SoJo – the details

Tucked into the pavement on Hythe Street in Oxford, just after the bridge and a couple of hundred yards before the railway station, is SoJo.

This warm, quirkily decorated restaurant that serves Chinese food, is intensely popular with those who know it, and a blissful surprise for those lucky enough to discover it by chance

We have been there twice recently – both visits in 2012. Once with a party of around 14, most of whom were young men, and the second time in a smaller group. On each occasion the service was outstanding.

SoJo’s website, and the reviews on that website, will tell you how good the food is.  What they do not all tell you is how exceptional the service is. SoJo has a level of service that anticipates, informs, relaxes and delivers. There is never any hint of anything other than complete confidence in the dishes on offer, and there is always a quick, accurate understanding of the choices that will be most suited to each diner.

Faced with 14 of us SoJo staff asked a few questions about diet, allergies and budget, and then produced, with no lengthy wait, a delicious, perfectly judged meal that left all plates stripped clean.

Two days ago we were there again but only three of us. The meal started with steaming, delicate parcels of dim sum: prawn, prawn and pork, beef, and Shanghai pork and crab roe.

The main courses that followed were:

• Szechuan spicy beef and aubergine
• pork strips
• Szechuan spicy prawns topped with soy minced pork and diced water chestnut sauce
• stir fried fine green beans, and
• shredded potato with green peppers.

The flavours of the different dishes balanced each other well, and none were too heavily spiced or in need of extra sauce. The meal was light and delicious. Chinese tea was served throughout, from the excellent dim sum start to the icy lychee finish.

It was a treat. The dim sum were £8.50 to share and each main dish about the same. The lychees, dribbled with Grenadine syrup, were £4.00.

It would be possible to eat for less in Oxford but at SoJo your money will bring more pleasure, and the service will be excellent. There is also the chance to have your choice of ingredients freshly cooked on the steaming steel of a large Mongolian wok.

SoJo – well worth the walk. 

SoJo, 6/9 Hythe Bridge Street, Oxford OX1 2EW    Tel:  01865 202888        
Opening hours:  Mon-Sat 12 noon – 11.00pm;  Sun 12 noon – 10.00pm

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2018