remedied by talking with the waitstaff about our texture issues.)
In short, JP Seafood: Eat its brunch. But don't everybody go at once because Bostonist hates waiting for a table.
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