Firehouse Grill and Brewery
- Hours:
Mon-Thu 11:30 a.m.-10:00 p.m.
Fri-Sat 11:30 a.m.-10:00 p.m.
Sun 11:30 a.m.-9:00 p.m. - Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: Yes
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: Yes
- Good for: Dinner
- Alcohol: Full Bar
93 reviews
Los Gatos, CA
"Online reservations = Awesome. They greet you at the door with your name as if they have been waiting for you. Feels really welcoming. I had…" read more »
89 Reviews for Firehouse Grill and Brewery
I had a perfectly decent Chicken Club sandwich here yesterday for $9. It came with salad or fries, and I thought the pricing was reasonable. Pretty good service, beer was just so-so.
Good casual spot, nothing earth shattering.
As far as beer goes, and I'm not a big beer drinker, this is a great place. I'm whimpy with beer so I usually only have a Hefenweizen with Lemon.
This is a totally cool place to go for watching sports. I like it better than BJs in Cupertino. Thank God they got the HD versus analog TV thing straightened out. Now, if you're expecting to hear anything guess again. High ceilings eliminate that possibility when they have a number of people there.
Now as for food, typical, but always good. Great place to watch any sport event and have a burger. I've seen people order the Pizza, but I never had it.
Wait Staff here is marginal, depends on the day. I do know guys tend to get preferential treatment over women. Go figure.
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I went here with a couple friends during the Sunnyvale Art & Wine Festival. I had been craving a burger with bleu cheese for about a week (it was grill week on the food network :) ). They had a burger that fit right into my craving, Black & Bleu Burger. It was supposed to be blackened with cajun spices, which I didn't taste at all. But it was still a delicious burger. So moist that I didn't need condiments. The only complaint that I have is that I wasn't allowed to bring my beer form the festival inside. It was their beer for god sakes!!
I was at the Sunnyvale music on the street on Wed. 07/02/08. After awhile I walked around cause the music sucked. By chance I came upon Firehouse. Boy, what a suprise. The place was packed and full of energy. They had a DJ spinning some kool tunes. Me and my buds were sat at a table where we order some suds. The Pale was right on the money crisp, hoppy,golden color just the way I like it. I liked it so much we order a tower of beer. Ya gotta see it to believe it.
We ordered several apps the server Kelli was not only HOT, but good at her job. She was on top of things. She must like it there.
Me and my twin bro ordered Duck( Ya I said Duck at a brewery) I was the bomb. My bro had the pork chop with mashed sweet tater. Better than some of those fancy joints, at half the price. The fours got out of there with apps, beer and dinner for just a little over a $100.00. Now a days that dam good,
The Firehouse was lacking service, although when we did get some, it was kind. The food was good but overpriced. The beer barely ranks ok. And the mixed drinks, oh man, the mixed drinks were tiny!!! See pic of $7 baby martini...
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The service was okay and the food is pricey for the quality. John T and I split a BBQ Pork pizza. The thin crust was okay and the pulled pork was a bit on the dry side (they should have place that on the pizza later). My order was prime rib dip sandwich. The fries was good but the sandwich is sub par: the meat was overcook, the bread use is too chewy and the dip is on the salty side. I was at a dilemma of eating the sandwich as is or dipping to make the bread soft enough to chew.
John ordered was a lot better (not the best I had either); rotisserie chicken with mash and saute green bean.
Maybe we ordered the wrong dishes but this place needs to work on their food.
This place was surprisingly really good. I would have given them 4 stars but the service sucked major so I dropped them to a 3-3.5
My fiance and I were walking the strip looking for a place to eat when we finally decided to give Firehouse a shot. It was about 530 and not so busy.
We shared the following:
Beer battered onion rings - YUMMMMY! i mix ranch, ketchup and tabasco as a dipping sauce.
Seared Ahi Tuna - portions were small and thin but still tasty. It's come with a really good side of pea sprouts, tomatoes and peanuts.
Baby Back Ribs and Chicken - These came with some mashed potatoes and string beans. with some extra BBQ sauce, the entire plate was good. I thought to myself... not bad at all.
