• About The Hedonist
  • Bar Talk-Where we’re drinking
    • The Polo Bar @ The Westbury
    • Pink Chihuahua
    • 69 Colebrooke Row – Review
    • The Bar at the George V Paris – Review
    • Duke’s Bar – Review
    • Bassoon Bar – Review
    • Banca – Review
    • THE EGERTON HOUSE BAR -Review
    • The Lucky Pig – Review
    • Beagle – Review
    • 214 Bermondsey – Review
  • London Restaurant Reviews
    • Caractère – Review Notting Hill
    • Patri – Review
    • Villa di Geggiano – Review
    • African Volcano @  Great Guns Social  
    • Beso – Review
    • Padella – Review
    • 28°-50° London Wine Workshop and Kitchen – Review
    • The Goring – Review
    • Freakscene – Review
    • CUB – Review
    • Tsukiji Sushi – Review
    • COYA Angel Court – Review
    • Nutbourne – Review
    • Galvin Bistrot de Luxe – Review
    • Palatino – Review
    • Lao Café – Review
    • Galvin at The Athenaeum – Review
    • 7 Park Place – Review
    • QP London – Review
    • Cinnamon Bazaar – Review
    • Chinese New Year @ Hakkasan
    • Dinner by Heston Blumenthal – Review
    • The Ritz @ Xmas – Review
    • Coriander – Review
    • El Parador – Review
    • Inamo – Review
    • Ostuni – Review
    • Chai Wu – Review
    • Shotgun BBQ – Review
    • Ormer Mayfair – Review
    • Review-The Angler
    • The Harcourt – Review
    • Pizzicotto – Review
    • The Painted Heron – Review
    • All Star Lanes – Review
    • Kurobuta Harvey Nichols – Review
    • Bangalore Express – Review
    • Zero Degrees – Review
    • Chakra – Review
    • Cottons Caribbean Restaurant and Salon de Rhum – Review
    • Lotus – Review
    • Charlotte’s W5 – Review
    • Massimo – Review
    • Brasserie Les 110 de Taillevent – Review
    • The Dalloway Terrace @ The Bloomsbury hotel – Review
    • Plum + Spilt Milk – Review
    • Bella Cosa – Review
    • Roka Aldwych – Review (with Bookatable)
    • Brasserie Gustave – Review
    • Muga – Review
    • Barrafina – Review
    • Charlotte’s Place – Review
    • The New St Grill – Review
    • The Lockhart – Review
    • Kêu – Review
    • The Richmond – Review
    • Allan Pickett @ Sanderson – Review
    • Scents of Summer Afternoon Tea @ The InterContinental London
    • Tartufi & Friends @ Harrods – Review
    • The Five Fields – Review
    • West Thirty Six – Review
    • Evoluzione @ Hotel Xenia Kensington – Review
    • Rex & Mariano – Review
    • Kitchen Table @ Bubbledogs – Review
    • John Doe – Review
    • Ceru – Review
    • Kouzu – Review
    • Enoteca Rabezzana – Review
    • Old Tom & English – Review
    • The Wallace – Review
    • Zaika – Review
    • Xmas at Boulestin – Review
    • Crocker’s Folly – Review
    • The Cavendish – Review
    • Laurent-Perrier at The New Angel – Review
    • Assado – Review
    • The Life Goddess – Review
    • Bubba Gump Shrimp Co – Review
    • Ember Yard – Review
    • The Palomar – Review
    • Blanchette – Review
    • Cannizaro House – Review
    • 1901 Restaurant at Andaz – Review
    • Notting Hill Kitchen – Review
    • The Guildford Arms – Review
    • Curry for Change @ Cafe Spice Namaste
    • Chotto Matte – Review
    • Lyle’s – Review
    • The Clove Club – Review
    • Quo Vadis – Review
    • Polpetto – Review
    • Osteria dell Angelo – Review
    • Amsterdam-Johannes Restaurant – Review
    • The Worlds End Market – Chelsea
    • Brigade Bar & Bistro- Review
    • La Polenteria – Review
    • Mele e Pere – Review
    • La Mancha – Review
    • The Well – Review
    • Harrods The Salad Kitchen – Review
    • Layla – Review
    • See Sushi – Review
    • Pescatori Mayfair – Review
    • Flesh & Buns – Review
    • Grain Store – Review
    • Acciuga – Review
    • Pizza Pilgrims – Review
    • Les Trois Garcons – Review
    • Little Social – Review
    • Review-Ametsa with Arzak Instruction
    • Review-Balthazar
    • Reviews-Brasserie Zedel
    • Review-Copita
    • Review-Hawksmoor Air St.
    • The Glasshouse – Review
    • Review-Coya
    • 214 Bermondsey – Review
  • Travel
    • Tuscany
      • Tuscany-A Florentine Feast with Anna Bini
      • Tuscany-Olive Oil Pressing in Pistoia-Olio Nuovo
      • Tuscany-Pecorino and Ricotta from the Pistoia Hills
  • Music
    • When A Gig Goes Wrong – Pop Music’s Hall of Shame

