Restaurateur Scott Hallsworth, owner of Freak Scene London and best known as the founder of Kurobuta, has launched both a local delivery service, Joe’s Oriental Diner, and Joe’s @ Home, a wider-reaching delivery service for South London and West London.
Joe’s @ Home will operate as a premium delivery service, where Scott and his team will deliver the dishes and plate up in the customer’s own home.
Aussie-born Hallsworth has become renowned across the London dining scene for his fusion-led, exciting Japanese and Pan-Asian cooking, after creating and founding Kurobuta in Marble Arch in 2013, going on to open two further sites in Chelsea and Knightsbridge, and later Joe’s Oriental Diner and Freak Scene.
Hallsworth now hopes to make his food more available for Londoners before opening a permanent site, leading him to create the new ‘restaurant at home’ concept. Both the local delivery menu and Joe’s @ Home menus will feature a selection of Scott’s signature Freak Scene dishes mixed with some new inventions, including Cheeseburger spring rolls (£8): mixing truffle burger patty, American cheese and Joe’s Diner relish together in a crunchy spring roll coating with miso cheese fondue dip, and Jasmine tea-smoked lamb ribs with spicy Korean miso and Japanese daikon (£10).
Other dishes include Sweetcorn kaki-age tempura with Japanese furikake seasoning, served with kaffir lime mayo (£5.50); Crispy baby squid with sticky Thai chilli jam and XO lobster mayo (£6.95) and Fried donut buns with slow-cooked Thai red curried duck leg (£9.50) Classic dishes from the Freak Scene menus also feature, such as Hoisin and honey BBQ pork belly buns, served with sticky peanut soy, house amazu pickles and fresh, homemade steamed bao buns (£9.75)
Hallsworth’s decision to open a dark kitchen came in a move to combat the saturated London dining scene and ever-increasing rents, coinciding with the increase in popularity of delivery operations due to the pandemic.
Hallsworth says of the opening: “We’re not looking for expensive locations to enhance our cooking, we want the food to speak for itself. In the current climate it’s made more sense for us to open a delivery-only site so we can provide the same level of food without the overhead costs.”
Joe’s Oriental Diner is available for delivery in SW London, with Joe’s @ Home available for any orders over £100, where delivery and plating up will be available for customers around London.
