Fire & Stone Pizza

This place is absolutely dire. The pizzas are vile, the service is rubbish and the theme is tenuous to say the least (is the Australian national pizza really brie and apricot)? Even if I was dying of starvation I would rather go elsewhere.

18/05/11

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I went for a meal last Friday evening and it was half empty. I now realise why. The pizzas were awful: for £8-9 I had expected something pretty good, but I considered them worse than supermarket bought pizza. I found the dough too salty, the toppings bland and the service dreadful. When asked whether I had enjoyed my pizza I replied 'not really', which was answered with an automated 'great'. In future I will head to a different pizza restaurant.

Greg (Unverified), 08/08/10

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We only went to Fire and Stone this week because they had a board outside offering pizzas for £4 on Thursdays, which makes most pizzas less than half price.

It's a lovely restaurant inside - much smarter than it ever was when it was Old Orleans! The staff are friendly and service is quick (perhaps a little too quick in the case of food arriving). But the food? Distinctly average. Diners used to the thin and crispy pizzas that hang off the edge of the plate in ASK or Zizzi will be disappointed with the tiny size of Fire and Stone's offerings on bases which try to be thin and crispy but are really neither. Despite what the menu would have you believe, the toppings are hardly premuim - my Maui (aka Hawaiian) came with tasteless tomato sauce, ham, pineapple and the nasties, most plasticky mozzarella I've ever tasted - and this on a pizza that should have cost almost a tenner full price. They do, to their credit, provide chilli oil on the tables for that extra kick.

Drinks are very expensive too - over £6 for a large glass of rose and cocktails in the region of £8. In short, go when there's an offer on, but at full price it would be a total rip-off.

Green (DI User), 08/07/10

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I went to Fire & Stone on Tuesday and it was fantastic! There were 6 of us and we had a great time. We shared starters and they were all excellent. I had a prima vera pasta which was delicious. Everyone else really enjoyed their main courses. I tasted my boyfriend's Marrakech pizza and it was yummy. Service was good, loos were clean and my glass of wine made it all perfect. A really great place to hang out and eat good food.

JD (Unverified), 01/07/10

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I ate at Fire and Stone last night with a group of 11. We had pre-booked, but the space they had reserved for us wasn't really big enough. It was good that the 12th person didn't come. Silly, as they had lots of empty tables.

And then we tasted the pizza and realised why there were lots of empty tables - my La Reine tasted like it had been made on a frisbee with low-quality toppings.

I won't be going again.

Gordon (Unverified), 09/06/10

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Just got back from a pleasant lunch at Fire and Stone for 2 adults, one 7 yr old and one baby. It was bank holiday Monday so the upstairs bit was quite full so we were directed downstairs, I asked about a lift for the pushchair and although they didn't have one this wasn't a problem at all as the manager got two very helpful waiters to carry it down for me (now that's service for you!)

All of the waiters were extremely friendly to both me and my friend and the children. This half term, they have a special offer where the children eat free which is a great way to pull in the family, they also had a competition for the children which was a great way in keeping them entertained, alongside the pack and colouring which was offered too.

We opted not to have starters and spent quite a while looking at the menu trying to decide what to choose - there is such a choice it's actually quite dazzling! I opted to have a New York Pizza with caramelised onions and garlic roast potatoes and ham and asked for the sour cream not to be added and this wasn't a problem at all.

The food came very quickly and was really delicious and would definitely visit this place again!

MusicalJules (Unverified), 30/05/10

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Don't go here whatever you do. The music and décor resembles that of a airport lounge and the pizzas are stodgy and greasy, with appalling bases. Mine was covered in unhealthy cheap cheese and other options included bizarre toppings such as potato (carb overload or what). I wouldn't even suggest going here on the two for £10 offer. Even a pizza from your local kebab house would be cheaper and equally as good as the offerings at Fire and Stone. If your taste buds have any sensation left in them, then avoid eating there.

Hakeem (Unverified), 18/05/10

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Nice, interesting pizza combinations. However they are pretty small and the bases aren't great. At 2 for £10 its worth going, but at regular prices I would think twice. One to try out, but maybe not regularly frequent.

