I was transplanted to Philly for a few years for school. I think Boston is generally better, but there was one thing I think it lacks: good mom and pop diners. I think this place fits the bill, although the mom and pop are replaced by a friendly Asian family. The food is classic diner, especially for breakfast, just what you need, and the prices fall well below the city average. You can actually get an omelette for less than 7 bucks. They also make espresso, not bath water they usually tend to serve at diners. The only problem is they only open for breakfast and lunch, no late night eating. read more

Cafe Mirror is just another reason why I enjoy living in Brighton Center. I actually put off checking it off for a while, because I thought it looked vaguely sketchy from the outside. I don't know why, but I was sketched out, although I was totally wrong to feel that way. It is a very average diner; their eggs, toast, bacon, pancakes, and breakfast sandwiches are all satisfyingly good. I really enjoy their hot chocolate (with or without whipped cream), and my friends have vouched for their coffee. They have the yellowest french toast I have ever seen...not really sure to make of that. The service is both speedy and friendly, which is always a big plus. You should come here for a casual, bare bones kind of diner experience; if you want to feel artsy or hipster-y, try Cafenation or Athan's instead. All in all, an inexpensive, friendly diner in the heart of Brighton Center. read more

Good place to grab a quick bite to eat. They have wireless, or so I heard. Everything's pretty average, but it's a quick stop.

Your standard, cheap, greasy, good breakfast diner. It's typically hidden from most people who don't know Brighton Center since it has just a small sign on the corner of a busy intersection. I moved to Oak Square several months ago and didn't find Cafe Mirror until recently. . I tried Cafe Mirror and got their scrambled eggs, homefries, and toast for super cheap - the old diner style that we all miss. Service is super quick and nice. We were seated right away on a Sunday morning and could choose from different classic breakfast options, sandwiches, and coffees. Nothing fancy or frivolous. Exactly like it should be. Also, get their donuts! The owners of Cafe Mirror also own Brighton Cafe and Twin Donuts and the donuts are the same at each place. They're fresh every day, super cheap, and amazing! Don't overlook these just because they're not from Twin Donuts in Union Sq (because they are!). read more

I love cafe mirror because what you see is what you get...right when you walk in there's a chest of baked goods. I highly recommend getting a croissant breakfast sandwich, they're delicious. Also, their iced coffee is cheap and really good. The large is basically a bucket (it most likely won't fit in your cup holder-doesn't in mine!) The omelets are very good (if you like feta cheese I suggest spinach, feta, and tomatoes...so good)! The pancakes are pretty good too. I've brought my donut connoisseur friend donuts a few times and she is a big fan. So i would say their donuts are pretty good. I also suggest waiting to use the restroom somewhere else if you can; it's kinda gross in the bathroom. read more

Years ago there were DDs that served good doughnuts (donuts)--bigger, fresher, and just better tasting than the ones that most of their stores sell now. I haven't found one of these locations in a long time and the ones I used to go to now all sell the crappy ones. So if I want an easy walk for Saturday doughnuts I now go to Cafe Mirror, where the doughnuts are decent (better than the Market St., Brighton Center, or Oak Square DD). If I really need to feed my inner doughnut beast I get on the bike (or in the car) and head over to Linda's in Belmont where the doughnuts kick ass. read more

It's what you'd expect out of a small breakfast place. Pancakes were not fully cooked. Everything else was good

Great breakfast and very affordable. Wide array of flavored coffee options and big, fresh pasteries. The dinning area is a little cramped early in the morning so I would recommend grabbing something to go. The service is lightning fast if your taking to go. In and out in under 5 min for under $5. read more

While this place has great donuts and muffins it lacks the speed, customer service and amazing iced coffee of it sister owned restaurant Brighton café. Overall it still fits the build of a local diner, but if I had to choose I would visit brighton café. read more

Cafe Mirror - Grilled Blueberry Muffin - Coffee & Tea Near Me - Brighton, Massachusetts

