Review: Average Eats at Fire in Shaker Heights

I've been traveling a lot for work lately and I've barely had a chance to catch up on life.  Things like laundry, cleaning my house, seeing my friends, or going out with my boyfriend.  Although we live together, we've both been so busy that we haven't spent much time together, so this past Friday I scheduled a date night for us at Fire Food and Drink in Shaker Heights.  I'd been to Fire before for brunch with my best friend.  To be honest, all I remember about that meal was how comically small my salad was and that it was great to see my friend. I'm not sure that my date with my boyfriend was much more memorable.

I started off my Friday evening with a cocktail - a Dark and Stormy - which is the rum version of a Moscow Mule.  It's made up of rum, ginger beer, and lime juice. It was no Moscow Mule, but it was good.  (and for $9, it should have been good)

I was hungry like the wolf so I gobbled down the free bread that was brought to the table in a paper bag.  I was more than a little embarrassed when our waiter scolded me for reaching for the plate he'd brought for dipping oil instead of my own bread plate.  Sorry, guy.  Didn't see my plate.  No need to make me feel uncomfortable, though.

Shortly after the bread incident, our server brought the mushroom salad I'd ordered.  I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I thought I'd get something a little more exotic.  Especially since it was $9. This was basically some arugula, sliced button mushrooms, and a little bit of Parmesan cheese. 

I ordered the winter vegan dish as my main meal.  It consisted of winter root vegetables, tofu, some little pancakes, and a smear of almond puree that almost tasted like hummus.  It was very onion heavy, in my opinion.  There were huge chunks of slightly undercooked red onions.  The tofu was a little bland, too.  Overall, it was an ok dish.  But for $23, I expected better.  I'm not all that price sensitive when it comes to food - I will pay top dollar for a good meal - but I couldn't tell you why this vegan dish is so expensive.  Did the price of tofu go up and someone forgot to tell me?  





My boyfriend had what he described as a "good but not great" clam pasta dish.  Again, I think we both expected more of a "wow" factor for the price.  We talked about our meal on the way home afterwards and both agreed that our meal was good but nothing was a standout.  Now that we've checked Fire off our list of places to go to, I'm not sure we'd be in any hurry to go back.  And that was disappointing for us since we'd heard such good things about the restaurant.

Oh well.  That's part of the fun of trying new places.  Sometimes you find things you love and sometimes your meal is a clunker.