Gastro-Pizzeria!!! (Fire and Stone Pizza Restaurant (Covent Garden, London))

Member Name: tazzywazzy

Product:	Fire and Stone Pizza Restaurant (Covent Garden, London)
Date:	20/06/06 (2265 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: I just coined a new phrase

Disadvantages: only if you don't like pizza!

Right, it is the end of the month (got a whole weekend to get through before I am flush again), money is very tight and as a result food is bland and drinking, well that's a can or two of Red Stripe (*in very bad Jamaican accent* big can mon!), as a result, I am finding myself surfing the likes of toptable.com fantasising about where I am going to eat after I hit pay dirt, and for some reason, I always go back to drool over Fire and Stone's extensive pizza menu!

My love affair with Fire and Stone started when I first moved to London back in February, and as they say, the path to true love never runs smoothly, I found the restaurant on toptable.com whilst looking for cheap eats for my friends when they came to my flat warming, but seeing as everyone was coming up from Sunny Tunny Wells for the evening and had to get home, Covent Garden was not an option - my flat was in London Bridge and I wanted to fully show off my lovely 17th floor view!

Oh well another time eh? So I asked my boyfie to go with me, but I got "I only eat pizza at La Porchetta in Islington" ohhh errrr get you!!!! But not to be put off, I could tell that this restaurant and I would get on very well, I was undeterred, so kept bugging him and bugging him and bugging him....oh and then I bugged him some more, but he would not give in.

I even signed up for their Privilege card (more about that later) as an incentive to get boyfie down there, but still nothing!!!

Then a couple of months ago, we were in Covent Garden, traipsing around looking for a pair of trainers for him, I managed to persuade him to go to Fire and Stone, I think that after a few quick calculations in his head he realised that taking me for Pizza was going to be A LOT cheaper than hanging around Covent Garden near the likes of Urban Outfitters, Cath Kidston, Maharishi, Miss Sixty, Joseph, Koh Samui ohhhh *drooooollll*

~The Restaurant~

So reluctantly dragging boyfie down the street (as he was mumbling something about "mumble mumble mumble, La Porcetta mumble mumble mumble Islington mumble mumble don't get potatoes on pizza mumble mumble mumble") we managed to get to said restaurant without too much of a fuss, and we were greeted by a nice lady, that appeared to be the hostess, who promptly seated us.

Upon entering you will either be seated upstairs, straight ahead of you, or downstairs, to your right and down. Upstairs is up about 5/6 steps into a massive expanse of space, the whole place feels really open, clean and modern. The ceiling is really high and you can see all the pipe work on the ceiling, which gives the whole place a kind of industrial chic feeling, the walls are in orange lacquer, cleverly lit from the sides. To the right of the restaurant is the bar area (not really for sitting at, more for the staff to prepare your drinks), in the centre is a long orange "couch" with tables and down the left and right walls are "booths" for parties of 5 or more.

Downstairs is pretty much the same, except the open kitchen is downstairs, and you get to walk past the big stone oven on your way to your seat. Even though there is a massive open kitchen, a massive stone oven and you are underground, it is very well ventilated and cool, in fact when I went with my Momma and sister before going to see Mamma Mia, we were almost cold and had to put some cardi's on!

~The Drinks~

There is a good variety of drinks on offer, nothing extraordinary though, there is a good selection of beers here, compared to other pizza places, such as Pizza Express, ASK or Cafe Uno. There is also quite a good selection of wine, as far as pizza places go and you can also get them by the glass - I also noticed that they do champagne here, I am no champagne expert, and I don't really believe in champagne with pizza, but, if the need should arise for some bubbly, they all seemed reasonable enough.

Soft drinks (if that's your thing) are good and I particularly enjoyed the fact that I could mix my vodka with pomegranate Juice, oh and there was a good selection of farm pressed juices, such as apple & raspberry (ohh refreshing!)

A bonus here for me are the smoothies, and every time I have been in I have eyed up the Chocolate Brownie Shake - rich chocolate brownie, chocolate ice-cream & semi skimmed milk, but the little angel on my shoulder keeps shouting "no!!! don't do it!!!" hopefully one day the angel will get stuck in a traffic jam! There are of course healthier options, like the Tutti Frutti Smoothie - melon, kewi, raspberry, peach and apple juice, but it just doesn't have the same appeal as chocolate brownie in a drink does it?

~Fodder~

OK, Fire and Stone is basically a pizza place, so for those of you who don't like pizza, this probably isn't the place for you, also if you are on any low carb style diet, avoid like the plague, I am assuming that pizza topped with roast potato will send your carb count through the roof!

What sets Fire and Stone aside from the other pizza places are the pizzas themselves, you are not going to get any of the traditional pizzas, what you are getting here is a gourmet pizza! All the pizzas are made fresh, and all ingredients are sourced from local suppliers, the pizza bases are created on site twice a day and you can choose to have any toppings from your pizza removed, although you cannot request extra ones.