This place is a great breakfast stop. Its a dingy breakfast joint with a tasty, cheap, quickly served breakfast. The waitstaff don't speak English too well but who cares? I highly recommend the extra large iced coffee with cream and sugar. I had to forsake it for weight loss but I hope to live vicariously through your reports of its deliciousness to my Yelp! account. read more

If you are thinking about grabbing breakfast at Dunkin Donuts down the street you should think about making the very short walk over to Cafe Mirror. The foods is definitely much higher quality and the price is about the same as Dunkin Donuts. I had a bacon egg croissant, donut, and ice coffee. The breakfast sandwich was made with a fresh cracked egg and bacon the was made perfectly. The donut was fresh and had a little crunch from the homemade batter. I highly recommend taking some time to check out Cafe Mirror. read more

The staff are amazing and I really like their omelettes. Their breakfast sandwiches are really good too. I love how they know what I want when I walk in. read more

This place is great, its right down the street from my apartment and so convenient to stop in before work. The big draw for me is their chocolate coconut donuts, they are amazing! Whenever I stop in it's usually quick but always a very pleasant experience. read more

Cafe Mirror - Coffee & Tea Near Me - Brighton, Massachusetts

Great to grab coffee on the run or sit down for breakfast. Food is average and so are the prices. The great thing here - the coffee selection. Last time I was in, you could choose btwn plenty of flavors! read more

Not a bad Sunday stop, although it's really small, so plan accordingly. The waitstaff was alternately attentive and distant, which was a little weird, but the pancakes were fluffy, and the prices were right. I didn't like that I couldn't "season" my own coffee, but that's just a personal thing anyway. Although I went in the most ridiculous outfit ever after going out to a club and crashing at my boyfriend's place the night before (read: skirt, heels, one of his button downs), no one really gave me a sideways look, so that was appreciated. I like the food at Mandy & Joe's down the street a little better, but this wasn't bad. Points for not putting butter on my pancakes, points off for not bringing out syrup until about five minutes after I got them. read more

My wife likes this place a lot more than I do, but overall it is a good option for breakfast, especially if there is a long line at Jim's deli. The Korean owners have always been extremely friendly, recognizing us as we walk in and going out of their way to say hello to us. If you have any fears of the quality of Korean omelets, have no fear because the dude in the kitchen looks like the exact greasy bearded white dude that you'd want cooking up your breakfast. The home fries appear to be gluten-free so that's a bonus for the wife. The butternut donuts are delicious, but they leave that nice ring of grease on the little paper plate that reminds you not to order them next time you come. read more

When the weather is nice, my husband and I often walk down to Cafe Mirror on a weekend morning for tea and doughnuts. :) The doughnuts are really good, and the french toast and omelets are good, too. The potatoes are pretty fabulous. The prices are reasonable, and you can sit down and have waiter service or order at the counter and take some pastries with you. A nice feel if you miss Jersey diners! read more

I am torn with this place because I know they make a solid breakfast but today I went with my roommate and we were famished and figured we swing by for a quick bite to eat. He got the chicken salad sandwich and I got a turkey club. These sandwiches were TINY! My "club" had maybe 4 pieces of turkey on it and i think the lettuce leaf was bigger then all the meat combined. His sandwich had a small scoop of chicken salad and he finished it in maybe 6 bites. We could went to better place and paid the same and got way bigger portions. Its a shame cause the place does a solid breakfast. Looks like Ill stick to the breakfast portion of the menu next time. Welp I gotta go make lunch part 2 cause im still hungry. - feast read more

Great coffee! It was very tasty, not watered down, and just the right amount of milk. They also had a lot of different flavors to choose from if you are so inclined to order flavored coffee. And those donuts-definitely worth getting! I ordered a full breakfast as well (a greek omelet), and I was definitely satisfied. A good, cheap place to come for a Sunday brunch! read more

Pros: -Solid breakfast. Simple is better in terms of breakfast and Cafe Mirror covers all the basics. -Good price to quantity ratio -Cheap & tasty pastries. Cons: -The place could use some sprucing up. -Service could be a little speedier, i.e. more attentive staff. -The area sucks for parking. read more

Love this place! Friendly staff and great breakfast!

