Coal Fire - Gaithersburg — Restaurant in Gaithersburg

A few months ago, I had the $12 eggplant parm sandwich. The eggplant was soggy and, mixed with the marinara, made it difficult to eat as a sandwich, no matter how I held it. The fries were very good and plentiful. They are very thin and fresh-cut style (but may still have been frozen).

We came back about a month ago and I ordered the $14 Double Creekstone Burger. The patties were pretty small for the price (I do realize this is the Kentlands...). Five years ago, if you had told me I would be ordering a $14 burger, I'd have expected it to be the biggest burger I've ever eaten. The bun was fresh, but bland. My biggest gripe was that the menu indicates it was to be topped with caramelized onions, so I was kind of excited, however, they were only slightly grilled. I'm NOT a cook, but know that this is a slow process, taking 45-60+ minutes (pre-dinner prep and reheat?). In addition, our server (the bartender) did not know what was in Oma's Cucumber Salad - one of only three sides (the other two are fries and rings and require no memorization of ingredients). I ordered it regardless because i was trying to avoid fried stuff at the time. It came in a tiny ramekin, maybe 2" diamter, max. Ingredients were cucumbers & onions, in a watery dill sauce. Upon bussing our table, she asked ME what was in it. Eek. 1000% get the fries instead; they're awesome and plentiful.

Update: Ate there again 5/29/24 and Courtney was the bartender. Since we sat in the bar area, I am pretty sure the bartender's responsibie for everyone at the bar and all of the high-tops in the bar area.

I had the Creole penne with chicken and sausage (might have been andouille). Cream sauce and a little spicy, which i like. The best thing I've had in four or five visits, by far! Side house salad was good and pretty big for a side. Only thing that was weird was they put three slices of cucumber and one tomato wedge on the edge. I'm just starting to eat salads, so this was kind of unexpected. Also, three of four tiny pieces of celery. Interesting. The dressing was flavorful.

The others in my party ordered the pesto spaghetti pasta (loved it) and a chicken sandwich with baby greens, balsamic, and goat cheese (subbed for feta). She ate it all and we split the fries. The two of them split the side Caesar because it was also generous. Finished it. Next time, I'm getting the Caeser since it looked great.

Courtney was funny, super-attentive, friendly, and just an all-around people person. She brought us our soft drinks and water promptly, made sure the lemon count was correct (haha), and even a round we didn't need. You made a fantastic decision hiring her; she needs a raise!!

This time, it was much warmer than past visits, when the A/C was working overtime. Much more comfortable.

Only complaint was the noise level got increasingly much louder, but that was due to the patrons--not the restaurant's fault they were enjoying themselves! They might have been Courtney's regulars (we even had a brief conversation with her mom, who was at the bar with friends!) The young lady servers in red who helped out were great, too.

Added one star for Overall/Food/Atmosphere, and two extra stars for Service.

Maybe call ahead and find out if Courtney's working, then sit in the bar area. You won't regret it.

I'll definitely be...

I have been here a few times over the past few years. Not bad, just not our first choice for pizza. But we hadn’t been in awhile and wanted to try again. Unfortunately I can’t tell you how the pizza was since it was still not done at 7:15 PM after sitting down and ordering at 6:14 PM. Don’t forget, this is advertised as a 900° oven, so it can cook a pizza in under 10 minutes.

Hey, I understand busy nights, and I would have been fine if I was told at the time I ordered that they were backed up. But no mention was made and I could see they were turning out the carry out orders like a machine. There was no mention of the slow down by the waiter until 50 minutes after we ordered, at which time he said it would be 5 more minutes. 15 minutes later, we still did not have our pizza and we asked for our check as we we’re running late to our movie.

I still would not have minded too much if some token attempt was made to rectify the issue. A manager came by to say it would only be one more minute if we could wait, but we had to get going (and I’m not confident our pizza was even in the oven). We said we had to go so we wouldn’t miss our movie and asked for the bill. We were charged the full amount for our beers and house salad with no comp and no offer of a discounted pizza next time we visited. I make it a rule not to request comps, and allow the establishment to determine if/how they want to handle a poor service incident. In this case, there was no attempt to regain our patronage at another time by offering an incentive to return...

Watch out if you wanna work here the because I worked there for about a year and a half starting in September 2022-October 2023 and was was fired out of the blue no call no text no email i found out on the app that me and my now ex coworker used ,which is extremely unprofessional so in light of being fired i have a few things to say about the GM or general manager,He’s is a drunk harasses a female underage coworker,withholds money,cant do his job and gets frustrated at the workers who can’t do the job because he didn’t teach them properly,the same under age coworks special treatment by letting them leave before anyone else giving them free food or scheduling them more ,sends out schedules wrong or late consistently,he will from time to time, brings in what I could be only assume are his kids or nieces and nephew and allows them to Roman around the restaurant without supervision interrupting customers meals and only stopping them when it starts becoming an inconvenience to him.So pls if ur gonna start working here or applying to working here just keep that in mind.i feel bad for all the good employees and cooks who cant say anything to him in fear or not being scheduled that week how standing up for them self and that they have to deal with this negligent incompetent excuse for a...