There's a TV in practically ever corner of the room which is a nice bonus to have if bringing a man of sports. =)
Servise after 6 is horrid. I was enjoying dinner nicely until I felt myself getting annoyed at how my glass of water had remained empty for the past 20 minutes. I spent the remainder of the evening turning my back to see if I could ask someone for a refill. It sucked!
Nonetheless, I will return.. but next time, I'll ask for 3 glasses of water. =)
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This place gets one star from me for TERRIBLE service. I would even deem their service as sketchy.
I came here for the first time for my boyfriend's bday, and they added the 18% gratuity to our bill twice. After we told them they made a mistake, they said, "no problem, we'll give you a credit. " Low and behold...no credit when our credit card statement came in.
It could've been an honest mistake, BUT the second time I stepped into Firehouse to watch a UFC fight. we experienced more sketchiness. The cover was $10, which we paid, but we later realized that cover was suppose to come with a free drink! They conveniently forgot to give us our free drink. To make matters worse, they combined our party of three with another party so that they could tack on an extra service charge. They originally forgot to add the gratuity, but took the bill back so they could add it on. One, we were two separate parties hanging out together, and two, if they made the mistake about the gratuity, they shouldn't have retroactively added it.
Needless to say, Firehouse Grill has sketchy workers and policies. BEWARE
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This place is HORRIBLE! OMG. The service sucks the food was blah and the upstairs was HOT!!!!! I had went with a group of my Red Hatters and we have over 70 people. They gave us 1 server for upstairs, and my ladies ended up getting their own bread and serving themselves.
The manager???? WHAT MANAGER? He has no clue on customer service nor personal skills.
AVIOD THIS PLACE!!!!!
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**consider yourself lucky, Firehouse! i would have given The Firehouse two stars, but the Mahi Mahi saved you...**
what do you get when you have one server for a (completely full) eight-table section? lousy service. but that i can only blame the management for.
what i can't blame the management for is over-pricing what looked like a drive-thru pizza hut personal pan pizza. it's what, $3 at pizza hut, but for the same quality, we paid $10 at the Firehouse.
perhaps i found the one entree they couldn't mess up: Mahi Mahi, fabulously cooked with mango pinapple salsa and (the most TASTY) cilantro lime rice. i'm not a rice eater, but this heap of tasty bits had me vacuuming my plate.
PS: i would like to see more of those platinum blond servers with their hair pulled back, just for sanitation's sake.
I would say unforgettable and never go back because that what I thought about the food, but the service was what made it so much WORSE, it is impossible to forget. We will always remember to NOT go back.
Granted, we were one of the last parties seated, (party of 2), but well before closing.... just not soon enough for the "hostess" and the "waitress" whom both felt they should have been done with their duties "hours" before and "God help the soul who dare darken our door now!".
My thought.... just tell us that the kitchen is closing in 1/2 hour, staff is winding down, would you prefer to go somewhere else and eat leisurely, or still dine here. I believe we would have rather taken our $80 somewhere else where they wouldn't completely ignored us, and then treated us like dirt.
It was so bad.... begging for bread, begging for water....2 minutes to look at the menu and "make up your mind".....dinner thrown at you... and out the door you go..... OK I GET IT!.... WHERE'S THE FIRE?????
Avoid this place, service is non-existent. Manager worthless, never got to the food. I eat out almost every meal and I have never encountered such lousy service and who gives a crap attitude from any place I have been before. We arrived at around 1:30 on Fathers Day and we sat in the bar to watch the US Open.
After waiting for almost 15 minutes with no one coming to our table, I got up and flagged down a server. We were told that they would be right over, finally after another 10 minutes the bartender comes over who had been behind the bar the whole time. He doesn't say he is sorry for the wait or anything but the look of I hate my job.
After ordering we wait another 20 minutes, still nothing but drinks. We had ordered a salad and fish tacos. Finally after trying to be patient I get up and find this manager, near the grill area and ask what's going on. He finds the I hate my job bartender who tries to then find the order he was supposed to have put in and they can't find it. This loser bartender just walks away from us with not even a sorry for the screw up. The manager then asks me what we ordered and was going to start making it now. That's when we walked out, after I asked this worthless manager who his boss was and he said the owner, which he refused to give me their contact info. No apology nothing!!!!!!
