JoJo’s

Above the Slopes: Whitstable's Year-Round Dining Room

There is a particular type of British coastal restaurant that earns its place not through tasting-menu theatre or destination-chef credentials, but through sustained reliability and a genuine relationship with the people who eat there regularly. JoJo's, at 2 Herne Bay Road above Tankerton Slopes, belongs to that tradition. Since opening in 2010, Nikki Billington and Paul Watson's restaurant has occupied a spot with an uninterrupted view over the North Sea. Here it adds to it. The dining room itself is airy and light, anchored by a wood-burning stove, large unadorned wood tables, and an open kitchen that makes no attempt to hide its workload.

That balance matters along this stretch of the Kent coast. Whitstable's dining scene has always operated at some remove from the fine-dining expectations that drive bookings at places like The Ledbury in London or Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons in Great Milton. The town's food identity is rooted in the sea and in informality: oyster bars, fish shacks, and relaxed rooms that know their local clientele well. JoJo's fits that context, but with a kitchen discipline that separates it from the merely casual.

Two Menus, One Commitment to Regulars

The structure of the menu at JoJo's reflects something specific about how long-running, community-oriented restaurants operate. Rather than a single rotating card, the kitchen maintains two: one carrying the permanent classics that loyal customers have refused to allow off the list, and a second that follows the seasons with local and regional produce at its centre. This dual approach is rarer than it sounds. Most restaurants of this profile either commit entirely to fixed menus, where the same dishes appear regardless of season, or swing to a fully seasonal model that can frustrate returning guests looking for a particular dish.

The classics menu includes the beer-battered calamari that has become something of a signature for the room, alongside charcuterie boards, homemade gnocchi with Parmesan, and mutton and feta koftas. These are dishes that signal confidence: the kitchen is not embarrassed by the comfort of repetition. The seasonal menu, by contrast, takes a different approach entirely. A January visit produced pan-fried cabbage finished with white wine, cream, Parmesan and toasted walnuts, a dish that turned an underestimated vegetable into the most interesting plate of the meal, and mackerel fillets on a bed of chorizo in a tomato sauce that made direct use of the coastal proximity. Focaccia, a green salad with feta, red onion and pine nuts, and a chocolate, orange and hazelnut tart with raspberry sorbet rounded the meal. Portions across both menus are generous, and the format leans toward sharing rather than the structured progression of a tasting menu.

Coastal Kent's Culinary Tradition and Where JoJo's Sits Within It

Cultural context for a restaurant like JoJo's is worth understanding, because it places the kitchen's choices in sharper relief. The British coastal dining tradition has historically divided into two camps: the seafood specialist, where the menu is a direct expression of what is landed nearby, and the all-rounder local restaurant, which uses proximity to the coast as one ingredient rather than the entire identity. Whitstable, with its international reputation for oysters, skews heavily toward the first model. Wheelers Oyster Bar and the Whitstable Oyster Company both operate in that specialist register, as does much of the town's food identity. Harbour Street Tapas takes a different route again.

JoJo's occupies a distinct position within this. The kitchen draws from the coast, the mackerel is a clear signal, but the menu ranges further, into Mediterranean-influenced combinations and European charcuterie traditions. This broader scope is common to a particular kind of British neighbourhood restaurant that emerged in the 2000s and early 2010s, informed by the casual European bistro model but adapted to local produce and local tastes. It shares some DNA with gastropub-era cooking, though without the pub format. At its better end, this tradition produced restaurants that felt genuinely rooted, not attempting to replicate elsewhere, but absorbing outside influence into a local context. JoJo's, based on more than a decade of operation and the evidence of the menu's range, fits that profile.

For a broader view of what the Kent coast and England's countryside dining scene offers, the contrast with destination restaurants elsewhere is instructive. Moor Hall in Aughton, L'Enclume in Cartmel, and Gidleigh Park in Chagford operate in a different register entirely, multi-course, accolade-driven, with advance booking windows that function more like ticket allocation than restaurant reservation. Hand and Flowers in Marlow and hide and fox in Saltwood sit closer to JoJo's in spirit, though each operates differently. On a global frame, the waterfront cooking tradition that JoJo's participates in connects to something broader, the kind of produce-led, informally plated seafood-adjacent cooking practised at very different scales by places like Le Bernardin in New York City and Waterside Inn in Bray, though with none of the formality those addresses require. Even Emeril's in New Orleans, a very different room in a very different food culture, reflects how coastal cities tend to build dining identities around their waterways when the leading kitchens pay attention.

Planning a Visit

JoJo's is at 2 Herne Bay Road, Whitstable CT5 2LQ, positioned above Tankerton Slopes with clear views over the North Sea. The restaurant has been open since 2010 and operates year-round. Wine is available from £26 a bottle (£6.75 a glass). The format suits groups comfortable with sharing plates.