J Pace & Son

This is a good deli chain and market chain. Their bread is a little tough. One should try the tuna or the chicken salad. If this one is closed, you can always try the one in Saugus next to the square one mall.

What the hell. Why did they close??? Where am I going to purchase Four Cheese Mac and Cheese for lunch now? What do they expect me to do? Go on a diet? My arteries are not clogging fast enough.

CLOSED — but they still get 5 Stars

Heart.
Broken.
They’re closed now :’(

This place is closed now and it makes me sad. :(
I know, I know… what’s the point of reviewing a closed deli? But I feel like I must, even if it is their eulogy.
The service at this place was great; even though I only went here for about a month and a half, it still got to the point where they’d grab my extra large (seriously, this thing was giant) iced coffee for me. Breakfast sandwiches are made to order — there’s seriously nothing better than a breakfast sandwich with freshly fried ham and a fried egg with a yolk that is just slightly gooey. Mmmm.
I only had lunch here once or twice, but it was always solid.

I’ve eaten here several times now. The food is okay, not great, just OK. Literally, anything you order is «eh». The line is always far too long for the quality of food you’re about to get and there is only one credit card terminal for 3 registers so it takes 5 minutes to pay. This place sucks. The only reason I give it 2 stars is that it’s in my building. That doesn’t help most of you though.

Best chicken Caesar wraps in the Financial District!
I also love that you can get a cake last minute and they”ll write on it for you. For an additional small charge, they give you a bag with paper plates, forks, and a serving knife.

Since I live in the building, this seemed like a great place to give my first review on Unilocal!
I stop into J Pace occasionally for breakfast, lunch, or if I need to pick up a few items.
Easily the best thing here is their lunch business. Sandwiches are always fresh, tasty, and the staff is extremely accommodating in making it just how you want it. Although many of the pasta dishes are fairly bland, the prices are decent and service is quick. They do have indoor/​outdoor seating, and a couple round tables in the back of the building outside that most don’t know about.
Breakfast is generally good here but be prepared to wait, wait, and then wait some more. I typically go with a breakfast sandwich although I do enjoy their pancakes on occasion. The rest of their AM baked offerings are average.
I probably most often come here when I need something last minute, and this place has a little of everything to suit those needs not to mention the convenience factor associated with it. Add in the fact that everyone who works here is always extremely pleasant and helpful and you have a place I am very happy to live upstairs from!

I’ve felt the need to re-​review J Pace for some time now, and after much internal debate, I could hold back no longer. Part of me wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt, that maybe they had had a few off days (as we all do from time-​to-​time), but what is becoming increasingly apparent to me is that the decline in quality and service is all too noticeable now.
I usually frequent the downtown establishment for breakfast, but do go there for lunch on occasion. What I’ve noticed is that even at 9am the food prep has rarely been completed, leaving patrons to wait for their breakfast sandwiches beyond what should be considered to be reasonable, even if made-​to-​order. The eggs are frequently over cooked (hard yolk) and the coffee is very watery. I’ve seen SYSCO boxes strewn about the storefront as if it were 5am on delivery day, which knowing that supplier does not particularly whet my appetite. I will assume for now that their meats and cheeses do not come from them as J Pace prides themselves on providing fresh meats and cheeses, and frankly I do taste the quality there, so I believe that they not procuring meats from SYSCO.
Most recently, during the Boston’s water quality issues, they literally had nothing already made, except the breads. I wondered in bewilderment why they couldn’t have prepped the eggs for breakfast or even attempted to start boiling water to be used to wash their produce. All I received was «Sorry, we can’t serve no coffee…» A bit annoying.
I will be giving the downtown location of J Pace one last shot. If it wasn’t for the West End location that made me fall in love with this family owned business I might have written them off a while ago, but the fact is, they do make wonderful subs for lunch; I am just very skeptical that this crew can manage to hold a candle to the other stores. In all fairness they deserve another half star, but that is not an option so they’ll get a two until my experience (s) improve.

