Address: 18 Wellington Street West
Type of Meal: Lunch
Jump’s reopening brought with it an open concept dining room, the removal of much of their plush banquette seating and the addition of large stunning scotch & wine feature walls. A new patio arriving just in time for the warm weather is also a welcomed addition and usually full.
Given Jump’s proximity to the financial district, it’s
the perfect place for a lunch, especially during Summerlicious. In line with the warm weather, I decided to
start with the Ontario summer salad. The
salad was a mix of green; surprisingly, Jump decided not to mix in other
colours to give it some contrast – what happened to Ontario tomatoes or cheese
which could have jazzed up the salad?
Rather, it consisted of shaved asparagus, leaves of baby kale and
pistachios. The dressing was a poor
choice (fennel) as there wasn’t enough flavour to do anything to the
salad. Instead, it just felt like I was
eating individual ingredients with the boldest flavour coming from the
pistachios.
Pretty disappointing start to the meal, I’d suggest
getting the tomato tarte tatin, which my coworker ordered and looked much
tastier. To be fair, this was also the
dish our waiter suggested. As a warning,
the dish really isn’t a “tarte” but rather sits on a piece of bread. Nonetheless,
a significant amount of fresh ricotta and tomatoes top the bread so the dish
looked satisfying.
Sadly, my main was another let down – I ordered the BBQ
sustainable B.C. Albacore tuna. The tuna
was cold, hardly the BBQ I was expecting; but, to make it worse arrived
unflavoured and slightly fishy tasting.
Luckily, my coworker had ordered the same dish so I realized the tuna
was missing the sauce. After asking the
waiter to bring me a side of it (a thickened teriyaki glaze with a hint of
spice) the fishy taste was luckily masked.
The menu described the dish as being accompanied by
spinach and grilled king oyster mushrooms, so I was expecting warm sides and
those ingredients. The “spinach” was
uncooked and unflavoured, reminding me of the lackluster first course. Moreover, I highly suspect the vegetables weren’t
spinach as didn’t taste or look like it.
The “oyster mushroom” was grilled but once again lacked any seasoning
and relied solely on the sauce I luckily procured. Like the “spinach” it was substituted with a
king mushroom rather than the promised oyster, but I didn’t particularly mind
the switch. Overall, the menu did a
terrible job at describing the course, which also consisted of julienned
carrots and fried taro slivers.
Once again, I gazed longingly at my coworker’s crab BLT,
which looked more satisfying with the large brioche bun and healthy portion of
fried vegetable chips. Alas, this meal
was all about ordering remorse.
Jump’s best dish off of this Summerlicious lunch was the
cannoli offered for dessert. I’ve
mentioned many times that I’m not a huge dessert fan so it’s the worse when
that’s the best course of a meal.
However, the cannolis were crispy, filled with a thick delicious cream
and accompanied by a nice flavourful lemon curd. Finally, some flavour after a bland first two
courses!
My past experiences with Jump, albeit ordered off their
regular menu, were much better than this visit.
It’s unclear if they’ve recently changed their chef along with the revamp.
But, if these are the dishes on their new menu, someone actually needs to taste
it and add some flavour. If the food
quality is staying this way, Jump may become a drinks only place for me.
Is Summerlicious worth it?
As a special feature to the Summerlicious blogs, I will attempt to calculate the savings being offered (based on my meal selection).
Summerlicious - $20
Regular menu - $45 - salad* ($11.25), tuna ($24.95) and cannoli* ($9)
Savings - $25 or 56%
* All the items aren't on their regular menu; prices based on the winter salad, grilled salmon and regular dessert prices
Overall mark - 5 out of 10
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Gastro World's Grading System
- Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
- 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
- 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
- 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
- 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
- 10 - absolute perfection!
