JoJo

This was my first time dining at a Jean Georges spot and it was a completely mediocre & boring meal.
The décor & ambiance were luxe but the food was a disappointment. My friend actually commented that my cooking is better and by the end of the meal I had to agree!
I was looking forward to ordering off the dinner tasting menu as advertised on their website but we were not given that option. Started with a pear campari cocktail (watered down & not much flavor) and a cucumber mint martini (SO refreshing). This was my favorite part of the meal & my friend loved the fresh breadsticks the most. That should tell you enough about this place.
Went with the restaurant week menu instead; tried the lentil soup (barely warm, average), roasted carrot salad with avocado (blue cheese dressing tasted more like a dollop of sour cream), and the chicken stew (coq au vin blanc, way too much ginger, big portion, no sides).
Biggest disappointment was dessert. The molten chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream was tasty… BUT its the same damn dessert & presentation as the pictures I saw from 2010! BORINGGG. It wasn’t all that pretty to look at either bc the ice cream had melted on the warm plate.
Biggest peeve of the night: waitress gave us the check along with the dessert. How fucking rude. The table next to us made the same comment.
I guess being branded with the Jean Georges name doesn’t mean anything. Never returning or recommending to anyone.

The food is ok but did not surprise me. Service is poor! Messed up my order and made me wait for a long time for the entrée. Also made us wait for a long time for the check to be handled

Walked by this place plenty of times, and finally ate there to meet with friends. It was a Wednesday at 9:30pm so the wait was only 10 minutes to get a table for 4. The hostess was nice and pretty flexible. We didn’t realize they were also participating in Restaurant Week, so we all decided to go for that of course. Even with us not going a la carte, our servers were still polite and didn’t rush us. We’ll definitely come back. It’s a hidden nook in Upper Eastside, that’s set in dim lighting and a speakeasy sort of feel. Very private and comfy besides the very loud drunk lady sitting behind us. The skate and the pavlova was nice! Go if you’re in the area. Kitchen closes late, too.

Being one of those restaurants you hear about from time to time and the fact that it’s kind of a Jean-​Georges restaurant, it was about time I tried this restaurant. The interior of the place is nice, and I think most people could agree with that. It’s intimate without being too pretentious and it’s pretty comfortable. The Maitre D’ was also nice and welcoming. I think the place is maybe less pretentious than some might think, but still has a little bit of it in a kind of passive aggressive way.
As far as the food goes, we ordered a number of things for lunch. Although it is a Jean-​Georges restaurant, I didn’t find anything special about the place at all to be honest. The chickpea fries were pretty good, but they need to slightly dial it back on the salt. Too salty. The charred octopus was good and probably the best thing we ate (along with the bread that comes out first) though the potatoes were again a touch too salty. We also had the veal milanese which — definitely nothing special about it at all. I have had this dish much better at much less nice places. The salad it came with though was pretty good — the dressing was nice actually. Besides that, I sometimes get a really big urge for a bagel & lox. Some places do it really well, and I thought this would be one of them. Nope. Not only were two sides of the bagel burnt and hard, but they gave me one measly tomato which was actually old and going bad (soggy), a little bit of onion (fresh), and two little cornichons which appeared to be some half-​assed attempt at a caper replacement. Except it didn’t work, because cornichons in this instance are just awkward. Unfortunately for JoJo, I could go to about 100 delis in Manhattan alone and probably get a better bagel & lox at under half the price. Nothing they did, except for a cornichon (which is a terrible idea by the way), set them apart from a normal city deli as saying «Hey, we have good food and know what the hell we’re doing too.»
Maybe we should have ordered the lobster instead of the veal, for example, but you know what? If you can’t do a dish correctly, then don’t bother putting it on the menu in the first place. Especially if you are trying to trick people with nice décor.
As far as the service goes, it wasn’t bad in the sense of being slow or rude, but just kind of absent. One of my forks was on a plate I was using for bread in the beginning. That was taken away and for 5 minutes I waited for a replacement fork. It never came, so we stole a fork from a neighboring table. The table to the other side of us didn’t even have the table set. Throughout the entire meal, our waitress asked us one time if everything was okay and that was when we first got our food (aka to ask us if we got our order correctly). While they did a good job of filling up the water, they pretty much never said a single word to us after that until they asked about dessert. Not once after asking if we needed anything or if everything was fine. Our waitress seemed nice, but it’s hard to know for sure since she barely said anything to us and didn’t even offer any suggestions.
Chalk this restaurant up as one of those restaurants which has nice décor and tries to fool you that way into believing that they have good food, but they really don’t. Unfortunately nothing that we had on the menu was the least bit memorable. There were some good bites of food, but mainly it wasn’t good at all. I feel as if people think this restaurant is good because they feel the obligation to suck up to Jean-​Georges or the fact that some celebrities eat here, but make no mistake, there is not much reason to drop everything and go to this restaurant especially when there’s so many better places in Manhattan alone.
JoJo to me was like the really hot girl you’ve been seeing around and you finally go on a date with her, then realize she’s actually really boring once you’re with her.

