I had only been to JoJo in a duplex townhouse on the Upper East Side for lunch. It’s  Jean-Georges’ first restaurant named after his mom’s childhood nickname for him.

We decided to share the Gruner Veltliner, Fritsch, Vom Donaulöss, Julian Haart, Mosel, DE 2018 ($61).

One friend started with their escarole and strawberry salad, requesting the gorgonzola on the side ($ 18), another had the lightly fried hopper shrimp with bottarga and lemon aioli for dipping ($20). The latter is what I’d order if I returned instead of the warm seafood salad that I had tried. That combo of squid, shrimp, clams and whitefish came with chunks of avocado in a light citrus-shallot dressing ($25).

For entrees, they had the hearty portion of crispy skin chicken accompanied by olive oil potatoes, fried onions and potato skins ($34) and I the crusted Faroe Island salmon with fennel and ramps ($39) in a coconut-lime infusion. Although each was attractively presented, both were slightly overcooked.

With three of us to share, we ordered Jean-George’s classic warm chocolate cake topped with vanilla ice cream ($14). It’s been said that JG claims to have invented this molten dessert, yet chocolate-king Jacques Torres disputes this saying that the dessert already existed in France.


JoJo
Upper East Side
160 E 64th St
New York, NY 10065
(212) 223-5656
jojorestaurantnyc.com/