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The Age
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
This restaurant will write a menu to suit your whims. But how does that work in practice?
This gorgeous city venue promises each diner a bespoke menu, a bit like having a private chef. But with food this good, Dani Valent questions the need for such a gimmick. Previous SlideNext Slide What do you feel like for dinner? Three years after opening, this elegant city restaurant has reshaped its nighttime offering to meet your whims. Tell your waiter your deepest dining fantasies and they'll prepare a $99 set-price meal to suit. Maybe you're feeling extra-carnivorous. Perhaps you want to be surprised. Or, possibly, you feel as I did: 'Lots of vegetables, maybe seafood, I love pickles.' Freyja is in the Olderfleet Building, an 1890 beauty in the Venetian Gothic style with striking, pointed arches. As you enter, the open kitchen with woodfire is to the left and the dining room is to the right with tones in dark green, leather and exposed brick, and artwork that my notes describe as 'scary'. Please drink enough water that you need to visit the toilet in the new build at rear: the soaring atrium is heart-stopping. 'The food feels relaxed and generous. It's more 'My god, that's good' than 'Ooh, how clever!'' Chef Jae Bang is Korean, but when Freyja opened, he'd just spent three years leading Re-Naa in Norway, which earned its second Michelin star on his watch, and the Melbourne venue leaned into Norse mythology and cuisine. The goddess Freyja is associated with beauty, love and magic; the food was precise, using preserving techniques to layer flavour. Bang also brought influences from his stints in junior roles at game-changing Spanish restaurants El Bulli and Arzak, plus time in New York under fine-dining master Daniel Boulud. From the beginning, you could tell he was accomplished and thoughtful. Over time, Nordic notions have eased and the food feels relaxed and generous. It's more 'My god, that's good' than 'Ooh, how clever!' Oysters are dotted with a green oil that turns out to be lovage kombucha. Kohlrabi is pickled and served with goat curd, fermented blackcurrant and kelp powder. Beef tartare uses green strawberries for tart acid (instead of, say, cornichons). The Ramarro farm salad name-checks a producer in the Dandenong Ranges: Freyja takes what's growing and turns it into a micro-seasonal expression. Skate – a flat fish that comes away in long strands – is in a light broth with unripe blueberries that have been salted as though they were capers. They're cool, clean, juicy and one of many examples of marginal produce elevated through creativity and preservation. Cauliflower cheese is my favourite comfort meal. Freyja's version is the one I'd eat if a genie gave me a wish: it's a crazy-fun jumble of miso, butter, hazelnut and toasty roasted veg. Dessert is a joyful plaiting of the seasons: macadamia ice-cream, fig leaf oil, plum syrup, white chocolate and puffed grains are a melange of sour, sweet, creamy and caramelised. Freyja is owned by Florence Guild, a collective that includes WorkClub, a mostly Sydney-based, high-end, co-working company with speaker events and activities, including calligraphy and dream mapping. The company runs a few cafes and a bar, but Freyja is its only restaurant. The service here is keen and polished: our waiter chooses a great wine and does a lovely job of steering us through the choose-your-own-adventure concept which, let's be honest, is a stretch. After all, isn't a menu already a way to tell the kitchen what you feel like eating? The bespoke promise doesn't exactly play out, either. Nearby tables have many of the same dishes and they're also available at lunch, which is still a la carte. Having said that, everything is so delicious I don't care how it gets in front of me. Freyja was good from the get-go, but there was a slightly strained feeling. Now it has grown into one of the city's leading restaurants.
