3 days ago
There's something faintly medieval about the menu
The Camberwell Riviera has surely reached its final form.
The gastronomical possibilities on the lively Church Street strip are now nigh-on endless; there's the holy meat juice bread at FM Mangal, posh pub fare at the Camberwell Arms, burly bargain wraps at Falafel & Shawarma, lamb skewers at Silk Road, panuozzo and pizza at Theo's, Kurdish soul food at Nandine, superlative sarnies at Cafe Mondo, and cult croissants at Toad, as well as Vietnamese, Nigerian and Greek spots. Is there even room for another restaurant? Hello JoJo seems to think so.
Though the concept doesn't bark originality (Hello JoJo is planning to open as a bakery by day, while in the evening it serves seasonal plates both small and large), when we visit on a Friday, the place is rammed. The people of Camberwell truly love to eat! Their name might sound like a brand that makes hemp dungarees for toddlers (and the red and blue colour scheme does give off some serious preschool energy) but the Hello JoJo crowd are pleasantly pitched in the mate date and actual date hinterlands. Everyone blethers raucously and the front door is propped open so you can enjoy the tender chugging sound of the 171 bus.
Such heady conviviality is helped no-end by £6 glasses of house wine. A warm, mini loaf of brown bread comes to the table alongside a requisite pickle plate, and a serving of cool, deftly whipped goat's curd topped with a pool of luminous celery splodge and crunchy buckwheat bullets, as if tzatziki was actually invented in a Kentish beer garden. Better still is a bunny chow doughnut, Hello JoJo's confectionary-adjacent take on the savory South African street food, a pert pastry stuffed with aromatic curried aubergine that splurges its sloppy innards over our vintage crockery like a particularly gruesome Cronenberg scene.
There's something faintly medieval about the food here, with the feudalism and foraging-worthy likes of borage, loveage and ramsons dotted across the menu, as well as something called 'pyghtle'. It sounds like it should be an ancient hallucinogen but is, in fact, cheese, and comes finely shaved and dusted onto a muscular lamb-and-nettle croquette. Like lots at Hello JoJo, this is hearty food that wears its heft lightly. Fried potato and smoked cheese dumplings in a buttermilk sauce are similarly butch yet fluttery, tasting simultaneously like a midnight Maccy Ds and a dainty weekend in Provence. A platter of creamy, flawlessly flakey hake comes with a swirl of coastal greens and a cider beurre blanc so brilliantly buttery that it might as well have you licking a slab of Kerrygold.
In a few dishes, Hello JoJo has more than earned its place on the foodie freeway that is Camberwell Church Street. Welcome to the neighborhood.
The vibe An energetic dining room for a cool Camberwell crowd that never lets you forget there's an art school down the road.
The food Creative takes on classic dishes made with foraged and unique British produce.
The drink Very drinkable glasses of house wine for £6 alongside local beers and zingy shrubs for the non-boozers.
