Jump (Toronto)

Location: Toronto, Canada
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!
For further general discussions about this blog please refer to http://gastroworldblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/welcome-to-gastro-world.html