Fire & Stone

Have to admit that I’d usually give a chain pizza joint an extremely wide berth as they just aren’t very good when it comes to the reason you go to such places i.e. the pizza.
Found myself in Oxford needing to find something to eat. Having never been to a certain young celebrity chef who seems to specialise in ‘mockney’ and sticking his name and face on anything and I mean ANYTHING connected with food I thought I’d give his Italian place a try. Got there and found it rather full and to be honest a bit pretentious another time I thought … a n y w a y right next to it was Fire & Stone.
Visually the place looks pretty much like all the other chain Pizza joints. What more can you say. Place was fairly busy but was immediately greeted when we entered. We chose to sit up stairs on the mezzanine floor mainly because thats were the bar was and I could look down on everything.
Again server was nicely efficient and took our drinks order.
Am now going to slightly deviate and put my drinks rant in… Yup I know that every (?) restaurant does it but why are drinks so bloody expensive F&S were charging £2.50 for a small water FFS! I saw the barman pull a pint and the size of the head was F’ing incredible my jaw nearly hit the ground. How could anyone server THAT? but they did! Normally I’m very British about it and would have muttered dark things under my breath… but I WOULD have complained at being served that!
Looking at the menu it really brought home to me why I don’t eat much pizza out. I don’t want to come across as a pizza fascist or anything but for me the best pizza is a Margarita why? its sheer simplicity means that the quality of the ingredients shine through or not as the case my be. Too many times I get the feeling that toppings are loaded onto pizza’a to obscure the fact that they are of mediocre quantity.
Anyway after being tempted (?) by pizza’s like ‘The Cairo’ which OBVIOUSLY includes (torn, no less) goats cheese, pesto and (yup, go figure!) pine nuts ;) or ‘The London’ with Errr… Cumberland! sausage. I chose ‘The Queensland’
The Queensland toppings were (minus the adjectives)… prawns, sundried tomatoes, mozzarella, anchovies, capers, rocket, olives and lemon zest.
Have to say that the staff here are definitely a step up from what you get at most chain restaurants apart from the one pulling pints.
Food turned up in a reasonable amount of time. Pizza wasn’t huge and to be honest to make a meal of it I’d have wanted a starter. Oddly F&S charge and extra £1.25 for a thin base but what I had WAS a thin base apart from from the rim of crust.
Pizza if I was being nice was ‘warm’ if I wasn’t ‘tepid’ I could look down into the basement where they were being made and could see that there was a log jam of pizza’s sat there having been cooked but waiting to be taken to the customer.
The crust was tasteless but nicely chewy. Felt that the ‘cooking’ was more to heat the ingredients than anything else. Would have much preferred the pizza to have stayed longer in the oven to develop the pizza doughs flavour.
To be completely honest I felt that the lemon zest and anchovies completely overwhelmed all the other ingredients. Lemon zest usually adds a zingy sharpness that bring out say the sweetness of the tomatoes but this was a dull damp sort of flavour. In the extremely unlikely that I order another one of these it will be sans lemon zest. Have no problems with anchovies but these tasted fishy on an industrial scale!
So to some up… nice efficient, friendly staff let down by mediocre ‘why go back?’ pizza.

Don’t get me wrong, I like pizza. I do. There is something about melty cheese atop basil tomato sauce and baked in toppings that get’s me salivating. But, I don’t have it often because it gets boring. I know places try and mix it up by offering things like Canadian bacon and pineapple to make a Hawaiian style and even kebab meat on pizza, but alas, even that has become a bit boring.
The appetizers are really good here and I highly recommend the platter if you are with a large group, though I found I was a little full for my pizza after enjoying the olives, hummus, salsa, and salami. The vegetarian platter is really nice as well featuring fried vegetable sticks and crispy butternut squash parcels.
However, I love this place because it really breaks the pizza mould. In fact, I think they should make up a new word for it because pizza doesn’t adequately cover the stuff they make here. The dough is more like flatbread with raised bubbles of airy baked goodness. This filling pizza foundation is a hand stretched Parmesan based canvas. Then come a choice of 20 pizzas, each creatively named after a different major city in the world. For example,
**the ‘San Sebastian’ features chorizo, mozzarella, rosemary potatoes, and garlic mayonnaise.
For vegetarians it features
**the ‘Copenhagen’ includes crumbly blue cheese, cubed butternut squash, red onion, and pumpkin seeds.
The one I accidentally two in a row without knowing it was
**the ‘Marrrakech’ with spicy ground lamb, roasted red peppers, mozzarella, and minty tzatiki yoghurt
I keep wanting to try
**the ‘Peking’ with shredded duck, cucumber, spring onion, mozzarella, and of course that tangy hoi sin sauce
Just delicious! The service is fine and the prices are good for what you get. Plus, the Oxford setting is this very ‘club’ looking establishment with mirrors and a shiny spiral staircase. Quite pleasant and hip though a little confused at the same time. Looks a lot more up scale than you’d expect a pizza place to be. I give this place a whole extra stair for its creativity (despite being a chain) and for their £6 Thursday (though you need to book in advance!!).
Enjoy!