Food is pretty good service needs a lot of improvement. For the price they charge they should definitely have better service. Also if you say table will be ready in 30 minutes than I can understand if takes 45minutes instead 30 but when it takes hour and a half that’s really bad.

I decided to have French food after visiting a friend in the neighbourhood. Restaurant week presents a good opportunity to try Jojo.
We ordered from the restaurant week menu. It was a very cold night and we ordered hot water. No one offered us the drinks menu.

When we received the bill, we were slipped a $ 3 charge for water? We were not informed about this hidden charge when we placed our order. If this is a restaurant policy and was disclosed, we and 3 other diners sitting next to us wouldn’t have been upset over the dishonesty. We all agreed this was the first experience we had with a water charge in a nyc restaurant.
The restaurant has turned 5 new and initially happy diners into 5 upset diners after the chocolate cake.
Not returning.

Food was good, service deplorable.
Clueless, unprofessional and slow.
Skip.

Extremely good food with excellent service that was not rushed. The ambiance was warm and romantic – perfect for sipping champagne (which we did).
We will definitely return. If the experience is same, it will be a 5 star for consistency.

I made an early reservation at JoJo to try the prix fixe menu, which was 3 courses for $ 38, including warm asparagus salad, baked salmon, and warm chocolate cake. The bread was hot, tasty, and light, so we had to keep asking for more! I had a delicious cucumber mint martini with Hendrix Jin, muddled mint and cucumber and simple syrup. Have to say that it was one of the best martinis that I’ve had! All the dishes were delicious and I would have to recommend this place for those that enjoy great quality food!

My husband and I went there for our 2-​year anniversary, and 5^th anniversary again this year! Same restaurant, same table, and pretty much same service. Everything was perfect:)
This year, i ordered the octopus and the duck breast. My husband got his ravioli and veal. The duck was really tender, juicy, and crispy. Even though there were only 5 small (but thick) pieces, each bite gave me full-​mouth flavor. The duck breast also came along with a brick pastry. I don’t quite like deep-​fried pastry, but i ate the whole piece!
I tried the veal that my husband ordered. We both agreed that the duck was better! The warm chocolate cake with vanilla ice-​cream was our dessert.
Overall, the place is very intimate, cozy, and quiet. Nothing can be complained. I think we will come over again in another three years!

Overall, another underwhelming experience by Jean George. Please has nice atmosphere, kind of felt like sitting in a dollhouse. Every thing we ordered needed salt. That’s all you need to know.