Woof. Can't say I'm a fan. It sounds like other positive reviewers did their take-out options, so this review may not be accurate if you're considering that. But we went here to sit down for breakfast one day and really didn't like it. I had a spinach and feta omelette that was dry and bland, and some hash browns on the side that were drenched in some spice that tasted horrible with the potatoes. The service was also horrible; the woman was just sitting there doing nothing when we needed to put in our order, and later, get our bill. Overall just a bad experience; considering the great location, I wish it was better! read more

Awful. Very small portions. Bacon is disgusting. No thought into their cooking. Home fries are just huge chunks of potatoes

So cheap. The breakfast sandwiches are very good. The coffee isn't very good. The service is fast. I've never had their baked goods but their donuts looked AWESOME. I've come here hungover and have walked out feeling like a million bucks. read more

Always so good! I think it's owned by the me people as Twin Donuts. You can tell by how fresh their pastries are and the DELICIOUS iced coffee. Always the best around. Their breakfast sandwiches are also really good - much better than a Dunkin Donuts. Fast, easy, cheap, and delicious. What more could you ask for in a breakfast place? read more

Simple but good breakfast. We both got omelets and coffee. Pancakes were so-so. Omelet however were big and filling. For the price you can't go wrong! read more

Initially planned to grab breakfast at Jim's Deli just down Washington, but the line was too long. Backtracked to Cafe Mirror, much to my regret. To say that the service was lackluster would be generous; from the time we sat down to the time we paid the check was a solid 110 minutes - for breakfast at noon on a Saturday in cafe/diner that was not all that busy. The good news is that at least as far as we could tell, there was no saliva, hair, or insects in our food. The eggs were decent, though not exactly hot. The bacon did appear to come from what was once a pig, though the flaccid fried pork product that ended up on our plate was barely warm and of low quality. The homefries were indeed spuds, but certainly not "homefries" in the sense of proper, diced or cubed potatoes fried in oil and seasoned with salt, pepper and other good stuff. We were served large chunks (potato quarters, basically) of undercooked tuber dusted with a hard-to-identify seasoning that tasted suspiciously like chicken-flavored ramen noodles. So the food itself was, at very best, mediocre, though the meal was incomplete due to the undelivered apple fritter. Why didn't I mention the waitress about the fritter, you ask? For the same reason I didn't ask about the coffees that took twenty minutes to arrive: we saw her a grand total of three times - the third time being when she delivered our silverware five minutes after bringing out our plates of food. The check didn't even come - I had to go to the cash register myself to ask for the check and to pay. This gets two thumbs-down from me - would have been better off waiting for Jim's Deli. read more

This place is not very good. I asked for a breakfast sandwich and they served it to me on a sesame burger bun. A ham egg and cheese on a sesame burger bun. It was terrible. The donut I had was stale as well. Stay away. read more

Delicious and simple. It's my favorite breakfast place where I can have quiet moments to relax and get on with my day. Great staff. read more

This is the least of the three Allston/Brighton restaurants managed by a Cambodian family (Brighton Cafe and Twin Donuts are the other two). I give it four stars because it's not at the level of the other two, but I still enjoy it. I confess I used to go in there because I nursed a little crush on the manager's daughter. But the manager herself was very sweet. The one thing I did NOT like on the menu was the pre-fab New England Coffee iced tea (this was 2007, and they'd just gotten the machine and switched from making it with a real bag). When I told her I didn't like the new iced tea, she made a fresh brewed cup for me, and when she had run out of lemons, she went across the street to Johnny's. I had never, not even at places where I was a regular and gotten treated very well, gotten that kind of order executed especially for me. I still haven't forgotten it, because it's the last as well as the first so far. A good place if you're in Brighton Center. But personally, I'd walk the twenty minutes down to Brighton Cafe. Whoever said the hashbrowns are frozen... shut up. read more

