Some of the best tables at Joia have an undeniably spectacular view.
What can you tell us about Joia?
Joia is one of the most high-profile restaurants yet to launch as part of the Battersea Power Station development. Overlooking the station, it comes from Portuguese chef Henrique Sá Pessoa, who has two Michelin stars to his name at his restaurant Alma in Lisbon. He's brought his Portuguese food to London, mixing it up with British produce. And all that's mixed in with a rather impressive view.
So where is it?
It's right next - and we mean literally next door - to Battersea Power Station itself. If you're coming from the tube, you'll find it just before you get to the station, inside the new Arthotel. If you're coming via riverboat, the easiest way to find it is to go right through the big new shopping centre in the main complex and you'll find it on the other side.
We would strongly recommend the riverboat service as the way to arrive. Even if you come into Vauxhall and just hop on for one stop, it really is the most pleasant way to get there.
What about a drink? What's best in the area?
The Joia bar is certainly one of the best options - but we'll get to that in a moment. Elsewhere, Control Room B, the bar which comes from the same people as Mr Fogg's, is by far the most popular right now - it was very busy even on a Friday lunchtime. When it opens, the new Arcade Food Hall should be a good option too.
This is the main dining room. If you look closely, you can just about see the open kitchen in the back.
So - heading up to Joia, where should we sit?
You'll find Joia up on the 15th floor, and there are certainly some great views to be had, but with some caveats.
You may have seen a lot of videos and pictures with the Power Station in the background (there are a few on this page as well). But note that you'll only really get a good view of the Power Station if you have a seat by the window. So that's where you want to aim for, making all of those the premium tables. Any tables that are further away and you get a pretty good vista of west London but other than The Royal Albert Hall and Wembley, it's not blessed with that many well known sights.
The bar downstairs is a different story - as you can see from this photo:
Head down a winding staircase from the restaurant and you'll find the very big bar.
The bar is double-height and as such has a very impressive view of the Power Station from pretty much every table. If getting a good gawp at one of London's most iconic buildings is important, then you should probably aim for a pre or post-dinner drink here, although you can expect it to be busy on weekend evenings. The cocktails are very good too. Here's an example.
Trilogia - Absolut Elyx vodka, seaweed water, dry sherry, olive oil caviar (£16)
That Trilogia was a notably good version of a martini, extremely well made (and we're quite fussy about our martinis as you might know by now). The Pirata (Altos tequila, clarified chocolate, Palo Cortado sherry, rhubarb bitter - £14) was also an extremely well-made cocktail. So they have a great bar space paired with excellent cocktails - that certainly makes it a good destination for a drink in our book.
But it's not all about the view?
There is a general thinking that restaurants with particularly stunning views tend to not have the cooking to match. We think that's less of an issue these days than it was - Hutong at the Shard and Seabird both being good examples of restaurants that buck this trend. Happily, we think we can add Joia to that list as we had what we thought were some pretty great dishes on our lunchtime visit.
The menu is primarily Portuguese with plenty of nods to local British produce. If you've been to Nuno Mendes' Lisboeta, you'll certainly recognise some of the Portuguese dishes on the menu here, although both restaurants have their own specific take on those classics.
While you're looking at the menu and thinking about what you want to order, it's always good to get something on the table as menu-perusing food. A good starting point for this would be the croquettes (pleasingly melty) and we'd also recommend starting with the ham:
100% Bellota Iberico ham (£18) which comes with a very generous bowl of picos. Perfect snacky food.
Looking at the menu - it's split into snacks and tapas for starters alongside "large plates" and dishes from the Josper oven - both of the latter essentially make up the main courses. Everything came very quickly, so you might want to specifically indicate how you want the meal to be delivered to avoid getting swamped. There's a fair amount to choose from and some of the mains are notably large, so keep that in mind before going mad with the tapas.
On that note, we opted for two of the large mains and frankly, they're so large that each of them could be a sharing main, served with a few sides. First, there's the Bacalhau à Brás.
Bacalhau À Brás - salted cod, potatoes, parsley, egg, black olives (£24)
That photo above doesn't really do justice to just how big the bacalhau is. It's brought to your table like this, then all mixed up by your server and delivered as a large carby delight. As mentioned above, this is easily enough for two and as such is pretty well-priced for a high-end restaurant.
The must-have dish, however, is one you might have seen popping up on Instagram or TikTok - the prawns and orzo.
Carabineros prawns with orzo, bisque and coriander (£64)
It's pricey but if you want great prawns, that's always going to push the price up. Again, this is more than enough for two people and the orzo here is just perfectly cooked without being too heavy. Note that as you pull the heads of the prawns, you'll get a lot of juice pouring out - so we'd recommend doing that over the orzo and mixing all the goodness back in.
There are sides if you need them, and we'd strongly recommend the patatas bravas (£7), delivered with wonderfully crispy potatoes and with the alioli and salsa brava liberally dotted throughout the layers of spuds, as opposed to just being dolloped on the top.
What's it like for vegetarians?
While there's a big focus on fish and meat, there are a fair amount of vegetarian dishes available (less so vegan dishes). Of those available, we'd particularly recommend the following:
Peixinhos da horta - tempura green beans, pickle mayo (£7.50)
Wild British mushrooms escabeche with egg yolk and alioli (£15)
So what about dessert?
You'll find a few more recognisable Portuguese dishes here. There's the Pudim Abade Priscos caramel dessert that you may have seen in Lisboeta, but there's no pig fat to be found in this one, unlike Lisboeta's version (which we still love). We'd also recommend the warm arroz con leche with passion fruit cremeux (£7.50). But the strong winner was another Portuguese classic:
Pão de Lo with goat's cheese ice cream (£8.50) - gooey, sticky and perfect paired with that very cheesy ice-cream.
What about drink?
The wine list has a sole focus on Portuguese and Spanish wine, with wines starting at £38 a bottle and the largest proportion of the list is in the £40-£60 price point.
Overall thoughts
Joia has some pretty spectacular views, particularly from the main bar, and happily, the restaurant manages to deliver food that really matches the vista. Portuguese food really is having something of a moment in London thanks to the arrival of Lisboeta and now this, with each restaurant carving their own furrow. All this paired with some top-notch cocktails means that Battersea Power Station now has a real destination restaurant.
More about Joia
Where is it? 1 Electric Boulevard, Nine Elms, London SW11 8BJ
How to book: Book online
Find out more: Visit their website or follow them on Instagram @joiabattersea
Hot Dinners ate as guests of Joia. Prices are correct at the time of writing.
Subscribe to be the first to get the news from Hot Dinners