Nightmarish.
Had an 8:30 pm reservation on Christmas Day. We were sat 50 minutes later, at 9:20 pm (with no apology offered). Throughout the entire excruciating wait, I kept telling myself, «this will be worth it.» Wrong.
It took 15 minutes for the server to greet us and another 10 minutes until we received bread (after multiple requests). No one ever offered to check our coats or umbrellas.
We opted for the 4-​course Christmas menu with wine pairings. I booked a Christmas reservation at JoJo because of the advertised Christmas menu: diver scallops; sea bass; lamb; and black forest cake with sour cherry sorbet. The entire evening was a comedy of errors.
First course (diver scallops): served on soggy black truffle bread; one-​note; lacking acid.
Second course (sea bass): great thai flavor profile with the coconut milk and poblano peppers; a bit too sweet; again, lacking acid.
Third course (as advertised: lamb): before the sea bass arrived our server informed us that they were out of lamb. How does a restaurant run out of a main dish on their Christmas tasting menu? (Rhetorical question). I wish that before leaving for the restaurant at 8:00 pm, the hostess would have informed me that they were running an hour behind and they had run out of lamb. Had they done that, I would have immediately canceled our reservation. In hindsight, after the 50 minute wait for a proper reservation, I should have gone with my gut and walked away. The eternal optimist, I hoped for the best, largely based on the rave Unilocal reviews. In place of the lamb, the server offered us duck or chicken. Neither are an appropriate replacement for lamb. We asked to speak to management and instead of face-​time with a manager our server offered us New York strip. Fine.
Replacement third course (NY strip): bad cut of meat. Initially we were told that they were out of this entrée; 10 minutes later we were told that we could order it. It tasted as if a bus boy had run to the corner store and purchased whatever steak was available. The strip was difficult to cut, vein end intact. I am embarrassed to say I spit a piece out (bit into the vein end and it was not digestible). Served with soggy, over-​salted fries.
Dessert: as advertised: black forest cake with sour cherry sorbet but what was actually received: christmas cake (reminiscent of a Hostess Hoho with white chocolate topping). And guess what? No sour cherry sorbet in sight. What kind of restaurant advertises one menu yet delivers something completely inadequate?
Wine pairings: decent Chardonnay and Bordeaux but the server could not for the life of her sync the running of the food with the dropping off of the wine. She had 4 chances and botched every single one.
Ambiance: our table was literally 6 inches away from the tables to the left and right. I could hear every word of the neighboring conversations. To add insult to injury, the table next to us spilt a glass of water on my guest as he was trying to maneuver out of the booth (that’s how tight the space was). Again, comedy of errors. The worst part, zero apology from the staff at every wrong turn.
In sum, Jojo was the grinch of Christmas. $ 400 ill-​spent. We will not return and I vehemently recommend any self-​respecting foodie to make a reservation elsewhere. At $ 200/​person you can have a great meal at Marea, enjoy the Smörgåsbord Christmas dinner at Aquavit, or opt for the Chef’s tasting menu at Le Bernadin.
This experience ruined Christmas and has soured me on any other Jean Georges establishment. Please be warned.

My family came here on our last night in New York. The service was very helpful and always there when we needed them. The ambiance in this restaurant is very welcoming and warm. The bottle of wine we got was enjoyed by all. I started with the butternut squash soup with truffle mushrooms and it hit the spot. One of the best things I ate in NYC. I ordered the veal and the portion size was much bigger than what I was expecting. My mom and I could have split it. For dessert, we ordered every dessert on the menu for everyone to try and the cheesecake and butterscotch pudding were the winners. It was a perfect way to spend our last night in New York

Small and cozy restaurant. I checked in my coat and was seated at a small table for two. My significant other ordered the Autumn menu and I ordered off of the dinner prix-​fixe. The waitress had no idea there was a prix-​fixe menu and handed one to me after asking the chef and the hostess about it. My S.O. and I shared everything so we got to try 7 different items.
Now to the food analysis! (Rating is out of 5)
Autumn Menu
Tuna Roll 4.5 — Wrapping was crispy and the tuna was good. The green sauce tasted exactly like the green sauce from Sophie’s Cuban.
Lobster Risotto 3.5 — The poached lobster was good. The risotto, not so good. Overly sour from excess lemon and too salty. I could tolerate a few bites before being overwhelmed.
Lamb Chop 4.5 — Meat was cooked perfectly.
Molten Lava Cake 5 — Just amazing
Prix Fixe Menu
Butternut Squash Soup 5 — Creamy, hot and subtly sweet.
Organic Chicken 2.5 — Moist but sauce is a bit bitter. Unfortunately, there is a lot of sauce.
Passion fruit sorbet 3 — Confusing dessert. The sugar is made into a styrofoam-​like texture so I tried this with fear because my mind associated the sugar with styrofoam. The white substance at the base of the plate was funky tasting but the sorbet was fantastic.
Service was okay. The waitress was hovering too much and didn’t approach our table with as much friendliness and confidence that I am used to from a server.

