Freek's Mill is in smack in the middle of Gowanus or the part of Brooklyn that is surrounded by a Super Fund. You can see that as being kind of cool or kind of gross - I'll take the former because it's still a part of Brooklyn that's still a bit untouched but it's got glimmers of hipster-ness. Enter Freek's Mill. It's a cute and much more refined restaurant than I was expecting for that part of town but it's still got a casual vibe to it.
It's tapas style and if you've read my blog, you know how I feel about small plates. I like the concept but I HATE how places still feel like they can charge entree prices for them. The waiter here recommend 2-3 dishes per person (which I agree with) but the prices of these small plates averaged around $15-20 or more, which is a bit ridiculous for me. But the good news is that at least the food was delicious here. We got the scallop crudo, octopus, pumpkin, fettuccine, Arctic Char, duck and pork jowl.
The scallop crudo came highly recommended by the waitress and while I love scallop, I wasn't a huge fan of the fact that it was cut into cubes. For me, the glory of scallop comes when you keep it intact. But it was a sweet clean flavor that was wonderful none the less. Next I tried the pumpkin dish and with fall pretty much here, it was a warm comforting dish. It was sweet and served with a sweet riccotta like cheese to it. It was basically fall in a plate. Next was the octopus and unlike the one at Thursday Kitchen, this was a long meaty tentacle charred and served with fingerling potatoes. Solid dish and cooked the way octopus should be. Next was the fettuccine which had ham and a sunny side egg on it. While it wasn't a pasta dish that brought me back to my days in Italy, it was a very comforting dish with a nice homemade taste to it. Next was the Arctic Char which was cooked with the skin on. It was pan seared and cooked to the right texture but in general Arctic Char isn't my favorite fish - give me a piece of salmon over Char any day of the week but if are looking for a fish dish here, this one will get the job done. Lastly came the 2 meat dishes - these were definitely the winners of the night although I'm not sure if we really needed both as they were both on the fatty side but in a good way (at least for me). The pork jowl was melt in your mouth delicious but I can't stress again how fatty it was but that's where all the flavor is! I can see how it might turn some people off but not me. The duck was also cooked very rare with the fatty skin on. While I'm a gal who loves her meat as rare as possible, this one could have actually been cooked just a smidge longer as it did have a tough consistency and I almost chocked on a piece that I couldn't chew all the way through but flavor wise, I wouldn't change a thing.
Of course, we left room for dessert and we got a chocolate bread pudding and another dish that I can't remember the name of but it was like a baby dutch pancake. I was a bit tipsy at this point and full from the fatty meat that I didn't really indulge all that much in the dessert. From the few bites I had they actually weren't all that sweet and wouldn't really be the kind of dessert that I would go ga-ga for.
Overall, it was still a lovely dinner experience despite some of my issues. As Neel and I discussed, the meal was good and the food done well but but with so many stealler NYC restaurants, it's really hard to compete. But if you live in the neighborhood and/or want to try something out in this part of industrial Brooklyn, I would recommend giving it a try. Just a note, they used to be gratuity free but they recently switched back to not including it in the bill. Total bill: ~$300 for 3 people with tax, tip and drinks
Photo Credit: Yelp
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