Firehouse — Restaurant in Great Britain

I feel very conflicted leaving this review. I have spent weeks drooling over all their socials of Lots of juicy succulent meats beautiful presented. The food really does look amazing and so when I was surprised with a birthday treat yesterday I was ridiculously excited. Maybe my expectations were too high/wrong. But I felt so disappointed that we left in 45 minutes.

We went on a Thursday night to the all you can eat buffet which is £35 per person and includes your drinks.

On arrival we were pretty much ignored by three members of staff, there was no welcome, just a request for a name. We were pointed to our table, which weirdly, despite the place being half empty, we were given a table right in front of the buffet which made us feel like we were sitting in a goldfish bowl as everyone queued up. I assumed all the other, much nicer, tables were reserved. They weren't. Hardly anyone else came in after us.

We were told the drinks were included but not cocktails or spirits - fair enough - but we couldn't have alcohol anyway as we had travelled over an hour to get here. The waitress took our drink order and wandered off leaving us to it. We had no idea what to do so we sat and waited to see what everyone else was doing. There were no plates. You eat your dinner off a plastic tray. It all felt a little bit Butlins, and rather cheap. That was the first hurdle. The second was that there was no food. All the containers were empty apart from some battered chicken wings, the dry end of corn bread, two dry ribs, some claggy macaroni and the chips. We took what we could and ate. It was all cold bar the chicken wings however they were so greasy they were actually dripping. Yuk. We waited and waited and eventually some of the food was topped up. We went back for round two - I had corn, chicken and some indeterminable meat which may have been beef but to be honest everything tasted the same anyway. Neither of us could finish it and it waa a game of who was going to crack first and tell the other how they felt. Turns out we both agreed to cut our losses and run.

We had already asked for a drink top up and waited so long that we were preparing to leave as it was delivered. We had a mouthful and left.

The rest of the diners seemed to be loudly enjoying the 6 drinks for £35 and munching on whatever in between - and if you've gone out for that reason I guess it's a bargain. But we hadn't, we'd come out for a really nice birthday meal and sat in a goldfish bowl, eating below par food feeling really disillusioned.

I do wonder if we'd come for a normal night whether or would have been any better, because, like I say, the food LOOKS amazing online. You might get a bit more finesse and pride in what they are delivering.

Sadly our experience was not what we'd expected so we paid our £70, left in 45 minutes and are unlikely to go back.

And that is a real shame because I hadn't been looking forward to visiting a restaurant that much in years!

The idea really has legs, and all the other reviews seem to be glowing so don't necessarily be put off by my review - go and see for yourself. Maybe it was just an off night.

For Firehouse themselves: staff training on friendliness, smiling and attentiveness is a must. Ditch the plastic trays. Mix up the flavours and create this as the go-to restaurant it could be. Customer experience needs to take priority unless you are actively marketing to those people who want to get tipsy cheaply and eat anything while doing so.

Sorry to leave this review but I hope that it helps to let you know how we were feeling and that you can...

all you can eat Mondays £35 per person with 6 drinks included 90 min sitting time. staff are friendly and helpful seat you quickly and explain how things work. food offered is as follows

chips with seasoning on some (over cooked and mostly greasy)

beans (its beans not much to say on it)

Mac and cheese (dry and tasteless)

deep fried pickles (batter was a bit underdone and the pickle looses its flavour from the deep fry)

Corn bread (fried) i had one bit that was nice and the second was not so good

Corn on the cob (mushy needs more butter)

two different types of pulled pork (both of these are decent )

burnt ends (pork belly) these were not bad

pork ribs (stone cold and not very nice)

smoky pork Sausage (this was nice )

chicken wings (smoky chicken wing was not bad)

pickles (not good pickles i am assuming a brand name pickle from a jar my recommendation would be to buy better pickles)

coleslaw (was a basic slaw nothing special)

dried fried onions (use these to and taste to the mac and cheese)

and a selection of sauces

not one bit of beef or any other option than pork. the 6 drinks which you will not use all 6 as you have only 90 mins has a decent range of options from house wine to bottles of beer and soft drinks.

we managed two trays of food before we got so bored with it we left.

also the tray and paper sheet for eating off i understand the idea but perhaps use a more substantial grease proof paper so its not constantly ripping and bits going into your food.

the front of the place is a bar and quite grungy they have their meat fridge just at the door as you walk in which is odd.

there is next to no parking at the place.

overall its absolutely not worth the £35 price tag.

We wont be back and i would recommend avoiding the all you can eat as an option perhaps the place is better when not all you can eat.

should be called all you can eat pork Mondays

there was a large group in so it was very loud with them i would imagine normally its not so noisy.

In response to the reply below. I asked the server and the cook making the food what they were and was told both are pork so unless your own cook has no idea what they are cooking i doubt...

Visited to celebrate my husband's birthday and we were absolutely blown away! The atmosphere was very chilled out, our server (whose name I didn't catch but he was Irish) was so friendly, chatty and warm. Instantly lovely! We sat at the pit masters section outside next to the smoker, the smell was delicious and the man working the smoker chatted away and gave us some very good recommendations. We went for the 3 meat combo so that also came with 2 sides, 3 dips and coleslaw. We tried the Dino rib, beef brisket and burnt ends and had macaroni and seasoned fried to go with it. It came out SO QUICKLY and everything was piping hot, was such a huge pile of food! Can't even explain how delicious it was, the burnt ends were both our favourite and the macaroni was exceptionally cheesy (I've been thinking about it about once a day since we visited). My husband loved the ranch dip and it was amazing how much flavour was packed into each of the meats- everything was tender and just magic. They put the coleslaw in a side basket for my husband as I'm not a fan but he said it was the best coleslaw he's had in ages. It was £50 for the 3 meat combo and considering how much food, the quality of food and the genuinely exceptional service it was more than worth it- my husband has a good appetite and I'm 8 months pregnant (so nearly a bottomless pit when it comes to food) and we didn't manage to finish it all- the 3 meat combo could comfortably feed 3 or maybe 4 if you added an extra side. Love, love, loved it here and have already started planning a return visit to bring family and friends, such a warm...