The Fire Station, Waterloo (Invited Review) (published 15th July 2015)
The Fire Station, Waterloo - The Fire Station menu consists of burgers and pizzas. And your vegetarian friend will not be alienated with the mushroom burger as a possibility. Their pizzas had the thinnest crispiest base; not bulked with stodgy bread. A side of extra carbohydrates in the form of garlic or tomato bread are available, if you wish to fill up later. It was an easy choice to pick from the menu but if you decide to have the beef burgers they are served well-cooked; there is no option as to how you want the meat cooked. I was not impressed considering that the menu is similar to that of a fast food burger chain, The Fire Station, is more upmarket, serves booze and provided service - so I would have expected a little more attention to how my piece of meat is cooked. Like I said, it did not take us long to decide and the food too, was served quite immediately.
With Ivy, Sharmin and Jeremy we were already tucking in to the first burger - buttermilk fried chicken with spicy mayo, spicy coleslaw and little gem £8.50. Forgotten the very much needed picture!
glazed short rib 6 oz dry aged beef patty, balsamic glazed short rib, American mustard mayo, sliced beef tomato, little gem £10.95 - the short rib looked dry but was indeed quite moist and slighlty sweet. The bun however was not such a good choice for that price.
black and gold 6 oz dry aged beef patty, black pudding, double cheese, american mustard mayo, sliced beef tomato, little gem £9.95 - the burger was very tasty, but given the choice, I would have preferred it medium-rare. Unfortunately, the black pudding was a bit overwhelmed by the other flavours but all round a pretty decent burger.
smoked mackarel, king prawns, confit garlic butter base, marinated mozarella, mascarpone, rocket, soft boiled egg £12.50 - when I saw those lovely plump prawns, I am beginning to regret ordering a burger. It was possibly the thinnest pizza base I have ever seen. It was very crispy and was lovely with the different softer textures as the topping.
The wine menu was small but had interesting selection of wine. Our bottle of French from Bordeaux had the Saint Emilion Grand Cru appellation. The Bordeaux is a French wine region which has enough sub-divisions of appellation that make my head spin, especially after a few glasses of wine! This wine was quite full bodied with deep crimson colour and was very easy to drink. Definitely a good French wine and at £45.00 per bottle, I thought, was quite well priced. The cocktails (from £8.25), beers, ales and cider menu (from £ 4.50) had more variety. Prosecco from £5.00 per glass to a bottle at £125.00.
The building was so iconic, it did not need a front door number. Location was great and easy to find. You will definitely recognise it. Just in case you have not seen enough photos of it, here you go. Come out of Waterloo station turn right on to Waterloo Road and the building is on your right.
I like the interior very much. Parts of the building were retained and put to good use. It gives a trendy and classy edge to the interior.
Service was very friendly, and it was not just to us. The food was on the mediocre side but the front of house team made the evening so welcoming that I am marking The Fire Station as a possible place to meet friends in Central London for a quick catch up. If the music had been less upbeat and slightly quieter, I would have stayed longer for puddings and drinks.
On Thursday evening, The Fire Station was packed. It was only just opened and was very humble to say that they were still trying things out. But I am sure they must have done this before because they handled the evening quite brilliantly. It was quite a rarity to find four people greeting you as you came in through the doors. Ushers were definitely quite handy for the sizable fire station.
What I thought would be better was if the history of The Fire Station was more augmented. I don't really know the history of the building is but I'm sure that there is an interesting story to tell. read more