Winterlicious 2011 - Lunch at Jump

I Love and Hate winterlicious!  Love it because there's more excuses for dining out (esp. the finer dining places) and Hate it because..Ugh my diet plan is always ruined :(

I think I gained another pound or so since I came back from the holidays (on TOP of all the holiday weight I've gained over the holidays)

I think it's time for some damage control....

Treadmill here I come!!!!

So Jump is a sub restaurant that belongs to the O&B group (same owners as the famous Canoe restaurant).  But unfortunately, Canoe is EXTREMELY difficult to book for their any (season)-licious type of events so I opted for Jump because I thought the restaurant owned by the same group of people should execute their food the similar way.  (or at least, not too much worse)

Nice blinds! right?

Well, Yea.  

Am I foreshadowing too much?  :P I think by now most of you can probably tell where I am going with this but... you might have a different opinion than mine so...

I really pushed our lunch this time because it was an extremely difficult one to arrange.  Mostly because they open only on weekdays (maybe also sunday?) for lunch and, although the restaurant itself is located within the financial district of DT Toronto (wellington and Yonge) - if you don't work around that area, it's really hard to finish the entire lunch within one hour and get back to work.

Anyhow, I managed to lure Janice and Grant into having this lunch with me, mainly because their lunch menu looked just fabulous! (Actually dinner was not so, and more costly)

The restaurant itself was very energetic and lively; with a very modern decor and a high ceiling (esp. loved the blinds they were using)  But as we were having lunch, I noticed that it was a bit too loud for anything.  We had to yell over the lunch table in order to hear what each other was saying.

Now on to the food.

Janice and I both started with the Canadian Rock Crab Cake.

It came with roasted red pepper sauce and celeriac & carrot slaw.  The crab cake was nicely done.  Not too much binding, lots of crab meat, and very little fishy taste.  However, the sauce and the slaw were both quite bland.  

Grant had a Wild Mushroom soup (I forgot to take a picture) - but it was claimed that they did not use any cream or butter, just the mushrooms.  Grant noted that it was flavourless (he had to add more salt to compensate)

Pulled BBQ beef short rib sandwich - :) no comment; but it surely looked delish!!

 

ta-dah-!! Janice and I both opted for Pan-Seared nova scotia scallop (this is also the reason why I chose this restaurant for lunch - despite all the difficulty in finding people joining me!!!)

But... :( this was a major MAJOR disappointment!!  To be fair, the scallops were fresh - it was sweet and had a bit of that resistance when you bite into it. But the crostini was a disaster (yes, there was a crostini and no I didn't eat it) - it was in the broth.  

:S

I really didn't get it.  And it pretty much ruined the dish because it was soggy, and mushy and.. well yea everything but tasty.  The artichoke ad mushroom minestra was also very very bland.

Maybe they were some how running low on their salt supply that day.  Or I guess health conscious people eat less salt these days.  But if the food is less salty, you have to use more herb to compensate!! less salty does not mean the food has to be flavourless....

I felt bad for those little scallops :(

Flour-less chocolate torte <3

need I say more?

but this one was just alright.  Tasted more like a brownie (a little dry.. i wonder if they just left it there for too long? )

Over all, I enjoyed my company at Jump.  We sure had a relaxing lunch (I was worried that the ambiance might be too serious but it was very bright and vibrant, which was great) but the food.. I really can't say that I enjoyed them that much.

From all the other feed backs that I have gotten from other friends of mine, I probably will not go back to try their food.

Price $$$

Food 2.5/5

Service: 3.5/5

ambiance: 4/5 or 2/5 depends on if you are looking for the subtle type or the vibrant type!

31/Jan/2011

Okay... so I admit that the title should be 01/Feb/2011; and I should really just be honest and say that it is 1:40am.  But, well, it kind of makes me feel bad about procrastinating at this time and I guess I just didn't want to miss the last day of a month :)  So I am keeping this title and really, I am blogging about 31 of January anyway.

I really like the last day of a month, especially when the month ends with 31days.  It makes me feel like I have gotten most use out of that month.  That been said, I am not ready for a 32+days-month either.  Don't ask me why!  Weird, I know... :)  Anyways, which day of the month do you like?

It was so cold today!  So I decided to remove some stuff from my freezer onto our balcony.  It worked last last week when the temperature was around -20 outside; things stayed nice and frozen until the temperature quickly rose back up to somewhere between -6 to -1C.  Hmm... Yep.  My popsicles.didn't handle that news very well.  

They cried me a lot of rivers....

  FOOD!

Yes.  Finally. I know.  :)

Hero (Certified) Burgers.

I had them with sweet potato fries instead of their regular fries.  I liked their sweet potato fries a lot because the sweet potato was really sweet :) so the texture inside was a bit gooey-sticky while the outside was crispy.  Ones with caramelized exterior were especially good!

My 6oz Kona burger + sauteed button mushrooms (0.99extra) + tomato + onion (both free) - the burger itself comes with pickles, chedder cheese, peameal bacon, roasted pineapple; and a sweet chili sauce. 

Okay, maybe I've never had better.  But I absolutely loved the bun!  It was fluffy and chewy at the same time while providing just enough balance to the meaty, saucy center.  The patty was not bad, a little to the dry side but still had a very nice char-grilled flavour to it.  The dry-ness of the patty was masked well by the condiments (pickle, pineapple, tomatoes, onions and mushrooms) - so over all it didn't feel dry at all.

The only thing, was that they forgot to give me the chedder cheese that was supposed to come with my burger. :( I think with the cheese it will be even better because the cheese will add in another dimension of savoury and creamy taste to the burger.  Oh, and peameal bacon, was not exactly necessary as I couldn't taste much of it. :S  Probably due to the strong flavour of the sauce and the patty itself.  

Tina with her 4oz burger :)

Overall I really enjoyed my burger.  But I wish I could have ordered grilled pineapple as a topping so I could have just ordered a hero-burger with all the toppings I liked and NOT adding the peameal bacon :(

And I really liked the idea of their free toppings including tomatoes, onions and even mesclun green.

Food: 4/5

Service: N/A (but pretty good for a fast food chain)

ambiance: N/App

Hero Certified Burger (yonge and King location)