I loved so many aspects about this place. First, the discrete entrance is pretty awesome. It’s one of those places you would never know existed since there is just a simple «Jojo» painted in black on the wall above the door. You step down to get inside the restaurant. As soon as you step in, you feel like you’re in a different world. I was expecting something corporate looking with large tables and larger rooms, but it really wasn’t. It was very cozy and warmly lit. The décor was not overdone or gawdy. It is THE PERFECT place for a date. If you want to know the floorplan, it’s essentially the same as Alice’s Teacup II. I think it’s the same building design. Service was attentive and quick. Attractive waitstaff that were friendly, but no one cares about this right? ;-)
Onto the food!
1. Wine: Good stuff right? They have a good range of wines from all over, but a glass will run you about $ 15 – 20 on average.
2. Tuna roll with soy bean emulsion: One of my least favorite dishes of the night. It’s very ginger-​y, and the tuna tastes a little mushy in the roll. I think what really bothered me was that it was warm tuna. Not hot or cold, but warm.
3. Charred octopus with crispy potatoes, smoked paprika, and herbs: This was really good! The octopus was cooked really well and wasn’t rubbery at all. The crispy potato acts as a little plate beneath the octopus and has a surprisingly crispy potato pancake tasted.
4. Crispy salmon sushi with chipotle mayonnaise and honey soy: Quite good. The salmon was good but you can’t really taste it much because the crispy block of rice under it has such a strong taste. That being said, this is the best crispy rice I’ve had ever. I’ve had a lot of spicy tuna over crispy rice, but this is definitely the best crispy rice.
5. Cream of tomato soup: This was quite sweet and creamy. It was quite good. Not much else to say about it…
6. Peekytoe crab cake with celeriac remoulade: I don’t know what most of the words in this dish actually mean, but what I do know is that it’s a large crab cake that is well-​cooked and delicious! The sauce is definitely creamy and I ended up dipping some of the delicious table bread into it.
7. Black bass: Pretty good fish with good flavors, but didn’t feel that this was anything particularly unique.
8. Lamb chop with mushroom bolognese and pecorino: Soft, tender, juicy. Didn’t taste very game-​y either, which was nice. If you order the dinner set menu, you get this half sized along with a half order of lobster for the entrée portion.
9. Ricotta ravioli with figs, basil, and aged balsamic: I thought the ravioli was a bit light on the flavor. The ricotta inside was standard.
10. Lobster roasted with artichokes, fingerling potatoes, and garlic: Definitely a great dish. It’s pricy for what it is, but the lobster is absolutely fresh and perfectly seasoned. Probably my favorite dish of the night.
11. Duck breast with leg baked in a brick pastry, sweet and sour shallots: Tender duck, but it could have been a little warmer. Even though it was not overdone, it could have been slightly juicier. Maybe they needed a fatter duck?
12. Pumpkin tiramisu with vanilla sauce: This was good, but it didn’t have enough rum taste or pumpkin taste. Such a shame. Sounded amazing!
13. Apple pain perdu with caramel, almond ice cream, and candied almonds: Favorite dessert agreed on by everyone at the table. The apple slices were hot, and the crunch of the crumble was excellent.
14. Warm pear and sour cherry crisp, cream cheese ice cream: Also really liked this dessert. The pear tasted like apple, so initially I was confused whether this was the apple pain perdu or not. There is still a possibility that I confused these two. In any case, this is good, but not as good as the aforementioned item.
15. Butterscotch pudding with caramel, crème fraîche, sea salt: I say skip this. It was basically overly creamy and sweet pudding without any unique flavors. It’s actually hard to finish this dish.
16. Sour cream cheesecake with red wine poached figs and pear sorbet: I really liked this! Unique. You can actually taste a bit of the sour cream and it’s surprisingly light for cheese cake.
17. Molten chocolate cake: This is always a safe bet, and it was. Really good, but you can get this dish anywhere else, so live a little and try something different!
Overall, there are some excellent dishes, but not every dish was great, hence the 4 stars. If you know what to order, the food combined with the ambience and service make this place a solid 4.5 stars.
You probably are thinking how it was possible that I tried this many dishes, which is probably ²⁄₃ of their entire menu in one seating. I was able to share some, but my waiter was thinking the same and pulled me aside after and said he was impressed by my food intake. Can’t say Unilocal didn’t play into the compulsive food sampling.

Love this place. I have been going here for years. Simple and delicious food.
I like how you can either order an entrée, or just some simply prepared meat/​fish.
Tonight, I ordered the salmon. It was so tender and flavorful and succulent, with a delicious crust on top. However, the portion was tiny. Since I wasn’t paying, I ordered the chicken too. Also juicy and flavorful and succulent. I also ended up eating half of my mom’s order of duck breast. I don’t even usually like duck, it tastes like blood, but this was wonderful.
The chocolate cake is good too.

