Freya, a tasting-menu restaurant in Detroit's Milwaukee Junction neighborhood at 2929 E. Grand Blvd, has been named Restaurant of the Year for 2024 by Hour Detroit magazine.
Sandy Levine and Executive Chef Doug Hewitt, who opened Chartreuse Kitchen & Cocktail in the Park Shelton in Midtown Detroit in 2015, opened Freya in October 2021.
As for the tasting menu, according to Hour Detroit, you pick what you want in each course from starters to dessert. There's a price fixed option for $95 per person or a "grand tasting" menu that you leave up to the chefs to select your courses for $155 per person.
"We offer a price fixed 5 course menu and can accommodate the following diets: Omnivore (no dietary restrictions), Pescatarian (vegetarian + seafood), Vegetarian (no animals) or vegan (no animal-produced items used)," the website says. "With notice, we’re also able to modify any of these menus to be gluten-free. We respectfully ask that further modification requests only be made in cases of serious allergies; we may not be able to accommodate certain dietary restrictions."
Some menu items include: Grilled Halloumi with nduja, pea ricotta, hot honey, sourdough cracker; Baked Oytster with kimchi butter, herbed breadcrumb; Lamb Porterhouse with au poivre, potato, cippolini Onion, winter truffle; Rohan Duck Breast with farro verde risotto, pheasant sausage, mushroom, apricot and thyme.
How tasty is the food?
The magazine describes the swordfish, for example, as "grilled to proper char and tenderness. A precisely slice Fresno chile pepper and tendrils of verdant scallion that pop up on the plate. Two perfectly shaped dollops of chili aioli. Togarashi (a Japanese spice) with pulverized Bugles. Wait, what? Yes, Bugles, as in the cone-shaped corn snack. Oh, and the fish has taken a swim in zesty Italian dressing,the kind used for martinating all kinds of meat or tossing with iceberg lettuce.
In 2023, it was a James Beard Semifinalist for Outstanding Restaurateurs. In 2022, Metro Times named it Best Restaurant in Detroit. And in 2022, the New York Times named it one of America's top 50 most exciting restaurants.
