Central Square is always a busy place, even more so during weekend brunch hours with midday winners such as the old-school classic Brookline Lunch; the retro-hip newcomer Donut Villa Diner; and the classy sit-down experience of Vialé.

The new La Royal has an ever-changing, pan-Peruvian menu filled with seafood and inventive drinks in a spare, cosmopolitan setting that enlivens Huron Village.

The Legal Sea Food crab roll comes moist and heaped high in a New England-styled brioche hot dog bun, trumping the lobster roll and costing far less.

Ebi Sushi’s chirashi bowl is a quick, glorious gobble with generous tender slices of salmon, tuna and white fish (yellowtail and mackerel, generally) amid a mound of moist vinegar sushi rice. The key is the freshness of the fish – and it’s always silky fresh.

Gone are the trés French accents of Les Sablons in Harvard Square, enter Wusong Road’s homey thatch and bamboo and its menu of Spam musubi, Dan Dan Ragu, tiki bar apps and cocktails and chicken and pork bao buns too cute not to eat.

The eatery on the outskirts of Union Square serves up all kinds of goodness all day long with a full accoutrement of coffees, juices and acai bowl, excelling at dishes such as a Spanish Scramble or turkey avocado panini with pickled red onions, melted mozzarella, baby spinach and chipotle aioli neatly packed into a toasted flatbread pouch.

The fun thing at Forage, which has a dark, homey coziness and a quaint wooden bar that seats maybe six, are the Tuesday wine pairings, a four-course pre fixe meal with generous, regionally themed pours at the start of each course.

Camberville does not have a lot of Crepe options, but Mr. Crepe in Davis Square has been selling the golden brown triangles of savory or sweet goodness since the 1990s.

With these subfreezing temps upon us, hot meals matter. One place to get your internal warmth in yummy fashion is ChoCho’s, the Korean eatery with its boiling crocks of soondubu tofu soup into which you drop a raw egg and let cook – like your own Sterno stove to warm your hands over.

The Deconstructed Grilled Cheese & Tomato on the brunch menu at Source is a flat, lightly breaded mozzarella patty, fried and served in a tangy, slightly spicy tomato purée – and it’s quite brilliant.