The Advertiser
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Advertiser
No menu, no worries: this Melbourne eatery transports you around the world
With all the must-see restaurants, bakeries and sandwich shops serving irresistible morsels, "I've been eating all day, I can't fit in another bite," goes the Melbourne visitor's frequent refrain. In Victoria's capital, where iconic restaurants pepper each main street and back alley, it can be tricky to know where to start. But there's one new restaurant making the paralysis of choice just a little easier to handle. At Freyja, diners are simply asked if there's anything they don't eat, won't eat or shouldn't eat before the dishes start rolling to the table. The secretive menu gives guests a chance to release control of the dining experience and let one of the city's most talented chefs bring plate after plate of seasonal, boundary-pushing food. As a young chef, Jae Bang travelled from Seoul to sleep outside Ferran Adria's modernist El Bulli restaurant on Spain's Costa Brava until he was given a chance to cook. He worked his way through some of the most respected kitchens in the US, Europe and Asia before moving to Melbourne in 2022 and opening Freyja. The restaurant, in one of the CBD's beautiful Gothic and Romanesque buildings, is a reflection of Chef Bang's career. He isn't constrained by cuisine, blending earthy Middle Eastern spices such as ras el hanout with Asian flavours like tangy makrut lime. The meal starts with an oyster from Boomer Bay and a silky paté dotted with blackberries. Crusty sourdough mops up mussels in a delicate, buttery sauce before beef tartare with nasturtium hits the table. Chef Bang keeps the palate dancing when he serves melt-in-the-mouth pork ribs, roast cauliflower and a beet salad. Inside the arched cathedral windows of Freyja is a classic Melbourne dining experience that tells the story of the city and its bakers, farmers, butchers and winemakers. With all the must-see restaurants, bakeries and sandwich shops serving irresistible morsels, "I've been eating all day, I can't fit in another bite," goes the Melbourne visitor's frequent refrain. In Victoria's capital, where iconic restaurants pepper each main street and back alley, it can be tricky to know where to start. But there's one new restaurant making the paralysis of choice just a little easier to handle. At Freyja, diners are simply asked if there's anything they don't eat, won't eat or shouldn't eat before the dishes start rolling to the table. The secretive menu gives guests a chance to release control of the dining experience and let one of the city's most talented chefs bring plate after plate of seasonal, boundary-pushing food. As a young chef, Jae Bang travelled from Seoul to sleep outside Ferran Adria's modernist El Bulli restaurant on Spain's Costa Brava until he was given a chance to cook. He worked his way through some of the most respected kitchens in the US, Europe and Asia before moving to Melbourne in 2022 and opening Freyja. The restaurant, in one of the CBD's beautiful Gothic and Romanesque buildings, is a reflection of Chef Bang's career. He isn't constrained by cuisine, blending earthy Middle Eastern spices such as ras el hanout with Asian flavours like tangy makrut lime. The meal starts with an oyster from Boomer Bay and a silky paté dotted with blackberries. Crusty sourdough mops up mussels in a delicate, buttery sauce before beef tartare with nasturtium hits the table. Chef Bang keeps the palate dancing when he serves melt-in-the-mouth pork ribs, roast cauliflower and a beet salad. Inside the arched cathedral windows of Freyja is a classic Melbourne dining experience that tells the story of the city and its bakers, farmers, butchers and winemakers. With all the must-see restaurants, bakeries and sandwich shops serving irresistible morsels, "I've been eating all day, I can't fit in another bite," goes the Melbourne visitor's frequent refrain. In Victoria's capital, where iconic restaurants pepper each main street and back alley, it can be tricky to know where to start. But there's one new restaurant making the paralysis of choice just a little easier to handle. At Freyja, diners are simply asked if there's anything they don't eat, won't eat or shouldn't eat before the dishes start rolling to the table. The secretive menu gives guests a chance to release control of the dining experience and let one of the city's most talented chefs bring plate after plate of seasonal, boundary-pushing food. As a young chef, Jae Bang travelled from Seoul to sleep outside Ferran Adria's modernist El Bulli restaurant on Spain's Costa Brava until he was given a chance to cook. He worked his way through some of the most respected kitchens in the US, Europe and Asia before moving to Melbourne in 2022 and opening Freyja. The restaurant, in one of the CBD's beautiful Gothic and Romanesque buildings, is a reflection of Chef Bang's career. He isn't constrained by cuisine, blending earthy Middle Eastern spices such as ras el hanout with Asian flavours like tangy makrut lime. The meal starts with an oyster from Boomer Bay and a silky paté dotted with blackberries. Crusty sourdough mops up mussels in a delicate, buttery sauce before beef tartare with nasturtium hits the table. Chef Bang keeps the palate dancing when he serves melt-in-the-mouth pork ribs, roast cauliflower and a beet salad. Inside the arched cathedral windows of Freyja is a classic Melbourne dining experience that tells the story of the city and its bakers, farmers, butchers and winemakers. With all the must-see restaurants, bakeries and sandwich shops