Geoff N.
Yelp
My experience is based on one visit, so our party's choices may not accurately reflect the offerings for which The Firehouse Restaurant is best known. I personally did not the beef offerings, so it may be we missed the boat. Given this is so, I will limit myself to the three standard components of the experience: ambience, service and the cuisine itself.
The restaurant itself is a very pleasant location. A converted firehouse, it plays into its physical roots, with brass poles and other accruements of an age gone by (this is especially true in the bar area). The dining room is handsome, and gives off old school Northern California vibes. Formally set tables, large paintings of the Romantic school, and whitewashed brick walls sets the scene for elegant dining. I was greatly impressed with look and feel of this establishment.
The service was generally good. Our waiter was polite, if occasionally a bit too unctuous. He did his best to navigate our large-ish party on a busy and crowded Saturday night. When we arrived for our meal, the restaurant was entirely full. So while there were gaps in the service, I give staff props for trying to provide food and drink in a timely away.
That does lead to the meal itself and in this regard, there was much to be desired. They did have an impressive wine list and I enjoyed a decent Californian white and a French red. My wife, not a drinker, ordered a cucumber-mint mocktail, which she found quite refreshing.
But as to the food itself? I would say that the menu is ambitious in scope and amateurish in execution. Our starters, which should have been slam dunks, left us shaking our heads. I had the Wedge salad and she the shrimp fritters. Both were ample in quantity, but were crudely prepared. While perfectly edible, they hardly boasted any particular quality. Indeed, my salad was not as good as one I had for lunch in an inexpensive cafe earlier in the day.
Our mains were similarly disappointing. My wife had the rack of lamb. Again, ample in size, but also underdone. I had a specialty of the evening, salmon with an accompanying seafood mixture, which was described as a kind of thick cioppino. It turned out to be a slightly overdone salmon fillet with a tomato-fish accompaniment. It was not a salubrious experiment. Again, it was perfectly edible, but showing a real lack of culinary refinement.
To be fair, others in our party did order the strip steak and fillet mignon, and seemed happy with their choices. But FR I think has ambitions to being more than a chophouse. Right now, that is where I would put it.
The one bright spot in terms of food was dessert. The churros-tres leches cake was excellent, the vanilla cake just soaked enough. Similarly, the coffee-mousse entremets was flavorful and showed real culinary flair. So kudos on the afters.
Taken as a whole, I had a pleasant time at Firehouse. It was a great spot to have a nice night out. But I couldn't in good conscience recommend it on the food alone. If you are satisfied with the experience, by all means go.