AR (Unverified), 16/05/10

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Went to Fire and Stone last night and it was dreadful. The pizza toppings were bland and the pizza bases tasted awful. Defintely won't be going there again.

Jon (Unverified), 11/05/10

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Fire & Stone offers, overall, a very pleasant dining experience. I visited with a friend last night and was, on the whole, impressed.

On entering, the welcome was warm, and we were shown to a table by the window. As is often the case in larger restaurants, we were then looked after by another waiter for the rest of the evening, and his service was simply excellent. He was friendly, cheerful and very helpful (even dancing around the restaurant at one point, which was funny, if slightly odd!).

A word of warning - Fire & Stone is not, by any means, cheap. My friend and I had been sent a "2 pizzas for £10" voucher, meaning our meal was nowhere near as expensive as it would have been. As a rough guide, starters are anywhere from £2.50 - £6ish, all main course pizzas bar the plain cheese and tomato weigh in at £8.95, and desserts range from £3 - £5.

To the food itself, then, and to start we ordered a garlic bread with mozzarella (£2.95) and a vegetarian antipasto selection (£6-7, I can't remember exactly), all to share between us. The selection consisted of pitta bread, hummus, dressed salad, pitted black olives, stuffed vine leaves, braised butter beans in tomato sauce, semi-dried tomatoes and marinated artichoke hearts. As a relative newcomer to most vegetarian cuisine, I can't stress enough how impressed I was with the antipasto - everything was absolutely superb. The braised butter beans in particular were really surprisingly delicious. The selection was easily enough as a starter, and the quality of everything on it was - just - good enough to warrant the slightly high price. The garlic bread was also very good, a different take on it to the sort you see most places, which is refreshing.

On to the main courses, and my friend had a 'Thai-style' vegetarian pizza (I forget the name), which had on it sweet potato (I think), various other vegetables, onion, etc, in a Thai-style yellow curry sauce. It was very well received. I had the 'New York' pizza, which consisted of bacon pieces, potato, cheese, tomato sauce, sweet onion chutney and sour cream. This is really rather a good combination when you get all of the flavours together. A shame, then, that the sour cream came a dollop in the middle of the pizza, and the chutney was also dotted around the pizza in blobs, meaning it was overpowering where there was some and bland where there wasn't. But still, overall the pizzas are good (though I'm not sure they're big - or good - enough to warrant paying £9 a piece for).

We'd just about enough room left for a dessert, and my friend had brownie and ice-cream, which seemed fine, and I had lemon and vanilla cheesecake (which came in a small glass tumbler and was really more like a mousse on biscuit, with not a lot of flavour, but was still agreeable). The final bill (including the voucher offer), for two starters, two pizzas, two desserts and three Diet Cokes came to £33. Not bad, then, but when you consider that if we'd paid full price for the pizzas, this would have been £40, it's really not that cheap for the food you get.

Despite this, though, we had a thoroughly enjoyable time. Food ranged from good to excellent, service was top-notch, and the place has a really nice ambience. Just don't go there if you're saving your pennies - and one final tip, if you ask for a glass of water, make sure to emphasise that you want tap water unless you fancy paying £3 a pop for mineral!

WTD (Unverified), 28/04/10

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This is one of the worst places we have ever been to. Our standards that particular night were low, given that we were very tired and hungry. And yet, the pizzas made us feel queasy afterwards. That the pizza bases are small is not really a problem; quite to the contrary, given that they are also hard, thick and heavy. Toppings tasted cheap (despite the price) and bland. Unless you hate yourself or your friends, avoid the 'Capetown' pizza, which is slathered in a plasticky imitation of mince.

But nothing compares to the unique experience of having waffles. For a place called 'Fire & Stone', one would expect that at the very least they would defreeze the waffles sufficiently. Well, no, the waffles were colder than the ice cream on top of them, and had to be sent back. To their credit, the staff offered tea and free desert, though this time the waffles were stale, crusty and equally difficult to cut (not to mention that the damage to our stomachs is difficult to estimate at this stage).