Never waste your time here, it expensive to go along with the very poor service, great combination.
I'm not sure about this place. The food is pretty good, and the service is just OK. It's a little hard to write this review because I don't have strong feelings either way, even after going here a few times. Maybe that says a lot. I'll go here if someone recommends it, but won't be near the top of my list to hit up again.
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We went to Murphy Avenue, in beautiful downtown Sunnyvale, for the St. Patrick's Day festivities last night and met up with friends. So, we were a party of 8 in the middle of a big crowd at dinner time and Firehouse had a table for us. That's one star right off the bat.
The service was quick and friendly and pretty accommodating for a group arriving at different times, with dietary restrictions and kids. I wouldn't have wanted to wait on us.
The house pale ale was exactly what I was looking for in a beer. So I had three pints of it - on a Monday night. Crazy, I know. The atmosphere was totally chaotic - loud music streaming in from the Tom Petty cover band playing outside, hoards of people trying to get their grub on, drunks, etc. - and then this beautiful plate of food shows up and all that other stuff in the background just melts away. I had the grilled salmon and I loved it. The salmon was perfectly grilled to medium rare and served with rice and asparagus, and a bit of red pepper aioli drizzled around the plate. The whole thing was very clean and delicious. I want to go back tonight and repeat the same meal I had last night.
My husband had the burger and said it was pretty good. The littlest one had the cheese pizza and didn't eat it, which is usually an indication of too much sauce, but it may also be all the pretzels he ate before we left the house. The big kid had the mac and cheese and ate it all up. It was Kraft-style, which may be a disappointment for grownups, but perfect for the under 10 set.
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"Mary?"
"Mary?"
I was conversing with J and turn my head slightly to the question, "What?"
"Are you Mary?" this gentleman asks.
"No," I answer.
Weird. Now, who would mistake my big face way out in Sunnyvale?
We ran out for our lunch, not really knowing where to go but this place was packed and they seemed to have a good selection of typical grill/pub places. Not to mention the neat layout of the open kitchen area as well as the bar on the other side.
First, they were short handed and the establishment was packed with people from surrounding areas for lunch. In fact, this strip becomes so packed with the lunch hour rush, that people have to park in the Macy's parking lot across the way and walk over for lunch.
I elected for the Firehouse burger on a white roll, done medium rare with Swiss cheese and a side salad (instead of my usual fries) tossed with ranch dressing.
Halfway through my hamburger, after realizing that the meat seemed well done and beef should not be crumbling, that I may have ate half of someone else's order or the chefs were dyslexic. The burger I was consuming, was well done with cheddar cheese and on a whole wheat roll. J and I were laughing too hard to realize how comedic our lunch had become.
Food was okay, but not great although the salads did look a lot more appetizing than my burnt patty, but I'm not one to eat almost the entire thing and then complain afterwards.
I might come back, if for the casual foodstuffs, but probably not again. The joint seemed very busy, overworked staff and the right side of the restaurant near the kitchen was very smoky and I walked out feeling violated by carbon by products. A neat little venue and the interior reflective that of a modern Irish bar, but the food is mediocre and not getting an order (and apparently several after that, from what I heard from other customers) is reflective of a non-efficient service model.
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i didn't really have dinner here but i did hold a very IMPORTANT event upstairs in their banquet room and the whole balcony.... i celebrated my 21ST BIRTHDAY HERE =)
after doing a lot of research of where to find a great place to hold a cocktail party for my 21st, firehouse was the PERFECT place to do it. they were so helpful in planning my event.
i chose firehouse grill & brewery because they had a low minimum of just $500! most restaurants have a minimum of $1500 to hold an event, so we felt we could easily surpass $500. they had drink packages and of course since it was my 21st bday we chose the $25 all you can drink! so with my party of 75+, we charged each person $20 and most def we passed $500 like it was nothing. we also chose a couple appetizers that were around $25 a platter... those were of course banquet prices and are made for more people.
the restaurant allowed me to have the whole 2nd floor for my party & the allowed us to use heir extra banquet room, which we turned into a dance floor! they opened up the bar upstairs just for our party so my guests easily got their all you can drink!! since it was my 21st i was being passed drinks left and right... and i don't really remember what else happened. haha all i know is the firehouse grill & bewery was a fun place to hold an event for such a cheap minimum!