I’ve tried most of the menu and its all consistently great, but what I will recommend that might come as a slight surprise is the Chicken Caesar Wrap on a spinach or tomato wrap. Honestly, this is the best chicken caesar wrap i’ve ever had! Beats out any other place in Boston. They give you a generous portion of romaine lettuce, chicken, Parmesan cheese, and then they crush up some croutons so you get some crunch but its evenly distributed. I highly recommend giving it a try.
The meatball sub is also amazing — but be wary of the post lunch food coma that is inevitable.

Gosh, I loved this place when I worked at 1 Federal Street. The line was always out the door… but it moved fast due to the practiced and efficient staff at the restaurant. There is the ‘cold line’ for sandwiches and the ‘hot line’ for entrees like chicken and broccoli over penne, spaghetti and meatballs, etc. The ‘hot line’ was always faster, but the truth is that the sauces are kind of bland and require a bunch of salt (IMO) in order to satisfy.
The sandwiches on the other hand… MMMM. And they make pretty good salads, too if you want to bypass the line completely. It’s reasonably priced and a great place to get take-​out lunch service in the financial district.
Oh, they also do cakes. All our birthday celebrations featured J. Pace cakes. Our favorite: strawberry short cake. Features layers of yellow cake, whipped cream frosting and fresh strawberries. Excuse me while I go wipe the string of drool trailing down my chin.

I am not wild about the food here. It’s pretty good. Service is fine. Everything LOOKS good and I’m drooling by the time I get it — but it’s always very much average stuff. At least they give you a lot and give you bread too.
I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s just standard Italian stuff. Smells awesome walking by, though!

I decided to let the price discrepancy slide and go back to Pace’s. After all, it was only 50 cents. Usually I’m a person of principle and stick to my guns, but Pace’s is incredibly close to my office.
I still wouldn’t recommend Pace’s for their pasta, as it is pretty bland. However, if you’re in the mood for a cold sandwich or sub, you may be pleasantly surprised. I ordered the chicken salad on pita bread for $ 5.50. It was incredibly good, relatively inexpensive, and FILLING. So filling, in fact, that I recommend an additional «CAUTION» sticker be added to the wrapping, due to the subsequent «food coma» I nearly slept into after eating it. I could not keep my eyes open! I had to go back out for a walk and a caffeinated beverage to make it through the rest of the day. (This is a good problem, though!)
Reasons this Pace’s doesn’t have Five Stars from me:
They still need to work out their pricing issues. At the very least, the cashiers should walk the ten feet to look at the price board and adjust the price on the cash register to match the advertised price and then apologize for trying to overcharge a customer. This recently happened to a co-​worker of mine when I went with him (for the walk), only he was overcharged $ 1.50.
Like I mentioned earlier, the quality of Pace’s pasta isn’t exactly stellar. Whenever I would get pasta from Pace’s, I’d wonder why my taste buds weren’t working. I’m going to avoid their pasta if I can. Viga (or even Café Dino) is much better for pasta.

If only they had table seating they would be a 5.
LOVE this place for lunch/​dinner/​coffee/​cake. Soo good. The staff is incredible. I love everyone in there. SOOO nice and funny. If you go there enough they make you part of the family. The pastas, and sandwhiches are great. I also love their Chef and grilled chicken pre-​made salads. YUM!
Go here and eat in PO Square (when it’s not 19 degrees) or sneak into Souper Salad to sit ha.

For the January birthdays at work, we were treated to a HUGE chocolate mousse cake (fortunately our cake purchaser is a lover of desserts!)… mmmmm… rich layers of moist chocolate cake, smothered in a light whipped cream frosting… I just wish I had a nice cold glass of milk to go with it.
In the past, we’ve also enjoyed the nice light fruity strawberry shortcake, and the smooth and creamy strawberry cheesecake. The chocolate peanut butter cake is incredibly rich with a thick layer of peanut butter.
And the smell of tomato sauce that wafts through the air sometimes… ahhhhh!

This is a favorite of my workplace for one reason: their cakes. Every birthday, a chocolate mousse or cappuccino confection manages to appear in the fridge. Each one is a heavy, sugary, whipped cream with a cherry on top delight.
We recently had lasagna, ravioli and chicken parm catered in for lunch and, while the food itself was flavorful, it was a little cold. The poor delivery guy had to wheel it over to our office from the restaurant — no delivery truck. On account of it being frigid, we had to re-​heat the food a little (and I hope the delivery guy got a good tip!) but, overall, it made for a satisfying lunch.
If you’re craving some heavy Italian food, add J Pace to the list and if you need a cake, put Pace’s near the top.