The Hedonist

Freakscene – Review

December 2, 2017 by Adrian Leave a Comment

Freakscene                                       Clerkenwell

91 Cowcross Street

London, EC1M 6BH

+44 7561 394 497/http://freakscene.london/

The chef behind FreakScene is a chap called Scott Hallsworth who was head chef of Nobu in Park Lane, London for six years. On returning to his native Australia Scott opened Nobu Melbourne and then came back to London and created Kurobuta, a fashionable Japanese Izakaya on Chelsea’s King’s Road.  Kurobuta called itself a ‘Rock’n Roll Izakaya’ and with neon lighting, flight cases strewn artfully around the space, AC/DC on the turntable and Japanese tapas style plates it lived up to its billing. Other branches opened as the group expanded but Hallsworth is no longer on board and no-one is spilling the beans as to what happened between Hallsworth and his backers. Freakscene exterior However he has swiftly made a comeback with FreakScene, a pop-up café near Farringdon station that continues the Kurobuta narrative but in a more low key and more amusingly put together space that avoids some of the rock’n roll clichés of its predecessor.Freakscene posterThe cooking is apparently ‘inspired’ by The Pixies, Nick Cave and The Ramones though how that that translates on  to the plate is beyond me and I’m doing a PhD in popular music…! I guess it’s meant to be about attitude…but I’ve been asked to review and want to see and taste what his next move is.Freakscene cocktailThe menu is short and sweet and is Hallsworth’s latest take on Nikkei cuisine, that South American/Japanese fusion that is he majors in.The manager amused us with stories of his Jamaican grandmother and seduced us (not hard) into trying a delicious Sake cocktail (£9.50) – sake, pink grapefruit, sugar syrup with its light citrus notes not overwhelming the delicate sake flavour.Freakscene tuna tacoChili crab and avocado wonton bombs (£6.50) were first out. Spicy mouthfuls of crab, with a good mix of the more flavourful brown meat, and soft avocado sat in the crunchy wonton wrappers. Crunch, heat and flavour – a combination that set the theme for the evening.We sank a glass of floral Konishi Silver sake to accompany the ‘bombs’ which was an elegant match.Freakscene bookMiso grilled black cod taco came with sushi rice, scorched red chili and tomato salsa (£10). The cod was sweet and melting and it was interesting to have the taco with the rice in a nod to Okinawan cuisine which melded Tex-Mex with Japanese food in the mid-1950s. The celery and pepper notes of Autumn Leaves premium sake sat well with the fish.Freakscene salmon truffleA signature Kurobuta dish of Loch Duart salmon sashimi pizza with truffle ponzu, Jalapeño and wasabi tobiko (£11) was probably the most exciting plate for me. The smoked salmon was good quality with the hint of truffle flavour, saltiness of the tobiko (fish roe) and hot peppers with the crunch of the pizza (taco) base all colliding to provide an amazing mouth sensation. It shouldn’t work but it does!Freakscene aubergineNasi Dengaku is the classic dish of Miso grilled aubergine with caramelised walnuts (£8). I remember it as a favourite off the Kurobuta menu and the aubergine still had that sweet and luscious taste and texture with a hint of walnut crunch that I loved when I first tried it. Freakscene cocktailWe matched it with a Monkey Goes To Heaven cocktail, a smoky mix of ginger, sugar syrup and apple with Monkey Shoulder blended scotch. Seared beef salad with pomegranate, onion-peanut Ponzu and garlic crisps (£11.50) had a perfect char on beef which was beautifully tender with flavour bursting from the garlic, pomegranate and peanut.Freakscene int 1FreakScene advertises itself as selling ‘curious Asian plates’. The food is a smash and grab raid on Asian cuisines with flavours colliding and exploding in a way that shouldn’t work but does in an exceptional and idiosyncratic way. The pop-up is a low budget operation with the cooking taking place on two portable burners; but if you crave Hallsworth’s brand of fusion food you really should check out FreakScene while it is still there.

4 / 5 stars     

Filed Under: Restaurants & Bars Tagged With: Farringdon, FreakScene, Kurobuta, Scott Hallsworth

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Tags

Acciuga Belgravia Brighton Bruno Loubet Camden Chelsea Chiswick Cocktails Covent Garden Curry D@D Fitzrovia Gallery Mess gin Hackney Harrison's Harrods Hoxton Indian Islington Italian Japanese Kensington King's Rd London London-Unattached Marylebone Mayfair Namaaste Kitchen Negroni Notting Hill pan-asian Peru Peruvian Pizza Restaurant sake Sam's Shoreditch Sloane Square Soho tapas The Hedonist The Saatchi Gallery Tony Conigliaro

Copyright © 2023 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in