The Food Issue
November, 2006

Although Jojo's menu excels in the vernacular of rural France, the restaurant's virtues don't stray far from the chefs' middle-American roots. In its signature dish, a Niman Ranch flatiron steak is cooked rare and sliced thin, then capped with square slabs of delicate anchovy-mustard butter; the accompanying pommes frites are probably Jojo's most popular side. An exuberantly pink piece of wild salmon is seared briefly and then baked and crusted with a little horseradish.

Regulars swear by the vegetarian entree, a wild-mushroom bread pudding paired with seasonal vegetables bought daily at Berkeley's Monterey Market. The dessert card is highlighted by picture-perfect fruit offerings, such as an apple-candied Meyer lemon tart, or a rich, nutty buckwheat cake split and filled with Sevilla orange marmalade.