The bone-in ribeye steak is awesome! The beer is good too!
Firehouse and I have had a very rocky relationship since it opened. The first time I went there, I was very disappointed in it; probably because I was expecting Stoddard's, but I was getting bar food at Stoddard's prices. So then I didn't go back for about 8 months. I went back a second time because the prices were more reasonable to the quality of the food. I had a burger there and it was decent.
The couple more times after that was a hit or miss. The food was okay; appetizers seem to be most consistently decent items on the menu. The pizza is bland and the dough was kind of... floppy? Pasta isn't worth the $$, but the burgers are fine. The seating on the first floor is always noisy because of the bar (don't let their "quieter side" comment fool you!). I don't really know why they even have seating on the opposite end from the bar because every time the door opens, everyone gets to feel the cold winds as they come swooping in.
So on what I've decided will be my last trip to Firehouse, I ordered their clam chowder. Is chowder supposed to be.... sour? And are there supposed to be more carrots than clams? Wait .... carrots??!!! I didn't say anything to the waiter because the table next to me ordered it as well, and I didn't hear any complaints so I guess it wasn't necessarily a bad batch, just not my preferred type of chowder I guess.
The reason for the 2 stars? The beer is actually good, and another person in my party liked his dish (fish tacos). But I've been so disappointed in this place, I'd rather just go to one of the pubs on Murphy St. for a brew.
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Went there for a quick lunch as part of my SF Bay Area brew pubs tour. One of the best (angus) burgers within a 3 mile radius along with excellent beer crafted by a knowledgeable and skilled brewmaster. Can't ask for much more from a brew pub!
They have lots of tv's which are great on game day. Food is decent, the salads are really good, burgers and sandwiches are ok. Our waitress was very nice, but it seemed like they had only one waitress working and a million bus boys who were too busy watching the game to pay attention to all the people at the tables.
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My friends and I went here Sunday for lunch only because nothing else around the area was open. The food here is decent, but nothing great. I shared a mandarin orange salad and a bowl of clam chowder with a friend. The salad was ok (chicken was kinda chewy and dry) and the clam chowder watery. Everyone else's dish looked decent. I have to say though, the buffalo wings in spicy habanero were great! I can't eat too spicy, and they were too spicy for me, but they were so good I couldn't eat just one!
My buddy took me and my wife out here for dinner a few weeks back
nothing special you know just a casual dinner
i guess my friend was really digging this place
we went on a Friday night and this place was pretty dead
i had asked for a black and tan but none was to be had
we had to wait quite a while for our food to show up
but the portions were more than fair
the only reason why i gave this place 2 stars was because i only drank one pint of a pale ale
and it gave me a headache and it didnt go away until late in the afternoon the next day when i finally broke down and took a few asprins
I am not a brew master but the only thing I can think of is they didn't filter the beer well enough to get rid of most of the Histamines and other biogenic amines.
Bah it was a skunk beer! (in plain english)
I would not recomend this place to any of my friends.
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My girlfriend and I love their salads, pesto dip and garlic fries. The burgers are ok and pasta just ok. Service is just ok and place is average for a bar. Cool to go hang at after work!
This is the kind of business I go into and think to myself, man this place could really kick ass if it was run right. It a brewery on a downtown street. Big building that used to be a firehouse. It's a micro brew. But this place doesn't do it. They are lacking on all fronts. Food is not good. I mean, you can eat it, but it is not delicious or anything. Service is not good either. No one cares.
My best friend and I decided to eat here after we found out there was going to be a long wait at Lisa's Perfect Cuts down the street. When you first step in, you'll notice how much it resembles Gordon Biersch but to a lower extent. There's a 2nd floor for huge parties and LCD TVs that are scattered throughout the place. The place was packed when we came in, and they offered a table that was lonely on the side. It was pretty whack, but we were hungry. I ordered the firehouse burger with garlic fries. Surprisingly, it was very good. It rivals that of Juicy Burger or Red Robin.
