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.