The pizza put Fire & Stone as a ⁴⁄₅ and I’m giving it a pass on the overpricing as they are clearly an upscale joint. I wouldn’t advise going here for your get-​filled-​with-​pizza fix, go here because you are out for a nice meal and fancy pizza.
If you do choose to come here then enjoy your pizza, it’ll be some of the best you have in Oxford.

I don’t eat much pizza these days, but there was something about this place that made me want to try its lunch menu. I like quirky and offbeat places and this seemed to fit that, despite being a chain. I was incredibly impressed with my pizza. Huge portion, tasty toppings (butternut squash I think with goat’s cheese). And there was chilli sauce on the table! Not having to ask for it made my day: D And it was a very good house blend. Great service and lovely folk. Couldn’t have asked for more! x

I love Fire & Stone. The pizzas are fun, creative and always taste amazing.

Overall good.
Amazing range of pizzas
Good location and great in sunny weather (with windows open). If you don’t like this you can always eat downstairs in the basement.
Try it on a Thursday — £5 any pizza — its a great deal for what you get.
Pizzas are well cooked and very tasty.
The toilets are clean (which I find important)
The service could be improved. I’ve been here twice recently — first time the service was awful (it was a thursday — so packed out) but still– you’d have thought they’d have more staff in???
Also we found the staff serving us rude and patronising. However the staff on the entrance desk were incredibly polite /​except a little over manned (could have used the extra set of hands waiting tables instead of standing round meeting and greeting.)
The second time I went however was a saturday lunch and it was great. Really good service — and reasonably cheap for Oxford.
Would recommend to all.
If they improve the service — then it could well be 5 stars for what it’s offering.

#493 Pizza is always a good standby, especially if your first choice restaurant was too packed and you were left standing outside on the street wondering what to do with yourself. So, naturally, I suggested Fire & Stone as an alternative. We really didn’t know what to expect, but figured we couldn’t go wrong with pizza. And right we were!
But, first of all, Fire & Stone is a step up from your local pizzeria. They have glass doors, fancy modern chandeliers, and a huge open-​fire fireplace in the middle of the restaurant. They have large mirrors everywhere, reflecting light and enlarging the perceived size of the entire place. Waiters and waitresses are dressed in all black with long black aprons and bustle around with a purpose.
On a Wednesday evening around 7:30PM, Fire & Stone was well-​filled. But, we were still able to snag some seats downstairs, which came across as more of the drinking part of the restaurant than the eating. So, we ended up starting off our meal with a Mojito (him, 5.95gbp) and a Long Island (me, 5.95gbp). The drinks came out pretty quickly and the bartender, himself, brought them out to us. My Long Island exhibited strong hints of your typical Long Island flavors — tequila, vodka, gin, rum, Triple Sec, lime juice, and cola. The Mojito was well muddled and deliciously minty. I definitely recommend their bar if you’re up for drinks.
After a quick viewing of the menu, I finally decided on the Lombok pizza (9.15gbp) with added baby corn (1.20gbp). The boyfriend went with their new Pembroke (10.55gbp). It took a little while before they came out, but we weren’t disappointed at all. My Lombok came with hoi sin sauce, mozzarella, red peppers, spring onions (scallions in the States), prawns, and chili oil. The weirdest combination, in my opinion, but absolutely delicious — savory and spicy, yet crisp and clean. It finished well, without any residual dairy taste. I suppose the hoi sin sauce overpowered the mozzarella and helped it to a tart finish.
The boyfriend loved his Pembroke, which came with lamb, butternut squash, grated mozzarella, roast potatoes, leeks, a red wine gravy base, and a piquant mint sauce. It sounds like a fabulous combination and I’m sure it would have stood well even without lamb. The gem of the night was our waiter, Shane, who was friendly, chatty, and entertaining. He was efficient and didn’t miss a beat the entire night. He kept the mood cheerful and lively, even when the floor started to empty out toward the end of the night. Hats off to him for his awesome demeanor! Overall, definitely would not say no to a meal at Fire & Stone!