This place would get another star if they weren’t overpriced, and would earn the 5^th star if they didn’t over cook their pasta and under flavor their pasta sauce.
That being said, their meat lasagna is easily my favoritest work lunch when I’m craving pasta. Sometimes I’ll go for the ravioli with a meatball to mix it up. The mac and cheese is too floury for my taste, and the pasta is always overcooked. If a sandwich is more your thing, go with the TBM w/​Prosciutto.
The cakes are fabulous, although a bit pricey. If it’s for a work function and you’re expensing it — go for it!
If you’re heading there between 12:15 — 1:45, plan on waiting in a long line.

FOOD: The food is delicious. Whenever somebody brings Pace to the office, we all know it because it smells awesome.
Shout out to the soups! I’m Italian in heritage and their soups taste exactly like my grandmother’s.
BAKERY: I do have issues with their pastries, however. I bought hazelnut biscotti that was grossly overpriced ($ 10 for an average-​sized package), but I did it based on my good experiences getting lunch there. Big mistake. It was stale and the flavor and color were way off. I’m not sure if they make their own biscotti or if they get it from another supplier, but it was straight up AWFUL and such a disappointment. There’s a difference between twice-​baked biscotti that’s hard and biscotti that’s stale. Crappola!
While their cakes are very moist and have immaculate texture, the frosting is too sweet for me; tastes like the old-​fashioned Shaw’s kind (probably because it’s homemade and, well, old-​fashioned). That’s just preference though, and I’m really picky about my cakes. Some people realy like the super-​sweet, gritty frosting.
PEOPLE: The people who work there are rather warm and friendly compared to other folks who work the financial district lunch crowd.

Another place I swore I had already reviewed. Damn you Unilocal gods!
So our company used to buy cakes here for people’s birthdays. They don’t seem to do it as much =(I am going to beg really hard for one though. So yeah, the cakes are magnificent. Perfect amount of moist cake and sweet frosting. I think they might have whipped frosting as well, but I like to have a sugar rush at work.
I’ve come here a couple of times for lunch and I’ve never been disappointed. The only thing that sucks is that there is no seating, so unless your office is near by, it can be a hassle to find some place to eat it (Unless it’s nice out of course).
They also have a selection of hot dishes, salads, and cold pastas. I assume it is all fresh; however I prefer to get something that is made right in front of my eyes, so I usually don’t try the salads or cold pastas. I have tried their black and white pastries, and they are magnificent as well.
It’s kind of far from my office, but when I feel like going for a walk, I definitely head over here.

Sometimes at work I’m asked to order cakes for various occasions. Occasions to me can be anything from birthdays to «you got a haircut», i.e. I order a lot of cakes here with our company account. The cakes are delivered to my office, and while I know that it’s only a short walk here, I simply don’t trust myself walking 5 blocks with a large sheet cake adorned with baby heads and sugar snowmen.
The cakes here are always decorated with tons of crap, sort of like at Lyndell’s. I’m not sure what motivates people to feel like encompassing the entire surface of a cake with plastic pinecones and holly berries, but I like it. The cake is always fantastic, and I’ve almost (ALMOST) forgotten about the tragedy that is the Shaw’s cake that would show up at birthday parties as a child. Flashback to me scraping off 2″ of frosting into the trash and pretending that the cake didn’t taste like it came out of a Betty Crocker box.
Yesterday, Lizzard and I made the journey here. I had never actually been in, as I’ve always had treats delivered directly to my floor and I was in desperate need of cake or baked good. Liz ordered the prosciutto mozzarella basil sandwich and I, a half moon cake. I unwrapped it with fervor and we walked back to work. Moment later, I’m being buzzed to come take a bite out of Liz’s sandwich. Move over Al’s, while you’re a bit cheaper, J Pace knows how to pack in the goods. A tasty pita filled with deliciousness, I took two bites, and both time had loose cured meats flapping out of my mouth. That’s how much meat is in there, I’m serious. WELL DONE!