Fire & Food — Restaurant in Florida

This place suffers from an identity crisis.

The outside has a sign with a sloth saying "Fire and Food" whilst advertising gyros and pizza. This indicates quirky, contemporary dining to me. When you drive up, the building has a neon sign advertising ice cream and cookies. When you go in, it looks like a hodge-podge of a contemporary pizza bar, an ice cream bar, a Long John Silver's, and a cheap sushi bar.

The pizza station was not being manned and just was a dead zone in the corner. The motif was disorganized and lacked any coherence or forethought. In the back was an ice cream parlor...which made no sense.

They lacked typical menus. It was just sheets of paper stapled in the corner. They reminded me of invoiced and job orders...like you'd see on a construction site or in a manufacturing plant's office.

The dolma was canned. The gyro meat was premade. The pitas were the same pitas every gyro truck uses. Even the hummus was premade. Nothing required any talent or skill to fix because everything was premade from a supply company.

The menu indicated that the restaurant was Turkish. Nothing about the food, menu items, décor, name, or logo said "Turkish." Their sign said "pizzas" but there wasn't any sign of a pizza in the whole restaurant...barring the unused pizza oven in the front of the building. They offered fresh fish, but nothing indicated to me that this would be a place I'd trust to order seafood...let alone actually ferret out for seafood.

The staff was pleasant enough and the restaurant was clean enough. The lack of music and ambiance was bracing.

Because everything was practically premade, I can't fault the food too much because someone other than them made the food. They just either took it out of a can/jar or reheated and cut an item to plate. A high school dropout could even manage to do that right.

What I find offensive is the price they charged for premade food.

I hope they get their act together and decide what they want to be.

If they are going to claim to be a Turkish restaurant, then they need to offer a plethora of Turkish items on the menu...not Greek and Italian and whatever. Get right of the sloth, get rid of the Long John Silver's inside, stop selling jewelry, get rid of the pizza oven, get rid of the ice cream bar, have Turkish music playing, and embrace the Turkish heritage they are indicating they want to claim.

If they are going to be quirky contemporary, then have fire elements going in the restaurant, contemporary music playing, a pizza oven going, get rid of the Long John Silver's lanterns and lighting for something edgy, drop the seafood, and offer something quirky and fun and contemporary.

Above all else, show some pride in ownership. Get real menus and have a theme so that people know exactly what to expect.

Right now, this place is just a hot mess selling...

Having heard positive things about Fire and Food restaurant in Milton, Florida, I was eager to try out their offerings and support a local establishment. However, my experience left much to be desired.

Our server was a bright spot in the experience. He was friendly and informed us that the restaurant had been moved to Milton after operating in Pensacola Beach for 16 years. This news heightened my anticipation for what I assumed would be a well-executed meal, given their extensive experience in a bustling tourist location.

Regrettably, this expectation was left unfulfilled. Our takeout order took nearly an hour to be prepared, a delay that seemed excessive considering the simplicity of our order. My son ordered a lamb kebab wrap which he thoroughly enjoyed, but my Hawaii Five-0 chicken sandwich and my wife's three-piece chicken tenders were merely okay.

It's disheartening to see the potential of Fire and Food unutilized in this way. Milton is in desperate need of high-quality restaurants, especially considering the number of establishments that didn't survive the pandemic.

We are moving away from Milton soon, so the opportunity to give Fire and Food another chance is unlikely. The fact that we weren't offered an apology or explanation for the long wait was the final disappointment. Despite the positive aspects of our visit, the overall experience was marred by slow service and mediocre food. I hope the restaurant can improve in these areas for the benefit of...

I went and ordered take out after reading the wonderful reviews. I assumed the few bad ones were just people that you can't please, but unfortunately I did not have a good experience at all. It was so disappointing to spend $50 for 2 meals and they were only halfway edible. I ordered the grouper basket and the other meal was chicken parmesan along with fried cheese sticks. The fried cheese sticks were the only things that were ok. The grouper was undercooked along with the french fries which was a surprise because of all the great things people said about the fried foods being amazing. The chicken parmesan was the strangest I have ever seen. They weren't busy so I can't give them a pass for that. I don't know why they completely fail sometimes but seem to get it great most of the other times. I sure wish I had been one of the great times because it is such a blow to throw away $50 these days. Especially when a dog that eats anything wouldn't even eat the food. I don't think I will risk wasting that much money to try them again even though I really wanted to leave a great review after eating a wonderful meal. I feel it is a roll of the dice whether you have a delicious meal or not so it depends on how lucky you...