diff --git a/packages/core/src/browser/menu/browser-context-menu-renderer.ts b/packages/core/src/browser/menu/browser-context-menu-renderer.ts
index 73159a64817c7..2e5025049512d 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/browser/menu/browser-context-menu-renderer.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/browser/menu/browser-context-menu-renderer.ts
@@ -18,13 +18,9 @@ export class BrowserContextMenuRenderer implements ContextMenuRenderer {
     render(path: string, anchor: Anchor, onHide?: () => void): void {
         const contextMenu = this.menuFactory.createContextMenu(path);
         const { x, y } = anchor instanceof MouseEvent ? { x: anchor.clientX, y: anchor.clientY } : anchor;
-        const previouslyActive = window.document.activeElement as HTMLElement;
-        contextMenu.aboutToClose.connect(() => {
-            previouslyActive.focus();
-            if (onHide) {
-                onHide();
-            }
-        });
+        if (onHide) {
+            contextMenu.aboutToClose.connect(() => onHide());
+        }
         contextMenu.open(x, y);
     }
 
diff --git a/packages/core/src/browser/menu/browser-menu-plugin.ts b/packages/core/src/browser/menu/browser-menu-plugin.ts
index 6ec72ae3e3ef5..c7b70d98c7d09 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/browser/menu/browser-menu-plugin.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/browser/menu/browser-menu-plugin.ts
@@ -96,6 +96,7 @@ class DynamicMenuBarWidget extends MenuBarWidget {
             super['_openChildMenu']();
         };
     }
+
 }
 /**
  * A menu widget that would recompute its items on update
@@ -115,6 +116,17 @@ class DynamicMenuWidget extends MenuWidget {
         this.updateSubMenus(this, this.menu, this.options.commands);
     }
 
+    public open(x: number, y: number, options?: MenuWidget.IOpenOptions): void {
+        // we want to restore the focus after the menu closes.
+        const previouslyActive = window.document.activeElement as HTMLElement;
+        const cb = () => {
+            previouslyActive.focus();
+            this.aboutToClose.disconnect(cb);
+        };
+        this.aboutToClose.connect(cb);
+        super.open(x, y, options);
+    }
+
     private updateSubMenus(parent: MenuWidget, menu: CompositeMenuNode, commands: PhosphorCommandRegistry): void {
         for (const item of menu.children) {
             if (item instanceof CompositeMenuNode) {