OK so still not that special I hear you cry! So lets take a look at their pizza menu - All the pizzas are divided into five groups - five continents, Asia, Europe, Australia, Americas & Africa, within each group are a selection of about 5 pizzas, with names of cities within the given continent and pizzas to represent each city.

So for example the London pizza is crispy bacon, mozzarella, cumberland sausage, sliced black pudding, free range eggs and chives. So that's different - black pudding on a pizza?! I have actually tried this pizza and really enjoyed it, the black pudding slices are really thin and could even pass for large pepperoni slices, it actually works really well!

Other strange toppings include roast potatoes, sour cream, hoi sin sauce & guacamole. Don't be put off by these strange combinations, most of them (well all the ones that I have sampled) have worked - go on be adventurous! Oh and don't worry about the roast potatoes, they are teenie tiny cubes of roast potato and very tasty!!

There are a good range of starters, which include a vegetarian antipasti plate and a Mediterranean antipasti plate (meat), salads, oh and a cold pizza with salmon which looks really good, but the main portions are quite large and filling and to be honest I think that if I ever braved a starter and a main I may pop!

Salads are available for mains, starters, or as a side and there is a relatively good choice of salads, but I really can't comment, why go to a pizza place to eat a salad?

There are desserts on offer, along with a couple of dessert wines, but I am never really one for desserts, I normally take a look at the menu at the beginning of the meal and fantasise about what I would like to have but never follow it through. However carrying on the tradition of the "gastro-pizzeria" (i just made that up, do you think I should trade mark it?) they offer a pizza for dessert - caramel and banana pizza with coconut ice-cream!

*Veggies* Fire and Stone cater extremely well for veggies and there is at least one veggie option per continent and as mentioned before, you can request that certain toppings are not added to your pizza, so you can just choose a pizza without the meat!

~Pricing~

This is a pretty reasonable place, and for the environment, I think that you are getting a good deal for your money, each pizza will come in under 10 squids and a beer, for example is about 3 squids so you are looking at under 15 squids a head and leaving very full and very satisfied.

Fire and Stone often do special offers, so keep and eye out, at the moment they are doing any 2 courses for a tenner, a lunch time special (between 12pm & 4pm) which will entitle you to any pizza or salad from their special menu (choice of about 4 pizzas), and if you are a student and have a valid student card, show your waiter at the beginning of your meal, buy two full price pizzas - get a bottle a' plonk for free!

Privilege card - go to the Fire and Stone website and sign up for a Privilege card, fill in your name and address, sign up for their monthly digital news letter and get your privilege card sent to you in the post (normally takes about 7-10 working days) and then you are entitled to 10% off your total bill (not in conjunction with any other offers) when ever you dine at Fire and Stone, you can even use your card at The Rock Garden (just up the road) & The Katana at The International and receive your 10% discount - just hand them your card when you ask for the bill.

~My Opinions~

I love Fire & Stone, the interior is chic and modern and makes you feel like you are in quite an expensive restaurant, the service is good, and the staff are all really friendly, also I think it is policy that the staff need to be suitable eye-candy as there are quite a few tasty specimens which unfortunately do not seem to be available on the menu!

The cost of a meal is excellent value, and the novelty of the pizza toppings are always a talking point, each time that I have been to Fire and Stone, I have picked really quite times, I tend to go late afternoon (after 3) or early evening (before 7) and the restaurant has been fairly empty, but there is always a slow trickle of customers coming through the door.

The restaurant overall is clean and well ventilated, the toilets are a good solid 9, lots of stalls, lots of loo roll, but there is a minor problem - the sinks look great, really contemporary and modern, but they do tend to splash so be warned!

You can see the full menu and get your privilege card by visiting fireandstone.com, the site is really easy to navigate as it is quite small.

~The Location~

Located on Maiden Lane it is very easy to get to, you can walk there from Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, The Strand, Charing Cross, Embankment, so none of you have any excuse for not going - well i suppose if you don't live in London then you kind of do, but as for the rest of you!

So picture this, you are in Covent Garden, shopping, maybe in Cath Kidston's, maybe at Maharishi's and then oh no! Shopping time is being interfered with, you feel your tummy begin to speak to you! Not a problem, Fire and Stone is just down the road....

...ok so maybe shopping isn't your thing, you are in town to see a play and you are a bit peckish, want some good food at a reasonable price - Go to Fire and Stone!!!

....try another scenario, you are waiting for a train at Charing Cross and you have got a mammoth trek back home and you can hear your tummy growling....so what are you waiting for?! Walk up the Strand and go to Fire and Stone!

I think you get the picture....if you are in the area GO, do not pass GO, do not collect your 200 squids, just GO!!!!

Summary: industrial chic gastro pizzeria