Fire & Stone

My partner and I needed to grab a quick meal before the theatre and thought that Fire & Stone looked promising based on appearance. Although the decor was smart and did create a good vibe, everything else was disappointing. When we asked if it was possible for a quick meal as we had to be at a play by 7.30pm, we were told that there was a table but we had to be finished by quarter to eight. The air -headed daftness of this introduction to our dining experience was compounded by the fact that once seated, she did not let a waiter know we were in a hurry and we had to call someone over to take our order. The food (pizza) did arrive quickly but was virtually room temperature and tasted like it had been pre-cooked, frozen and the re-heated. I wondered if the large wood-fired oven we walked past as we entered the restaurant was just a cover for a microwave oven. To top it all, when finished we had to hunt down another waiter to pay and leave.

I know that we were in the tourist area and so our expectations should be low but pizza doesn't have to be this bad.
Comment on this reader review

Rachel, Canary Wharf
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 1
Sunday, August 03, 2008

I've been to this restaurant twice - once as part of a large group and once with a friend.

Both times I've been hugely disappointed by the service. As part of a large group, there were 40 minutes between the first and last mains being served. And when dining with a friend, the waitress inexplicably disappeared in a huff when I asked for the "optional" 12.5% service charge to be removed so that I could tip in cash.

The food was good but the service as experienced was shocking and unforgiveable.
View/Add comments (1)

Oliver Clark
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 4
Thursday, July 31, 2008

Have to agree with the negative comments posted below. Bases aren't fresh, taste horrible and toppings overloaded and pretentious. Scallop pizza anyone? Even the more basic choices are a travesty of what you would get in a decent pizza place elsewhere. Service is poor - had to wait an hour to get our pizzas and were told 'kitchen is busy' even though they probably made the pizza base about 12 hours earlier. Yet another restaurant in Covent Garden that is content to be mediocre and will live off walk-in tourist business. Avoid.
Comment on this reader review

John
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 3
Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Yuk, I've honestly had better frozen pizzas brought from the supermarket. This is not like a normal pizza place, eg, I cannot add say extra cheese, mushrooms - they simply don't do it, don't waste your breath.

Pizza itself - bland, mine had a dodgy crispy base but went almost soggy in the middle. My friends and I definitely will not be making the same mistake again.

The good reviews must have had really low expectations to even warrant anything good worth saying.
Comment on this reader review

Viper 9
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 0
Tuesday, July 22, 2008

I came here recently and was quite disappointed. I had read some decent reviews about the place, and visited it before I booked the table, and was happy to go there. The service on the night wasn't great, and to make matters worse, we only had two hours on the table, which I was told when I reserved the table, but was lead to believe that would be an adequate time for me and my friends to eat, however some people hadn't even finished their food yet we were told we had to leave! I carried my leftover pizza in a cardboard box and ate it on the train journey home. A friend had bought a cake in, (which we didn't even have time to cut) but if we had, each person would have had to pay ₤3, so the restaurant could take it in and cut it up for us and serve, considering she paid for the cake, for each person to pay to eat the cake seemed unnecessary. Although the place looked lovely, I do agree with the other reviews in terms of the quality of food and was very dissatisfied with the poor service.
Comment on this reader review

Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 4
Wednesday, June 18, 2008

There's not much I can say that hasn't been said here before, but I would like to raise a point for everyone's information, and consideration. The menu at Fire and Stone informs customers of the following:

"We can remove any ingredient from your pizza but cannot unfortunately add new ones."

Give that a little thought. This must surely mean that they do not have fresh pizza ingredients to hand. Which, in turn, must mean that the pizzas are prepped earlier in the day, and not made to order.

On my visit, one of our party was informed that a certain pizza 'wasn't available.' 'Do you mean you've run out of (a key ingredient)?' 'Umm....yes.'

Upon consideration, I think our waiter was right the first time -- they hadn't run out of an ingredient -- they had, in fact, run out of a pizza: I'm picturing large refrigeration units stacked with pre-made pizzas of predetermined ingredients awaiting heating.

Even Domino's make their pizzas to order. It doesn't matter how ambitious (or digustingly, wildly inappropriate) the toppings are -- if the pizza isn't fresh, you'd do just as well (if not better) with something from your local supermarket. Then you could at least add whatever ingredient you wanted. I find it absolutely shocking that any establishment can get away with this in this day and age -- AVOID.
Comment on this reader review

Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 0
Saturday, May 10, 2008

went for the sunday lunch deal with a group of friends. Have to say overall tend to agree with the negatives more- the pizza bases were bouncy and tasteless, toppings when kept simple were ok, but my 'new yorker' was fatty and didn't work as a combination. Nice decor, waiter was effecient but verging on the curt side of polite, particularly when we took a while to choose our pizzas. For £6 fill up was ok - but if i had eaten a la carte would have felt very cheated.
Comment on this reader review

lynn
Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 5
Wednesday, April 30, 2008

This place is horrendous - the food is awful. I totally agree with other reviews that the bases of the pizza taste stale and dry, the pizza toppings are "imaginative" but leave you feeling sick afterwards and they seem to be overly fond of processed ground meat which is very similar to dog food.

I really would avoid this place, if you like pizza there are a multitude of better places to go!
Comment on this reader review

Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 1
Friday, April 18, 2008

This eatery was loud and music wasn't even good. The service was enthausiastic to start, but when we turned down the waiter's offers for extras such as salads and olives and more wine he became less heplful. The pizzas were tasty but it felt like they were going for quirky rather than tasty, do we really need pizzas with bramley apple sauce and roast potatoes on them? The bill arrived and it included a service charge but the waiter still felt the need for a tip to be added and when it didn't happen he was quite the grump.
Comment on this reader review

VIKKI - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 6
Thursday, March 20, 2008

There is one point, and one point only that needs to be made about this restaurant: It serves diabolical pizza. Absolutely diabolical.

For a start, ground lamb mince, raisins and yoghurt do not belong on a pizza, and neither for that matter does rabbit confit or bratwurst sausage. However, it is not actually these disgusting and inappropriate toppings that caused me to hate this place so much, but the totally incorrect base.

If you're going to have "wacky" toppings you have to at least get the base right, only then is it a pizza at all. However, the bases at fire and stone are covered in cornmeal, the result of which being that the base looks, feels and tastes like a fish finger: dusty, gritty and totally wrong. Even our waitress agreed that the pizza's were a travesty, THE WAITRESS!

If you like italian (or even american) pizza DO NOT EAT HERE. If you are a pleb with no appreciation for proper pizza or proper food, eat yourself silly.
Comment on this reader review

G Miller
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 0
Tuesday, March 11, 2008