Both the food and the service showed obvious signs of underinvestment. For your own sake, we'd recommend steering clear of this place.

Warrington Mince (Unverified), 10/02/10

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Wow, a really great restaurant. I'm not easily impressed by a restaurant, but this one really ticks all the boxes. I went with three friends last Saturday. The food was excellent; at first some of the pizza combinations seem strange, but trust me, they work - I had the marakesh. The service was slick, attentive and friendly, and the decor was trendy but relaxed. Will definitely be going back. Excellent value for a nice night out.

happy days (Unverified), 18/01/10

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I do not agree! I'm a student and I went with all my room-mates to eat in Fire & Stone Oxford two days ago, and all of them found the service and the pizzas so good!! Even my friend Carla from Italy said that the pizzas were brilliant... Maybe we were in another place, because the restaurant that we visited, I'm sure, that is not the same as the one that you're talking about.

Flat number 5 (Unverified), 13/01/10

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The place looks great and the staff were very friendly and helpful but the pizzas were poor. We had the London and the New York pizzas but the bases didn't seem fresh, and the toppings appeared to be bland and cheap. When there are several other places nearby doing really nice pizzas it seems incredible that a restaurant serving only pizza could do a bad job. Also with each pizza costing the best part of £10 it's not a cheap place either.

Caddy (DI User), 12/01/10

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Yes, I agree with the comments below. I'm not convinced the pizzas were big enough to represent value for money (£8.50 each), particularly when compared to Pizza Express or the brilliant Fratellis on Cowley Road. The actual toppings were nice, I had a Napoli which had lovely anchovies on there. We also had the Brushetta to share which was nice but seemed to lack zest due to the absence of tomato!

However, the service was good and it would be a good place to go for a drink before the theatre.

Doogle (Unverified), 09/01/10

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The first thing you notice as you enter Fire and Stone on George Street is the stylish central column, adorned with a multitude of mirrors at different angles.

Savour the moment, because - if our experience was anything to go by - it'll probably be the high point of your dining experience.

The pizza menu is eclectic, but I was prepared to give it a go and ordered the San Daniel pizza ("Fire and Stone’s tomato sauce, spicy chorizo sausage, grated mozzarella, garlic and rosemary roast potatoes, fire roasted red peppers topped with aioli"). Whilst the presentation was good, the quality of the food itself was not. The base was rather dry, and the combinations of toppings (all internationally themed) were at best gimmicky; to me they didn't really make sense.

Our meal came to £20/head, including wine and coffees. It wasn't expensive as such, but it certainly wasn't good value given the quality of the food and drink. At the end of the meal I ordered biscotti to go with my double expresso, these two items came to £5 in total. I feel that special mention should go to the biscotti - four slithers of which were presented symetrically on a square side plate. It wasn't even a whole biscotti and I had ordered it as a seperate item.

In summary, I would say that Fire and Stone was all style and no substance.
I certainly won't be making a return visit.

The Worm (Unverified), 04/01/10

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Yes, it's cheesy and synthetic, and they were playing Christmas music on the first of December, but if you're looking for a quick pre- or post-theatre drink in George Street, you could do worse. We nipped in there with 10 minutes to go till curtain up and asked the bartender what was the quickest cocktail she could mix. Far from glazedly muttering at us like a conventional chain employee, she advised us sensibly and provided two cheap and cheerful Cosmopolitans for £5.75 the pair.

The interior is so tacky it's rather fun - lots of suspiciously shiny veneered wood and hotel carpeting. It's like being inside something you might have won in a cracker. But it's reasonably spacious and the design of any individual item isn't actually offensive. The ambience is definitely plasticky but no one item is to blame for that.

It's going to be rammed on a Friday and Saturday, and it's probably not a good choice if you're looking to impress a date with your discernment and financial standing, but it doesn't pretend to be what it's not, and we found the service excellent.

Minnie the Muncher (DI User), 03/12/08

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