"A dollop of Ricotta won't do"
I arrived at Jump with my two regular lunch pals on a busy Thursday in the Toronto financial district. We were initially led to a table that was almost laughable. It was a non-starter because my friend couldn't have sat in her chair without being constantly jostled. Having none of that, we asked for a table change. Straight away we were led into the main dining area and greeted by the happiest waiter I've ever had. Farhad Bulsa. This guy is happy. He introduced his `shadow' co-worker, David, another happy guy. From start to finish this pair was a pleasure.
Comfortably seated with menu in hand, I looked at the array of options and let loose an audible sigh of relief. They had the exact item that I'd ordered on my previous visit, the organic chicken breast, with mushroom and quinoa salad. My mouth was watering in anticipation of biting into that tender chicken. But I gave my head a shake and thought of this blog and admonished myself because I knew that I should probably sample a different menu item. Farhad walked us through the specials of the day and we all paused at the pasta entrée which was prepared with garlic, olive oil, tomato, spinach, proscuitto and goat cheese. Bingo! This sounded good. Farhad corrected himself and pointed out that the cheese was actually ricotta, not goat. Ricotta? That seemed odd, but we were all game to give it a try.My pregnant colleague was having a bit of a moment and zeroed in on the rosemary fries with tomato mayo dip. Never deny a pregnant woman her fries, so we acquiesced and ordered a basket of to-die-for fries that were sprinkled with rosemary and accompanied with a bowl of tomato mayo that I could have licked clean if I'd been alone in a room with it.
Our mains arrived promptly and we dug in. But oh dear, ricotta cheese? So disappointing. Goat cheese would have been the perfect dollop. Not this flavourless ricotta that I ended up pushing to the side of my plate. Sorry, Chef, wasted calories.
Overall, that pasta special was a disappointment. One friend said too salty, the other said the pasta was undercooked. I'm all for al dente, but come on, you have to cook the pasta. Lastly, the proscuitto was dry and overly chewy.
The organic chicken entrée was oh so close, yet so far away. Nice try, Jump, but today wasn't a home run. Lastly, the final nail in the coffin of this particular meal, was seeing a slice of chocolate cake being walked by our table, only to discover that it was only a mousse.
A poor experience, but we'll give it an Average rating because of the above average wait staff and those yummy fries.
Restaurant website: http://www.oliverbonacini.com/jump.aspx