Unfortunately, the service here is very slow. Honestly, there were only 3 servers that night and there were a lot of people. I don't know if someone called off or that's how staffing is at restaurants, but they need to change it. It took a whole Ben Roethlisburger touchdown drive to get a refill. Don't get me started in regards to getting our check. We watched through a boring drive from Marc Bulger that resulted in a field goal...similar to my experience here.
This place was a touchdown until it was nullified due to unsportsmanlike conduct from the waiters.
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I have only had some of the appetizers which were just alright but they brew their own beer and my fav is the heffy..so smooth, light and mellow just right. It was actually a real firehouse in the 1800's until about early 1900's. The look is open and has a modern feel to it and it is somewhat of a sportsbar so on most nights you'll be surrounded by loud beer guzzling guys!
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I went to the Firehouse Grill and Brewery because my job had our company holiday dinner there. The restaurant itself is pretty small on the lower level. However, they do have an upstairs which is pretty big, and that's where we had our party. For the party, each person got a drink coupon which allowed one drink per person. The meal was buffet style and for appetizers there was bread, salad, and bruschetta. The main meal options were mashed potatoes, grilled mixed vegetables, salmon, chicken, and beef.
The two things I really liked were one of the salads, which was very tasty and very delicious. The grilled vegetables were also very good, which was zucchini, squash, and string beans. I only had the salmon and mashed potatoes besides that, which was ok.
lastly, the drinks here were ok. I had a long island iced tea which i would rate a 6.5/10. My coworker also ordered an LC (liquid cocaine), and they made it into a cocktail drink, which was weird since an LC is supposed to be a double shot.. oh well.
overall, ok place. i probably wouldn't come back to eat on my own preference. It's good, but nothing really particularly stands out to me.
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This place has really good food. Everything was delicious and prices were pretty good too. My husband really liked the clam chowder and ravioli. I had pasta with mushrooms, I like mushrooms but don't love them and this dish was excellent. We went just before their semi-rush started and everything was great. We'll definitely go there again.
Went here for lunch the other day with a party of 5 and didn't have a reservation. We were given a hard time about getting a table for 5 indoors and told "those tables are for reservations." The place wasn't too packed when we got there. There must be some sort of water shortage in the area that I don't know about because the water glasses were tiny! We were served some sliced bread to munch on with a sun dried tomatoe and olive oil mix, had to ask for butter. When we finally go to order we waited a long time to get our food. In between the water and serving of the food we were only check on once and that was to take our orders. Service sucked, tri-tip sandwich left ALOT to be desired. Don't think I will be going back again, not worth the wait for sure.
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Ehh, really not that great. It's good for happy hour since the beer's cheap, the food is cheap and good enough and they've got TV's.
For lunch? It's a little pricier, and it's not really that great. The service is decent although some what absent most of the time. More than anything, it's just a good place to kick back and knock down a few beers with friends.
The beer? It's OK. I've had better. It'll do the job, but it might not taste the best.
And if you're lucky, you might get served by this one girl who I swear I saw stripping in SF at Hustler's once.
I'm surprised to read the poor reviews. We have had good service and very good food every time we have been here and that is often. I like the duck and fish dishes. Great beer! We don't go when it is busy so maybe that enhances our experience. Cuban sandwich is also very good but too much food for me.
Blargh. I remember going here a few years back and being unimpressed, but last night friends wanted to go there so we went. At first, things looked good - attentive server (though I hate it when I ask for water-with-lemon and get no lemon), prompt delivery of our appetizer, etc. When our entrees eventually arrived later (after finishing our over-cooked calamari), they were all disappointing. I had the rotisserie duck with a "blackberry-orange demi"... uh, a smidge of blackberry flavor but no orange and very little fruit flavor at all. Garlic mashed potatoes with it were bland and the sauteed spinach was also blah. Whatever. At least it was edible. My husband's NY strip steak, requested medium, was beyond well-done. Friend ordered a pepperoni pizza with half mushroom and half olive, and I saw mushroom and olive all over it. Whatever. Server had disappeared and never came back while we were eating so we couldn't say anything. Server eventually comes by after we're done and we mention the steak thing and he was pretty disinterested about it. Comped us a dessert but it was pretty disappointing (and also more expensive than listed in the menu).
