Serbia VS Ghana
Germany VS Australia
I have a few Serbian friends in Toronto so have been aware of Serbian restaurants in the GTA before I even moved here. There have been a couple of Serbian restaurants on Queen West. The first closed down and from what I hear, the second is Serbian in name only after new management took it over. The only full fledged Serbian restaurants I know of now are in Etobicoke and Mississauga. Zam is on the opposite side of the railroad tracks from Ikea and can be easily missed since the building sits back on the property. McAdam Place is hidden in a business park off of Hurontario. Both are great restaurants but I really wanted to go to a place downtown. The only option I could find was the Jolly Cafe. There are only three items on the menu that are Serbian but I figured it was worth a try.
When I arrived there were a number of tables taken and they were all filled with Serbians, an excellent sign. I started off with the shopska salad. It’s diced tomatoes, cucumbers and onions toped with feta cheese. It’s simple and really good.
After that I ordered the karadjordjeva schnitzel which is a pork schnitzel stuffed with cream cheese, but it must be a Serbian style cream cheese and not the typical stuff we get at the store. I’ve never seen our cream cheese melt in the same way this stuff does. I split the order with my friend and the staff was kind enough to separate it in the kitchen for us. Everything on the plate was extremely good! I definitely plan to go back again some time, but not this month.
In case you are wondering, the third Serbian item on the menu is chevapi. This is generally a mixture of ground meats (pork and veal at Jolly) with various seasonings that are formed into little sausages. They are tasty too.
So the food was indeed absolutely spectacular, beautifully presented, fattening, everything I could possibly expect. For once it didn't feel like a Serbian restaurant.
ReplyDelete(For the uninitiated, usually when evaluating Serbian restaurants, the standard is lower than normal. You have to assume that the place is run by a fresh-off-the-boat socially awkward foreigner with a mild retardation. So adjust your expectations. Typical areas of weakness are: service, location, and - most importantly - there's a complete lack of polish and a feeling of amateurism in everything they do.)
Anyway, Jolly managed to rise above the status of a Serbian restaurant on this particular occasion. The polish was there - in presentation, in flavour, and even in the non-Serbian server. What the hell is going on? Someone told me it's under new management, but I saw the previous manager sitting at one of the tables. Melanie thought it could be her photographing of the spartan salad that spurred the chef to really try to impress with the main. But a true Serbian restaurant chef would not know how to put together the combination of flavours that followed.
My conclusion is that I have no idea, and that I always write far too much. I like it, shoot me.