serving irresistible morsels, "I've been eating all day, I can't fit in another bite," goes the Melbourne visitor's frequent refrain. In Victoria's capital, where iconic restaurants pepper each main street and back alley, it can be tricky to know where to start. But there's one new restaurant making the paralysis of choice just a little easier to handle. At Freyja, diners are simply asked if there's anything they don't eat, won't eat or shouldn't eat before the dishes start rolling to the table. The secretive menu gives guests a chance to release control of the dining experience and let one of the city's most talented chefs bring plate after plate of seasonal, boundary-pushing food. As a young chef, Jae Bang travelled from Seoul to sleep outside Ferran Adria's modernist El Bulli restaurant on Spain's Costa Brava until he was given a chance to cook. He worked his way through some of the most respected kitchens in the US, Europe and Asia before moving to Melbourne in 2022 and opening Freyja. The restaurant, in one of the CBD's beautiful Gothic and Romanesque buildings, is a reflection of Chef Bang's career. He isn't constrained by cuisine, blending earthy Middle Eastern spices such as ras el hanout with Asian flavours like tangy makrut lime. The meal starts with an oyster from Boomer Bay and a silky paté dotted with blackberries. Crusty sourdough mops up mussels in a delicate, buttery sauce before beef tartare with nasturtium hits the table. Chef Bang keeps the palate dancing when he serves melt-in-the-mouth pork ribs, roast cauliflower and a beet salad. Inside the arched cathedral windows of Freyja is a classic Melbourne dining experience that tells the story of the city and its bakers, farmers, butchers and winemakers.
Sydney Morning Herald
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
If you love cauliflower cheese, don't miss this ‘crazy-fun' version, Melbourne
Freyja was good from the get-go, but it has relaxed and grown into one of the city's leading restaurants. Previous SlideNext Slide What do you feel like for dinner? Three years after opening, this elegant city restaurant has reshaped its nighttime offering to meet your whims. Tell your waiter your deepest dining fantasies and they'll prepare a $99 set-price meal to suit. Maybe you're feeling extra-carnivorous. Perhaps you want to be surprised. Or, possibly, you feel as I did: 'Lots of vegetables, maybe seafood, I love pickles.' Freyja is in the Olderfleet Building, an 1890 beauty in the Venetian Gothic style with striking, pointed arches. As you enter, the open kitchen with woodfire is to the left and the dining room is to the right with tones in dark green, leather and exposed brick, and artwork that my notes describe as 'scary'. Please drink enough water that you need to visit the toilet in the new build at rear: the soaring atrium is heart-stopping. 'The food feels relaxed and generous. It's more 'My god, that's good' than 'Ooh, how clever!'' Chef Jae Bang is Korean, but when Freyja opened, he'd just spent three years leading Re-Naa in Norway, which earned its second Michelin star on his watch, and the Melbourne venue leaned into Norse mythology and cuisine. The goddess Freyja is associated with beauty, love and magic; the food was precise, using preserving techniques to layer flavour. Bang also brought influences from his stints in junior roles at game-changing Spanish restaurants El Bulli and Arzak, plus time in New York under fine-dining master Daniel Boulud. From the beginning, you could tell he was accomplished and thoughtful. Over time, Nordic notions have eased and the food feels relaxed and generous. It's more 'My god, that's good' than 'Ooh, how clever!' Oysters are dotted with a green oil that turns out to be lovage kombucha. Kohlrabi is pickled and served with goat curd, fermented blackcurrant and kelp powder. Beef tartare uses green strawberries for tart acid (instead of, say, cornichons). The Ramarro farm salad name-checks a producer in the Dandenong Ranges: Freyja takes what's growing and turns it into a micro-seasonal expression. Skate – a flat fish that comes away in long strands – is in a light broth with unripe blueberries that have been salted as though they were capers. They're cool, clean, juicy and one of many examples of marginal produce elevated through creativity and preservation. Cauliflower cheese is my favourite comfort meal. Freyja's version is the one I'd eat if a genie gave me a wish: it's a crazy-fun jumble of miso, butter, hazelnut and toasty roasted veg. Dessert is a joyful plaiting of the seasons: macadamia ice-cream, fig leaf oil, plum syrup, white chocolate and puffed grains are a melange of sour, sweet, creamy and caramelised. Freyja is owned by Florence Guild, a collective that includes WorkClub, a mostly Sydney-based, high-end, co-working company with speaker events and activities, including calligraphy and dream mapping. The company runs a few cafes and a bar, but Freyja is its only restaurant. The service here is keen and polished: our waiter chooses a great wine and does a lovely job of steering us through the choose-your-own-adventure concept which, let's be honest, is a stretch. After all, isn't a menu already a way to tell the kitchen what you feel like eating? The bespoke promise doesn't exactly play out, either. Nearby tables have many of the same dishes and they're also available at lunch, which is still a la carte. Having said that, everything is so delicious I don't care how it gets in front of me. Freyja was good from the get-go, but there was a slightly strained feeling. Now it has grown into one of the city's leading restaurants.
