Cherrywood smoked duck breast salad with arugula is served up at Jam Café in Toronto.JENNIFER ROBERTS
Jam Café
195 Carlton St., Toronto
416-921-1255
$120 for dinner for two with wine, tax and tip
Every once in a while, I receive proof that I am an ill-tempered curmudgeon who wants too much from life in general and from restaurants in particular. To wit, everyone in Cabbagetown loves Jam Café. They're seduced by the sweetness of the unrenovated house and its original Victorian touches - the pressed tin ceiling and brick walls in the front room, the cute asymmetrical angles in the two tiny dining rooms, the dark oak tables, the taupe stucco walls, the dark wood trim that has to be original.
They also adore the menu - pure French bistro, with prices so friendly they're hard to believe. A three-course, fixed-price dinner for $19! They're almost giving it away. At that price, a French bistro dinner is a steal. It's so cheap that it doesn't even have to be very good. Which is lucky, because it isn't. Cream of potato soup with thyme and truffle oil fails the taste test (eyes closed, dunno what it is). Risotto with corn, asparagus, roast peppers and basil oil is a low-flavoured confection whose texture is questionable. The rice grains, while correctly al dente, feel starchy on the tongue, which is what happens when you par-boil the rice, leave it to sit a while, and then finish it. The prix fixe dessert of brioche bread pudding with brandy caramel sauce is hard and dryish.
But go figure: Locals pack the place and other critics have been giving it raves, whereas I can't stomach the fritto misto of shrimp, salmon and calamari that is not even vaguely crisp. The squid is tender, but its batter is fuzzy and soft. House cherry-wood-smoked duck-breast salad with arugula is better. The duck breast is strangely and inappropriately sweet, but at least it's tender. The only truly credible app is gnocchi with butternut squash, tomato concassé, cream and Grana Padano shavings. These are light enough gnocchi with same-size squash chunks in high-flavoured sauce with not too much cream.
Hope springs eternal. Maybe they'll come back on the mains and help us understand the accolades. But lobster pot au feu is almost embarrassing. Described as lobster with chorizo, potatoes and toasted almonds finished with reduced double lobster stock, tarragon, wine and cream, it sounds great. But the nominal lobster cream sauce is a charmless, low-flavour non-event, while the very small lobster pieces are slightly overcooked. (And what is double lobster stock?) If there are toasted almonds, we can't find them. Maybe they sat in the sauce too long and lost their crunch. Tarragon taste is also MIA.
Quail and squab bourguignon en croute is equally unfortunate - tough, overcooked birds in undistinguished sauce under the kind of not-so-lofty puff pastry roof that you get when you buy frozen puff pastry and roll it out.
Then there is the organic elk burger. To the restaurant's credit, the server ask how I would like it done and does not flinch when I say "very rare … still kicking." But my burger is served medium rare and its roasted red pepper, gorgonzola and mushroom topping tastes less than the sum of the parts.
The accompanying frites are also disappointing. First off, they're not sweet. Perhaps chef does not subscribe to the two-step school of frites wherein they're blanched, cooled and then fried to crisp. Secondly, no mayo (or anything else) is offered for dipping. And they have not been salted.
Desserts are better, sort of. Crème brûlée is pleasant, as are flourless chocolate cake and fruit crumble. But pleasant doesn't cut it when so many calories are at stake.
Jam's intentions are all in the right place, from the fixed-price bargains to free corkage every Sunday (bring your own plonk and they'll serve it for free). So who am I to take aim at such a nice, little neighbourhood bistro? Why not leave them alone? Because they're open for business.