It was a long time since I’d visited “The Fire Station”:http://thefirestationwaterloo.com/, conveniently situated just outside Waterloo Station. At the time, it was a lively bar with a relatively fine dining restaurant at the back.
A friend suggested meeting for lunch and checking out the menu beforehand found it had changed considerably and was now basically a burger/pizza place with a small selection of salads and snacks. However, this suited both of us and as we weren’t eating until 12.45pm, I booked online.
There are two parts dedicated to eating: the original one at the back and one down the side. I’m not quite sure what the difference is, if indeed there is.
The “menu”:http://thefirestationwaterloo.com/files/menus/190718-081308-The_Fire_Station_All_Day_Menu.pdf is like a newspaper and we both chose our favourite dishes. A cheeseburger (£9) which was a double beef patty, double cheese, burger sauce, lettuce and tomato and side of fries (£2.50) which appeared to go down well and for me a pizza (£12.50) topped with pepperoni, ‘Nduja sausage, prosciutto, marinated buffalo mozzarella, sweet red peppers, tomato sauce and Old Winchester cheese. I liked the fact it said ‘beware it’s spicy’ at the end. It was probably one of the best pizza’s I’ve had for a while with a really thin and crispy base and plenty of fire in the topping.
There was a good selection of drinks on the “menu”:http://thefirestationwaterloo.com/files/menus/240718-105237-TFS_Drinks_Menu_Summer_2018.pdf and a bottle of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc was well priced at £20.50.
Interestingly there are only two puddings: a tropical mess and a chocolate donut mess. Both are priced at £8 and our server said they were great for sharing. But it’s not so great if you just want a pudding for one. I was persuaded to share the chocolate mess which came in a large glass and contained chocolate hazelnut sauce, vanilla ice cream, honeycomb, flake, chocolate covered donuts. It was all topped with huge amounts of squirty cream. It’s not something I’d recommend particularly as we had to deconstruct to take off the cream which neither of us liked.
The service was good, but the ladies toilets were in an horrendous state and having pointed this out to the manager, he went beetling off to sort the problem out.
This is a popular place for after work drinks and as we left at 3.30pm, it was just starting to get busy. As well as being handy for Waterloo, it’s a good place to eat before going to the Old Vic.