The Age
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
If you love cauliflower cheese, don't miss this ‘crazy-fun' version, Melbourne
Freyja was good from the get-go, but it has relaxed and grown into one of the city's leading restaurants. Previous SlideNext Slide What do you feel like for dinner? Three years after opening, this elegant city restaurant has reshaped its nighttime offering to meet your whims. Tell your waiter your deepest dining fantasies and they'll prepare a $99 set-price meal to suit. Maybe you're feeling extra-carnivorous. Perhaps you want to be surprised. Or, possibly, you feel as I did: 'Lots of vegetables, maybe seafood, I love pickles.' Freyja is in the Olderfleet Building, an 1890 beauty in the Venetian Gothic style with striking, pointed arches. As you enter, the open kitchen with woodfire is to the left and the dining room is to the right with tones in dark green, leather and exposed brick, and artwork that my notes describe as 'scary'. Please drink enough water that you need to visit the toilet in the new build at rear: the soaring atrium is heart-stopping. 'The food feels relaxed and generous. It's more 'My god, that's good' than 'Ooh, how clever!'' Chef Jae Bang is Korean, but when Freyja opened, he'd just spent three years leading Re-Naa in Norway, which earned its second Michelin star on his watch, and the Melbourne venue leaned into Norse mythology and cuisine. The goddess Freyja is associated with beauty, love and magic; the food was precise, using preserving techniques to layer flavour. Bang also brought influences from his stints in junior roles at game-changing Spanish restaurants El Bulli and Arzak, plus time in New York under fine-dining master Daniel Boulud. From the beginning, you could tell he was accomplished and thoughtful. Over time, Nordic notions have eased and the food feels relaxed and generous. It's more 'My god, that's good' than 'Ooh, how clever!' Oysters are dotted with a green oil that turns out to be lovage kombucha. Kohlrabi is pickled and served with goat curd, fermented blackcurrant and kelp powder. Beef tartare uses green strawberries for tart acid (instead of, say, cornichons). The Ramarro farm salad name-checks a producer in the Dandenong Ranges: Freyja takes what's growing and turns it into a micro-seasonal expression. Skate – a flat fish that comes away in long strands – is in a light broth with unripe blueberries that have been salted as though they were capers. They're cool, clean, juicy and one of many examples of marginal produce elevated through creativity and preservation. Cauliflower cheese is my favourite comfort meal. Freyja's version is the one I'd eat if a genie gave me a wish: it's a crazy-fun jumble of miso, butter, hazelnut and toasty roasted veg. Dessert is a joyful plaiting of the seasons: macadamia ice-cream, fig leaf oil, plum syrup, white chocolate and puffed grains are a melange of sour, sweet, creamy and caramelised. Freyja is owned by Florence Guild, a collective that includes WorkClub, a mostly Sydney-based, high-end, co-working company with speaker events and activities, including calligraphy and dream mapping. The company runs a few cafes and a bar, but Freyja is its only restaurant. The service here is keen and polished: our waiter chooses a great wine and does a lovely job of steering us through the choose-your-own-adventure concept which, let's be honest, is a stretch. After all, isn't a menu already a way to tell the kitchen what you feel like eating? The bespoke promise doesn't exactly play out, either. Nearby tables have many of the same dishes and they're also available at lunch, which is still a la carte. Having said that, everything is so delicious I don't care how it gets in front of me. Freyja was good from the get-go, but there was a slightly strained feeling. Now it has grown into one of the city's leading restaurants.
