The Fire Station Review, Waterloo | Short Rib Burger

It’s hard to believe The Fire Station was once a fire station sitting inside.

Original brickwork and steel girders are still present and the distinctive huge garage converted front windows are a stronger hint to the buildings past.

After a one year multimillion pound refurb, The Fire Station is looking and feels more like a swanky bar and restaurant than pub restaurant.

The large room is split into dining and casual drinks, much like The Parlour Restaurant And Cocktail Bar in Canary Wharf (review). A long booth styled seat runs against one wall and lounge style seats with tables create the rest of the dining section, while high tables and bar stools make up the the drinking side. There are also tables and seats outside at the front.

I’m continuing my journey to find the best burger in London, so naturally I was attracted to their burger menu which consists of classic flavours and ingredients – beef patties are 6oz dry aged. The most expensive burger caught my eye – a balsamic glazed short rib burger.

I was a little surprised at the presentation. Wrapped in paper like a McDonalds or Burger King burger, at £10.95 I was slightly disappointed. Even one of those pretentious wooden chopping boards would have been more appropriate.

The tasty short rib was packed tightly together and was complimented by the rich, melted cheese. Odd, as the menu didn’t say it had cheese (I like cheese in my burger anyway so it worked for me). But I couldn’t make out any other ingredients listed on the menu next to the short rib burger (mayo, little gem, sliced beef tomato and American mustard). At the time I thought there were onions but it must have been some slightly burned little gem. Odd to say the least.

The house fries (£2.50) were skinny, crunchy and very slightly salted – a touch of rosemary wouldn’t go a miss.

And it was odd to have only alcoholic options on the drinks menu (don’t forget about us non alcoholics!) but when asked, the waitress suggested a virgin mojito (£2.40) which was delicious (both waitress and front of house were friendly).

I should say this was pre official opening so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.

The Fire Station is somewhere I wouldn’t choose specifically for dinner perhaps, but is ideal for casual boozy meet ups and lunches as it offers much better food options than the average pub (I’m refraining from calling The Fire Station a gastropub because it’s so much nicer than a pub). For example, The Fire Station also have a handful of stone fired pizzas to choose from.

If you’re in the Waterloo area, I recommend the deep fried Mars bar at Fishcoteque.