Originally, I wanted to go to the other Jean Georges’ venues like Nougatine, but reservations were made last minute, so we ended up in this quaint and original establishment. I’ve never noticed that it was right next to Alice’s Tea Cup, maybe it was the christmas lights hanging on the tree outside JoJo to distinguish the restaurant in case anyone misses it.
My party of 6 went for the Restaurant Week deal but me and a friend wounded up ordering off their regular menu. We shared the Charred Octopus, Peekytoe Crabmeat and a side of Asparagus. For an entrée, went for the Roasted Organic Chicken and for dessert the delectable Butterscotch Pudding.
The charred octopus was fantastic. Meaty and wonderfully seasoned even though it really did look charred like it can come off as burnt to the point of no return, it was a favorite choice by far.
The asparagus looked like it was on steroids, I’ve never seen an asparagus so thick before but since it was ordered as a side dish, there were no expectations on the taste.
The chicken was cooked at a perfect temperature, wasn’t too dry. The chickpea fries that came with it had an eclectic taste. It was a new and interesting experience to say the least. I still prefer good old fashioned potato fries.
The butterscotch pudding was everything and more. However it is too sweet and too much guilt ridden pleasure to consume by one person. Even with two people sharing that dessert, we couldn’t finish it. The caramel and butterscotch flavor really does wonders as a pair, it’s a shame to not be able to finish the rest of it.

Who in their right mind brings dogs to restaurants?! Two different tables brought their small dogs to eat during restaurant week lunch. The restaurant is already old enough and smells like its rotting. I didn’t need to smell two dirty dogs across either side for me. One table at a group of older folks and I understand you might or might not have a «therapy permit» but if you do, why couldn’t you just order take out instead of having your dog by your side eating off the table?
When I approached our server and the manager they just said «small dogs are allowed» they didn’t say anything else. When I asked other restauranteurs about this they said there is no such rule and that dogs should not be in your lap.
These dogs were sitting in the owners side on the beautiful velvet couches stinking up the place!
Really ruined my dining experience here.
I had the salmon which was part of the lunch prefix and not restaurant week because I didn’t want the cod. Luckily it was good and didn’t disappoint as it never does.
Jean Georges is great and always will be. Not even sure if he knows this is happening to his reputation but I think animals should be banned from dining indoors.

Not quite sure what to do with this one. Service was impeccable and overall it was not a bad experience but we’re not sure if we liked the place that much.
The food felt overly seasoned and the sauces were so heavy that when we left the place we decided to go for an hour-​long walk instead of cabbing it.
For appetizers we had the sweet pea soup and the charred octopus — for what ever reason both had an overabundance of peppers/​spice that masked the flavored of the ingredients.
For entrees we had the slow baked salmon and the roasted organic chicken. We couldn’t taste the truffle in the truffle mashed potatoes as the sauce overpowered it and the ginger in the chicken was just too strong as well.
The desserts however were superb. The pavlova was was tangy and the warm chocolate cake was also excellent. We normally do not have that much dessert but both of these dishes were worth the trip.
Jojo is in midtown east which means you get the Brooks Brothers sportin’ clientele who like to unbutton their Oxford shirts down to the third button and gross everybody out with their white/​grey chest hairs… but hey, if their duckface companions like it then that’s all that matters.

My friends and I came to Jojo for restaurant week and were rather disappointed. The quality of the food was not that amazing. I was disappointed mostly at the first and second course because they were lacking in taste. However I was mind blown by the dessert! The chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream (very cliché) was to die for! Also, one of my friend’s had the salmon and she said that it was pretty good. It’s a hit or miss with the food, I feel.
As for the service, it was satisfactory. It was not amazing or anything special, just normal. Perhaps because we were so many people on one table that it became hard on the waiters to keep track of our orders. But it’s okay since everything worked out in the end.

Pas très loin de notre logement, quand j’ai vu le nom de ce restaurant, j’ai décidé qu’il fallait absolument qu’on y aille. Et j’ai bien fait !
Le restaurant est dans une ambiance tamisée, la déco est très chic et le service est irréprochable.
Mais ce qui m’a vraiment plu c’est la carte bien qu’assez restreinte on sent que les plats sont maîtrisés, les plats et les présentations des assiettes. Un bon restaurant à NYC c’est assez rare, mais alors celui-​ci a conquis mon coeur de gourmande.
Mon plat était un saumon vraiment délicieux et bien réalisé, et mon coup de coeur va sans hésiter au dessert: une pavlova aux fruits de la passion qui était un régal pour mes papilles.
Les prix restent très corrects pour ce qui en France serait du haut de gamme. J’ai vraiment passé un bon moment.