Fireback — Restaurant in Goa

At what point exactly does the ship of Theseus stops being the ship of Theseus? This paradox lingered over my head as my wife and I tried enjoying our first meal at this celebrated new restaurant. First things first, Fireback is a generously modern space, the glass house building stands out amidst the background of St. Anthony’s Church and the beautifully restored Portuguese bungalow that houses Hosa, its older cousin. The place is not Goa, but it’s minimalist grandeur is soothing to the eye and the entire teams comes across as warm, earnest and willing to engage and explain the offerings from the menu, as you would expect from a celebrated F&B house. Being a Goa resident now and lover of Thai food, I seriously missed a good Thai place here, between the forgettable offering at Coco Thai and sometimes remarkable and oftentimes disinterested food of Thai and Wok, there isn’t any Thai restaurant in town. It was an impromptu decision to visit Fireback and I tried reading a bit about David Thompson, the celebrity chef leading the venture, being further excited by his achievements as a culinary expert, my hunger and expectations rose a bit more than usual. He seems like one of those likeable chefs who don’t take his accolades seriously and is more interested in the generosity of Thai cuisine than anything else. However, did he miss a point with the offerings at Fireback, or his vision didn’t exactly translate to the plates? Thai cuisine is vast and what we identify as Thai cuisine in India is at best Bangkok cuisine, with an overindulgence of galangal and chilli. I wanted Fireback to be different and it was, though not in the exact manner I expected. We started with a small plate of Fried Pork Belly served with charred cabbage and a Tamarind dip that had absolutely no signs of Thai flavours even after trying to wrap it with cabbage leaves and a generous amount of the dip, not that it was unpalatable, it wasn’t Thai food, just nicely fried pieces of pork belly. Not totally dismayed, we moved on to the main course, enjoying our cocktails in the meantime, Pandan, a gin based cocktail came out brilliant and kept us engaged. We opted for the Soft Shell Crab Red Curry along with steamed jasmine rice. Now, this was a little bit of a deal breaker for us as I took a generous spoonful of the curry to take in the balance of a good thai curry that I love and was missing, the most overwhelming flavour that stood out of the curry was of the shallots, lacking the balance between the main flavours, it tasted surprisingly umami, definitely not what you expect. Not able to hold on to this overwhelming urge to talk to someone about this food, we called the chef and a genuinely interested Chef Swatantra greeted us with warmth and tried explaining the process of the dish on my table. It came from a good place but sounded like a person going on describing horse breeds when you just wanted them to ride a pony. However, cut to the chase, I asked chef to get me a little bit of their green curry to taste as by now I started doubting my taste buds. The green curry came in and it was so mid that we unanimously asked for the cheque, thanking chef Swantantra for his engagement. Food makes us happy, good food transports us to a different place, sometimes to the origin of that food, or to a happy place that we cherish. If it’s unable to do either of the two, it’s pretentious wannabe food that should be avoided or as Baloo says in the Jungle book, it’s not a song, it’s propaganda! I am willing to go back to Fireback, try some more offering from the menu as I love Thai food but I hope it would not be one of those toxic relationships where you go back to the abusive partner thinking they will change this time.

So, going back to Ship of Theseus, if overtime you change all the old parts and replace them with new ones to a point that there is nothing original that remained, would you still call it The Ship of Theseus? It’s a paradox and there no...

Let's start with the fact that all the positive reviews seem to have been written by the owners' friends. Because the food in this establishment causes nothing but heartburn and disappointment. Especially considering the cost of this food. The noodles are overcooked - I don't know how it was possible to cook pad thai at all, and in this form it was practically a sticky mass of pasta, which is too proud to call pad thai. In Pad Thai , I found six micro shrimps, the absence of shrimps was masked by pieces of tofu. There were no vegetables at all. As in general, vegetables were disregarded in the vegetable Pad Thai, where I only found baby corn and green onions in small quantities. Its cost 1k but at the same time you feel like they saved on you on everything . The soup is small and not tasty. There is no white soup at all. And they even skimped on the rice, which is traditionally served with the soup... Do they skimp on rice in India?) The music was disgusting, listening to pop music and not being able to switch it off is a separate kind of suffering. As a result: the tables are crowded, if you imagine that the restaurant will be completely full then you will not even be able to talk because the distance between the tables is about 50 cm. The food is not tasty and cooked incorrectly. The appetizers are small, more than 100 rupees. I would not pay for them, but they cost 600. In Pad Thai there are no shrimps and vegetables, and even the noodles themselves are overcooked and the cook does not know the meaning of the word al dente. A reasonable question arises, what are you paying money for, and the average bill excluding drinks is 5-7 thousand rupees. Although the service is good. The waiters are attentive. But even this cannot distract from the objectively bad food that is not worth this money. If I were brought such food in a cafe, I would not be surprised. But receiving such food in a restaurant of this level is beyond good and evil. one star is a compliment to this establishment because the level of food does not even reach the level of a third-rate eatery in a middle of nowhere,...

Delicious food, well presented and elevated by The Best Service experienced at a restaurant ever 🙌

We were very well looked after by Jacob. His recommendations were on point. He engaged us in conversations without being overbearing.

His polite, warm and friendly demeanor elevated our dining experience.

One of the dishes was too salty for our liking. Jacob conveyed this feedback to the kitchen.

A few moments later Chef Kaustubh was at our table to check in on our dining experience. Chef Kaustubh and Jacob offered to replace the salty dish multiple times. We had moved on to the main course by then so ended up politely declining their request 😇

The team at Fireback had other ideas though and they served a Chef's special Poultry main course dish alongwith with our order.

Our group savoured the below dishes;

Pineapple Som Tam - Refreshing and delicious.

Grilled Chicken Skewers - The chicken was perfectly cooked. Tender, Moist and Delicious 😋

Phad Thai - Super Yummy🤤

Green Curry - Simply Outstanding 😄

The final invoice did not include the dish that we had found to be too salty.

We shall forever have fond memories of The attentive service right from the Hostess greetings us and walking us to our table, Jacob's attentive and personalised service as well as the Farewells till we reached the...