This review is long overdue and I finally have a chance to sit down and share the awesome experience I had at Freestyle Food+Drink. I visited this restaurant with my sous chef and girlfriend extraordinaire, Melissa, and we had a blast. Aside from celebrating my birthday with a girls nite out, we had a chance to really enjoy what Freestyle Food+Drink had to offer.
We started out with a few drinks including St. Noir, Chipotle Pineapple Margarita, and a Blueberry Mojito. The margarita was a special addition for Cinco de Mayo and the Blueberry Mojito was also a new drink for the season. These were delicious and a nice, light, refreshing start to the evening…
Next up, we had a few starters. Their guacamole and queso fundido were a perfect pairing with our drinks and a nice beginning to our dinner. I especially loved the presentation of the queso in a mini cast iron pot and the beautiful guacamole…
Soon after, we had a items from their small plates menu come out. I really appreciate how our server, Kevin, took care of us and recommending some great dishes that were also vegetarian friendly. For this round, we received some delicious items to try including…
Sesame Chicken – Chicken is lightly fried and served with baby bok choy, dry chili, soy caramel with a side of steamed rice. This was one of my favorites simply because it had umami all over it.
Shrimp Toast with Spicy Green Chile – This was a delicious twist to the old school shrimp toast I remember from local Chinese restaurants. It’s elegantly done with water chestnuts and the spicy green chile dipping sauce gave it a nice kick!
Rock Shrimp – These were fantastic. Tempura shrimp is tossed with a chili aioli, oven dried pineapple and served with a dusting of garlic ginger crumbs. Definitely one of my favorite dishes of the night!
Hamachi Roll and Futo Maki Roll – The hamachi roll was a great maki roll with asparagus, cucumber and a refreshing yuzu sauce. The Futo Maki Roll is a new addition to the menu and is larger stuffed with tuna and hamachi.
After enjoying these dishes, we had a chance to sit back, relax and talk with Chef Ariel Bagadiong. It turns out after probably 10-15 minutes of talking about food and culture that Melissa and Chef Ariel’s familes are both long time family friends! Such a small world and that even made the dinner more memorable for both of us. I really enjoyed learning more about Chef Ariel’s perspective on food and culture, which allowed me to appreciate the amazing dishes we had the opportunity to try.
Chef Ariel also presented us with two desserts – Milk & Cookies, chocolate sandwich cookies with a white chocolate mousse filling, accompanied with ice cold milk; and Donuts, ricotta cheese donuts rolled in cinnamon sugar, served with a bananas foster dipping sauce and a cream cheese mousse. I can’t seem to find a picture of these heavenly desserts but I managed to find a picture of the Milk & Cookies from the restaurant’s Facebook Page…
Thank you to the folks of Freestyle Food+Drink for a fabulous dinner experience, perfect for celebrating my birthday!
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