Press Reviews
The Good Food Guide 2012 Comments Off
JoJo’s is proud to once again be featured in the influential The Good Food Guide 2012.
The Guardian Review Comments Off
We had a brief review in The Guardian (see below) as part of an article on “The Taste of the Seaside”. Click here to read it online on the guardian.co.uk website, or we have quoted it below.
A Taste of the Seaside
It’s a boon that JoJo’s is even open – the owners were considering going travelling. But business in their new restaurant on Whitstable’s Marine Parade is booming. They moved to this bigger site this year but remain on first-name terms with most of their customers, which adds to the living-room-meets-supper-club feel. Dishes such as calamari, chargrilled sardines, mutton koftas and meze are prepared in front of you. JoJo’s is great value for such a trendy seaside resort – and it’s BYO, too. If you’re too late to get a booking, grab a sandwich at their coffee shop.
Published: August 2010. © The Guardian
Observer Food Monthly Review by Jay Rayner Comments Off
We had a great review in Observer Food Monthly from Jay Rayner (see below) as part of an article on the best places to eat this summer. Click here to read it online on the observer.com website, you have to scroll down a bit, or we have quoted it below.
JoJo’s
That JoJo’s still exists to be recommended feels like something of a miracle. Chef Nikki Billington and her partner Paul Watson had always made running a restaurant feel less like a business venture and more like a jolly jape. They talked regularly of shutting up shop and going travelling again, and most of the time a meal at the original JoJo’s – named after Nikki’s brother – felt like a long boisterous lunch, and to hell with the inevitable hangover. But they are still in business, indeed even more so. The first JoJo’s was on a shopping parade looking inland. Now they have moved around the corner to what was once a small supermarket looking out to sea, with a terrace up front to take in the view of the waters off the north Kent coast.
The food suits the view. It is for the most part Mediterranean with a little emphasis on Greece and Spain, and a lot of fish. No one understands deep-fat frying better than Nikki: her calamari, often served straight onto a wooden board from the hot oil, are the freshest and crispest you will ever try. She also does wonderful things with deep fried courgettes and garlic mayo or arancini – risotto balls – flavoured with pea and mint. Meat dishes are terrific, too. But what will stay with you is the atmosphere: of good food being enjoyed with the very minimum of fuss.
Published: June 2010. © Observer Food Monthly
