Adele, Victoria Beckham and Margot Robbie have all eaten at his restaurants, but Scott Hallsworth is better known in his adopted home of London than his native Australia.
The Perth-born chef mastered his craft as head chef of Nobu London for several years, and set up Nobu’s Melbourne outpost in 2007. But what he’s renowned for in the UK are his own restaurants: Kurobuta, a clutch of good-times Japanese izakaya-inspired eateries he closed in 2017, and The Freak Scene, a pan-Asian restaurant he opened in West London’s Parsons Green neighbourhood in 2023. (It is Freak Scene’s third iteration: it began as a pop-up in 2017 and shifted to a permanent site in Soho in 2018, but was thwarted by the pandemic).
The Freak Scene – named for a Dinosaur Jr. song – proved such a hit he’s just opened a sequel in the south-west London suburb of Balham. He may have found success in London, but Hallsworth says his approach to Asian cuisines is heavily influenced by his Antipodean roots and, in turn, those cuisines’ influences on Australian food culture.
“It’s a kind of headstrong, confident way of going into it and going … it’s not going to be traditional, but I want it to taste shit hot and I want you to love it,” he tells Broadsheet a few days before the restaurant opens. “And I’m going to do my best to make that happen with great ingredients. I think Aussies do that really well.”
Though Hallsworth isn’t widely known in Australia, his business partner is a household name in both Australia and the UK – in Australia thanks to his gig hosting music trivia show Spicks and Specks, and in the UK for his Channel 4 talk show, The Last Leg. Yes, it’s Adam Hills. No, he doesn’t have a say in the menu.
Hallsworth and Hills met at a fundraising event, and Hills quickly became a regular at Kurobuta. Once that closed, Hills followed Hallsworth’s other ventures. And when Hallsworth decided to go permanent with Freak Scene, Hills – at the exhortation of his wife Ali McGregor – put his hand up to invest.
“The way [Hills] describes it is ‘I took Scott out for dinner and proposed to him, and he said yes’,” says Hallsworth, laughing. “He’s a great partner to have, he champions the restaurant so much. People ask him if he advises [me] on the food, and he’s like, ‘No! That’d be like him trying to tell me about comedy’.
“I do tell him jokes sometimes and he’s like, ‘Nah, I do the jokes’.”
Freak Scene number two is billed as a sushi and robata diner – but it toys with flavours and tradition just as much as number one. Sushi comes served in crispy taco shells, or in classic maki (roll) form – maki fillings include Singapore chilli crab California rolls, spicy tuna, and salmon and avocado. There is also tataki, nigiri and sashimi. A huge wood-fired oven turns out corn-fed chicken kushiyaki (skewers) with anticucho (marinated beef heart, Bolivian-style); hispi cabbage with ponzu, buerre noisette, truffle and dried miso; and black cod with “laksa vibes”. A section titled “from the back catalogue” stars past hits from the various iterations of Freak Scene as well as from Hallsworth’s cookbooks and other venues, including duck red curry doughnut buns and chicken-fried chicken (that is, chicken fried in chicken fat) with sticky peanut soy sauce.
“It’s great to be able to do the same flavours and mess around, without it being a carbon copy [of the original], and people saying ‘they’ve opened another Freak Scene, why go to it?’” says Hallsworth.
He places as much importance on the “vibe” as the food at his neon lit, rock music-blasting venues, and says his staff have been known to soften even the poshest Chelsea types. Reviews of his venues consistently highlight the friendly, fun service – a rarity in London – which often comes courtesy of Australian staff.
“Why do restaurants have to be so formal and ridiculous and uncomfortable?” he says. “I don't like it. It’s not me. So why should I put it on for you when you come into my restaurant? Why don’t I just make you feel comfortable? In London [service] can be hit and miss and it’s not always great. There’s a lot people can learn from that Australian style.”
Seating 80, the new Freak Scene takes over a two-level space last occupied by a Colombian bakery. The ground floor, where diners can park up at a counter overlooking the kitchen or at banquette seating, is washed in a purple neon glow. The basement level, which also acts as a sake lounge is moodier; Hallsworth has personally papered the walls in band posters (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Bamboos) and table lamps softly light the space. Hallsworth and his team did most of the handiwork themselves.
“[Balham] is like my teenage self coming out again,” says Hallsworth, who doesn’t rule out opening a Freak Scene in Australia. “It’s got a bit of a rougher edge.”
