Firehouse Rotisserie, Bath

The Firehouse Rotisserie bills itself as a Californian restaurant and is based in central Bath (there is also a branch in Bristol) and it's dishes are mainly grills and brick fired pizzas. We ate there one Monday lunchtime, arriving at about 12.30pm, which was about right as it got quite a bit busier after that. We sat on the ground floor but it looks like they have tables upstairs if this was full. The decor is simple, but nicely furnished with wooden tables and chairs. Our waitress gave us the food and wine menus, there were no other drinks menus, so we were unsure what other drinks there were so just went with the usual soft drinks. I like interesting juices and home-made lemonades but there didn't appear to be any other drinks menus, so I have no idea if this is available. We both went for their Gourmet Brick Fired Pizzas. I thought they were quite expensive at £10.95 and £11.95 each, but looking around the restaurant seemed to be generous with their portions on the grill side of things.

I ordered a pizza with goats cheese, artichokes, sun dried tomatoes, pesto, olives and rocket. All ingredients which I love so I was looking forward to it. It arrived piled high with toppings, if you had wanted to eat the pizza with your fingers I think you would have come a cropper, as gravity would not have allowed it! Plus I am not sure the pizza base could have supported the weight alone without a plate. However, whilst it was generously topped, it wasn't particularly well presented. I don't know if it was company policy or I just had a lazy chef prepare mine, but the pieces of each ingredient were quite large and not chopped much. The olives were large and sometimes I had two-thirds of one next to a large piece of sun-dried tomato, with a piece of artichoke three times the size I would like, on a great wodge of goat's cheese with peppery rocket piled on top. As well as being difficult to eat, (you did get a good knife to cut it with - at least you're not trying to tear it with a regular knife and sending all those toppings flying) sadly it didn't taste very nice. The ingredients just competed with each other, I was getting a combination of strong flavours that clashed rather than complemented. I picked off the olives first, and that helped, but there were so many I couldn't get them all. I then started removing the sun-dried tomato, but still the pizza just didn't work for me. I don't recall the pesto dressing at all and that normally has a bit of a tang, but it obviously got lost under everything else. My other half ordered Spicy Baja Chicken pizza with avocado salsa, fresh coriander and sour cream. He was also disappointed, as the chicken, whilst spicy, just took over from everything else, and the avocado salsa which he had so much been looking forward too, just got lost.

Whilst the food had been disappointing, the service was good, such as it was. Toilets were clean and tidy although on the second floor (I believe their were disabled toilets on the ground floor). We decided not to have a dessert. Overall our bill came to about £27. I don't feel I can recommend this restaurant unfortunately. It was expensive for a pizza, and they may justify it with their generous portions, however I would rather have a cheaper price with a more modest, yet still adequate, level of topping. This way the flavours may distribute themselves a bit better, instead of all in the same mouthful. Saying that, the quantity of the topping is irrelevant if the pizza doesn't taste very good. The base seemed well done, but I am not sure mozzarella cheese was used (on either of them), as I didn't get the stringy effect as I lifted a piece up. However it would have been overpowered on our plates anyway, but sometimes less is more.