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A delicious taste of the rustic French countryside
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YOU’LL find the newly opened Chez Jojo is a welcome addition to the once popular food and beverage strip at the corner of Fenyang and Yueyang roads.
Chez Jojo is a typical guinguette – a popular and humble eatery mostly found in countryside France, particularly in the Loire Valley. A guinguette is a casual, relaxed drinking place, usually near river, livened up by traditional singing and dancing in the summer months.
Opening in Shanghai’s summer seems a perfect timing.
Maggie Shen, who had previously opened Des Lys French bistro on Xinle Road in 2004 and then Latitude & Longitude Lounge in 2008, recently took the challenge again to open another concept venue after her return from France.
“Chez Jojo is the name of one of my favorite restaurants in France that was established by an old French family in 1959 on the beautiful riverside of the Loire River,” she said.
“It’s a guinguette — casual and relaxed — so I discussed with my friend and owner of Chez Jojo to open a sister eatery in Shanghai, aiming to bring the authentic guinguette spirit to China.
“In Shanghai, we already had many fine-dining, high-end bistro or fusion style. But guinguette … not many.”
The first level of the two-floor guinguette is an indoor dining space and second floor is more of an open air space inspired by a riverside guinguette.
“A guinguette is a place where you simply have a good time with friends and get no-fuss, unpretentious French countryside recipes as great value for your money,” Shen said.
Indeed, Chez Jojo with an authentic homey yet chic vibe is the place you can always come back to for typical French family items from foie gras terrine, beef tartare to cote de boeuf.
It is keen on offering guingette-style recipes to the local market — a great example of French food traditions.
I’ve started my dinner from the Jojo favorite: duo of foie gras terrine and pan fried foie gras (60+60g, 138 yuan), hand-cut premium beef steak tartare (100g, 78 yuan) and escargots with traditional garlic butter sauce (58 yuan, six pieces) — all met my expectations.
Meat lovers would love Chez Jojo as the main course selection is mainly focused on charcoal-grilled steaks.
It’s recommended to try Jojo’s 180-day grain-fed bone-in Australian Angus rib eye (500g, 288 yuan) for two to share and the 60-day aged Tomahawk Angus M3 (1.1kg, 888 yuan) for a bigger group. A plate of mixed grilled vegetables is a perfect match.
To end the evening, home-made chocolate fondant with vanilla ice cream (48 yuan) is the go-to dessert especially for the colder months ahead.
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