Fire & Stone

Friday lunch is turning into something of a tradition in our office. Starting in October, one of my colleagues suggested we all go out to lunch together. Since then, we've been out each Friday (well, except one, but over half the office seemed to be off that day) to a different restaurant. I'm hoping it will continue for a long time to come, because it's a great opportunity for me to try out restaurants I wouldn't normally go to by myself.

Today, the destination was Fire & Stone. Fire & Stone is an Italian restaurant serving primarily pizza (there's a small selection of salads and starters too, if you're so inclined). It's just outside Covent Garden, halfway along Maiden Lane (map). Stepping inside, you're greeted by the chimney of a giant pizza oven sticking up from the kitchen below, into a very modern dining room with an industrial feel to it.

After a bit of faffing since they seemed to have lost our reservation (for 10 people, made 40 minutes earlier), we were taken to our table and presented with menus. They've taken an interesting approach with their pizza names, and named each pizza after major cities, with 4 pizzas from each of 5 continents — Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe and the Americas. I had the Marrakech (from Africa, of course), a mouth watering combination of cumin-spiced ground lamb, mint yoghurt sauce, green olives and sliced red onion drizzled with chilli oil. I almost ordered a chocolate brownie shake to go with it, but balked at the £4.50 price tag!

Our pizzas arrived in good time, and mine was delicious. Of course, this didn't stop me enviously eyeing up the Capetown (pepperoni, spiced beef and chillis) or the Andalucia (chorizo, mozzarella and red onion) that my colleagues next to me has ordered.

Before arriving at the restaurant we'd sussed out the lunch time deal on offer — £4.50 for a pizza or a salad, albeit a limited range (usual price £8 or £9). Given that, we spent less than £90 for 11 of us, including the 12.5% "optional" tip they added to the bill. Everyone was happy with their food and keen to go back another week, so it seems I will get to try one of the pizzas I missed out on this time!

Fire & Stone is absolutely recommended, although booking would be wise for lunch times as it got very busy after 1.00pm.