I like this place. Not because of the amazing food or the overly friendly service. It really doesn't have either to the max. No, I like this place because it is comfortable, it is easy, the food is consistently solid and the service quick and efficient. And really, after waking up with a hangover all you want is just a plate of good food in front of your face as soon as possible with as little chit-chat as possible. At least, that is what I want. So that is why I like this place. It is comfortable, quick, and really cheap. Again, after a night of drinking, the last thing I want to do is put down double digits for breakfast. And if you want to know anything about me, it's that I can eat a lot. And not because I can, but because it really takes that much to satiate my hunger. At McDonalds, I put down $20 for a single meal. So Cafe Mirror is a welcome change at less than a hamilton. I get the turkey club, or one of the combos with french toast. I have heard the ice coffee in the gigantic styro cups is pretty good too. I especially like the hashbrowns with syrup and butter. Go there, eat there, leave happy and less hangovery. read more

I've lived in the neighborhood for three years and finally visited this place in November for Sunday brunch. The food was okay, but the whole place was dirty -- our table, benches, and the bathroom. I was scared to think about the cleanliness of the kitchen... read more

This place is your standard breakfast spot. Nothing on menu here will blow you away. I have been here a bunch as it is one of the only breakfast places in Brighton center. The corned beef hash is pretty good here. The hash browns are nothing to write home about. The breakfast sandwich I had here was just ok. The coffee is usually terrible here. This place should have gotten a 2 star from me and yet it didn't and I seem to still come back to this place not sure what it is about this place that keeps me coming back. It is probably the location and the great service I get in here. Also the prices aren't to bad. Next I go back I will definitely be trying a donut as there seem to be a lot of positive reviews about them. read more

The banana pancakes are f'ing amazing, def a great spot for breakfast & hangovers

I only get breakfast sandies here but it's my go-to spot. Never too busy, service is fast and the food is cheap and really decent. I get a sausage egg and chee on an onion bagel every time, I don't even have to order it anymore when I walk in, they just know. I like how they don't use the microwave to cook the eggs, they already have over-medium flat-top cooked eggs ready. Honestly I've never bothered to try anything else. Oh wait I had a cruller once and it was good. read more

I've been going to Cafe Mirror for over 15 years. I've seen it change owners at least 4 times, but I always love the people who work here. This is one of the few places left where you can get flavored coffee that's NOT syruped. Their donuts are good and fresh. Support that locals not the chain! Tip: The family who owns Cafe Mirror also owns Brighton Cafe (on Washington and Comm, which is where I think they make their donuts) and Twin Donuts. Last time I went to Brighton Cafe their medium ice coffee about $.25 cheaper... weird, but true. It's been awhile since I've been to that location... read more

Before you order anything ask to use the restroom. The filth and dirt may change your mind. Did for me despite some very good looking donuts. read more

This place was amazing, up until about a month ago, when they got some new staff. If you go there in the morning wanting to order a bagel, don't even bother if the new guy with short hair is preparing it for you. All you'll get is under-toasted cardboard with a millimeter thick cream cheese spread. If you're going there for a sit-in breakfast, the cooks make great food, and it's a relaxing environment. Also, the coffee and pastries are amazing!! Just make sure you know who's making your bagels!! read more

Great service, great prices, awesome donuts and iced coffee. I stop in every morning

Run of the mill breakfast place. We got some eggs, toast, OJ - the standard morning fare. The service was decent but the food was just average. About what you'd expect from a typical diner (although I don't think this place is a full blown diner). On the upside the prices were pretty reasonable but you do get what you pay for. read more