No need to return here, especially considering that this meal was $100 for 4 people and none of us particularly cared for our meals.
Let's see. I like the beer made here (mmm.. the red) but the given selection is limited compared to some of the other breweries around here (BJ's) and, sadly, the good ones are out way too often. (Unless you like the Hefe and then you're fine, but get some variety in your life!) A brewery that doesn't make enough beer for its patrons.
The servers are either really good (was impressed with the service on a party of 20) or lacking, so best of luck.
Redeeming quality to rationalize the three out of five stars after the above? The spicy habanero sauce and the ability to get a tower of beer.
Couple things about this sauce. You can order it on your wings but for true pleasure you need to ask for it on the side to dip in. The guy who puts the sauce together works for the food service at my work, and he's great. Now, my last server said that he had yet to meet a customer who didn't send the wings back because they were too hot. I'm telling you otherwise, because we're friends. I've had no problem with them beyond a bit of sweating (okay, panting and waving my hand in front of my mouth and wiping my nose) but woohoo, the next morning is always fun. It stings a bit. Lastly, I recommend getting them with a friend or group. It makes the experience a bonding one instead of them just laughing at you but not really understanding the full pleasure that this sauce brings.
The tower of beer is reasonable at $28 for about eight glasses. You can then serve yourself at your leisure at $1.50 less per glass than waiting for server to get you the next cold one. And can I mention that it looks awesome? If only there was a way to put the 4' tower in my pocket to take home as they cost $100+ online.
The nachos are good, too. Prices are reasonable. It's loud so don't expect a romantic evening.
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Three stars is about right. Sure... its' pub food.
I actually had the clam chowder and it wasn't so bad. I ordered a bowl, but what i got was a big saucer full of soup. Now.. from what I'm used to... a bowl you can actually hold liquid in... but these days, places have these platings that are huge, but with itsy bitsy portions in there. Yeah... I didn't come to a pub for nice platings... gimme my food... and gimme a decent portion ... sheesh.
If you are going to charge me $7 for a bowl of soup, make it worth my while.
The food was below mediocre, but the beer was pretty good. The service was abysmal - after finishing my beer and meal, I was never asked if I wanted another beer; in fact, I had to wait nearly 30 minutes for the server to give me my check, and I was sitting right at the freaking bar!
It's unfortunate - the atmosphere isn't bad, and the patio in back looks like it would be fantastic in warm weather. The location is certainly convenient, right in Sunnyvale's downtown (which consists of a whopping one city block) and a short walk from the Caltrain station. But the server was such a lazy fucksock that I'll certainly never go back.
Nice spot for beer and bar food, that is all its good for or so it felt. They had some interesting devices for people that wanted to drink a lot of beer, like legalized beer bongs with taps - how exquisite! The food was mediocre and the service was just ok.
UPDATED 10/31/2007
I think I've been to the Firehouse about 4 times since my initial review submission, and so this is continuing.
The food is a little pricey for what it is, in my opinion, but there are some winners on the menu. Their happy hour apps are good if you go for the ones that are actually reduced in price. I mean hey, knock a few bucks off something and it's tastier before you stick a fork in it, right? The seared Ahi dish was sort of disappointing, and the beef skewer dish was also slightly disappointing, but their menu is broader than that and I've not tried everything. Not even close.
Now for the beer. I still think they lost the magic of Stoddard's, so none of the originals (including the Porter, my favorite, and the Oatmeal Stout) are quite as tasty to me. Still, they do okay here, and if you hang on Murphy as I do then you can sometimes waft the delicious yeast smell on the air when they're brewing. Some people aren't into that, I most certainly am.
So as a brewpub restaurant, 3 stars is probably about right. Decent food and very decent beer brewed on the premises. They have the sports bar tv configuration so you can see The Big Game if you need to, and they have an upstairs dining area if you're looking for some calm with your meal.
I'm weighing the 4th star, though, for these specific reasons:
* Patio seating is nice, and they have live music out there sometimes which is fun
* The scent of beer brewing
* A substantial bar (they have a rather large selection of spirits and their bartenders can mix it up-- Sandy is particularly cool, IMHO)
I don't know yet. I'm going to visit there maybe 2 more times, check out the brews for the winter season, see what they got. I'm stuck comparing it to Stoddard's or I'd be quicker about it.
Mmmmmm, just got another blast of yeast on the air. Delicious.
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This review will be amended, so the 3 stars shall be temporary.
I first found this place when it was Stoddard's. I believe this is true for a very large segment of the population, because to this day it is possible to hear people on the sidewalk saying such things as "it's the old Stoddard's."
Thus the inevitable comparison.
I liked the food at Stoddard's better, but Fire House shines here and there. As others have mentioned, the apps are good. The seared Ahi is not great, but the traditional bar food is very edible and in most cases quite tasty. The pizza was not as good as it used to be, but other dishes shine now and then. Thus, the food is hit or miss, YMMV, etc.
The beers-- the main reason I used to go to Stoddard's, aside from the likes of Leah, Barbie, Stacey, and later Wendy and their penchant for keeping my pint glass full at all times without my even thinking about it-- are not quite there to me. I hate to say that, and it might be my memory getting in the way, but for some reason that certain something is lacking. TLC added by the owner running the brew cycles back then? Subtle changes to the recipes? Aging vats? Who can say.
I'll end this first pass by point out that as I write this, I'm across the street from Fire House and they are cooking some wort right now... warm yeast is wafting through the air on Murphy and I'm tempted to add another start just for that.
To be continued...
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So after my friend tried on every costume at House of Humor we were starving and wanted food, but we remembered we needed to get waxed before we put on our slutty and short Halloween costumes...1 hour later we were really ready to eat, so she took me here...
Actually she didn't plan it we just went "cruisin" downtown if you know what I mean...not...anyhow, it looked reasonable with normal food...we ordered the nachos...now if you read any of my reviews, then you know I love cheese...and you know I love the gooey, hot runny, processed cheese...and that is exactly what they put on their nachos here...
Then for dinner I ordered the steak salad, it was forgettable, maybe I just wasn't in the mood for beef, but the dressing was kinda weird, not a balsamic like it says in the menu.
Lastly I did have a Hefeweisen, I thought that was delicious....our server was very attentive and fast, we liked her.
So 3 stars for gooey nacho cheese sause, good beer and great server!
What's the deal with Sunnyvale anyway? Came here late on a Sunday afternoon, and almost every restaurant on Murphy was closed. Many of them don't even post their hours of business. Firehouse Grill was one of the few places that was open. I had a caesar salad with chicken. The chicken was pretty bland. Wife had a steak salad. The steak was pretty bland. I guess they must have been waiting for a McCormick's delivery. The tapenade was very, very good though. I ended up scooping up a little to put on my chicken, and it gave the bird some flavor.
Service was polite but casual. I'd give them 2 1/2, but not 3, so I gotta stick with 2.
It's a brewery, but the grill sure knows how to fire it up!!!
Gotta try...
Buffalo Wings- The wings and drums are not stingy, and the sauce is perfect. I always ask to have half bbq and tradition with their creamy blue cheese
Calamari- Very flavorful and not bland at all.
Seared Ahi Tuna Salad- The Tuna is sashimi with a slight crust, and their citrus dressing is very aromatic.
Beet Spinach Salad- This is my all time favorite here. The dressing is sweet and tart, with melted goat cheese, and sweet beets to soak up all those flavors.
Although I'm a fan of their appetizers, the burger is very good.
Angus Burger- I'm not a huge fan of burgers, but theirs is definitely worth a try. Their steak fries are so perfect. light crispy and fluffy once you bite into it. *drool*
Beer- Try their beer towers of any of their house brews for only $25. Besides being an eye catcher. This is pretty darn handy and convenient. Sorry to say but it seriously looks like a bong...0:-)
Mojitos- One word "Perfect"
Pomegranate Cider- They have this unique cider on tap! Tart, not very sweet, but I still like it lots.
If you plan to have a big bash, this is a perfect place. The place is never over packed, but has a great upstairs dining area. You can reserve a bartender and service to be held there for birthdays, or big dinner parties.
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