Firehouse No. 1 Gastropub

Love the angry shrimp. The flavor taste like Cajun cf style. The flat steak was good but medium rare is kind of rare. My husband like it. Salad was good too. Would come back again since didn’t get to try to bone marrow as planned … There will a next time around…

Wings. That’s all I have to say. Ask for a double order.

We’re regulars, and here’s why:
1. The burger. We suspect they’ve added heroin or something. Seriously, never a miss. When we eat burgers elsewhere we compare them to Firehouse’s burger, and so far nobody’s touched it. They ran out one time, we blinked back tears and tried something else.
2. The cocktails. Fantastic Dark & Stormy, and the Barrel-​Aged Goddess is a lovely lemon-​ginger-​gin sipping cocktail. The Habanero Matador is a thirst-​quenching, palate-​awakening, smoky mix of tart and sweet. My go-​to, however, is the Corpse Revivor #2. Makes me feel classy, if not martini classy.
3. The service, which should be #1, because it makes #1 and #2 even better. Always friendly, even when busy. Attentive but not intrusive. We’re recognized and welcomed back by Raag every time we visit, even if we’re not seated in his area.
4. The rest of the food. OK, so once or twice we’ve tried something that wasn’t a favorite (they changed the pork belly appetizer, now it comes on black-​eyed peas, hoping they’ll change it back). The vast majority of the dishes are super tasty, and these people know how to cook meat.
In summary, we love you Firehouse No. 1, please never change. I mean, you can update the menu, but NEVER EVER CHANGE YOUR BURGER.

Absolutely fantastic! I had the pork chop. Cooked perfect with excellent flavor. One of the guys I went with had The barbecue chips and LOVED them. I would go again and order the same thing! Service was fantastic as well. Forgive me I forget his name. Brock maybe?. He was cheerful and made great recommendations.

Great beer selection, awsome food selection. Been here twice and was not let down. The service was a little slow at the tables, the bar service is excellent.

My favorite place to get drinks in all of San Pedro.
Whether it’s after work, date night, client entertainment, before a sharks game/​show, you can’t go wrong by going into Firehouse.
Make sure you get some signature cocktails from Ben, John, and Josh. Best guys in the biz.
Professional and highly proficient. You always feel at home :)!
Can’t wait to go back.

If you’re looking for a nice place to grab a drink and eat awesome food then come to firehouse! They have a great selection of beers on tap and good food. I love their bone marrow and the urban cowboy. Also they only serve food that is in season.

FANTASTIC! our bartender John was super knowledgeable! I ordered the angry prawns and I’m not an «angry» person aka spicy lol so I got it without the chiles and it was phenomenal, all the right flavors. My husband got the pan seared chicken… Wow! The sweet potato purée complemented that dish so well! The chicken was super tender. I hate chicken with the bone. Cutting around it is never easy for me… This chicken was a total exception. So yummy. So awesome. Loved the bar area! What a fun place! CHECK IT OUT!!!

— Great service. Our waiter gave my husband & friend solid whiskey recommendations.
— My original old fashioned was tasty/​well balanced.
— The pork chop was surprisingly tender and moist. Most places are super dry and tasteless.
— French fries were crispy. Amen to NO soggy fries.
Bottom line: We’ve been avoiding this place bc it’s a pub food in San Jose. We’re not fans of that combo. However a pleasant surprise all around. We’ll be back to try more items.

This is was really good. I’m a picky eater so I got the burger and it was delicious! The fries have Parmesan and parsley on them and they are so good too. My burger was cooked perfectly. We got the potato chips and the Gouda mac and cheese as appetizers. Don’t be fooled by the name «small bites» …none of them are small! All are perfect for sharing since they are fairly large. The rest of my party ordered the beet salad and the arugula salad (rave reviews for both), burgers, and the pork chop. There wasn’t a single unhappy eater. Simple menu, but amazing food. Our waiter was Bora and he is made for customer service! One of the best waiters we have ever had and the table couldn’t stop talking about how much we enjoyed talking with him. He was so accommodating, friendly, and rolled with the jokes my boyfriend’s dad kept throwing at him. Can’t say enough good things about him!
Worst part about the restaurant: the benches on around the table were super uncomfortable. Some of the tables had chairs which seemed better.

Nice gastropub in a hip area of San Jose called San Pedro square. They have a solid selection of local and American craft beers along with a menu that’ll please most palates. My only complaint would be that the bartenders and some of the servers don’t have the best attitudes. They seemed slightly annoyed to be at work. Maybe just a bad day for a few people, but noteworthy none-​the-​less.
In regards to food, they do an excellent job. For the two dinners I had here during a conference week, I got the ribeye both times and each time it was well cooked and flavorful. The asparagus it came with was also excellent. Giant stalks as what I’m used to on the east coast and nicely flavored. The beet app and the arugula salads were also great sides for the steak.
I wouldn’t hesitate to come back, but hopefully the next time the staff will be in a better mood.

Firehouse is definitely my favorite spot along San Pedro Square. It’s a pretty small restaurant that could be easy to miss, but if you want good food and good beer it’s the place to go!
For the food, it’s hard to go wrong. Their burgers are juicy, and the mac n’ cheese is so rich and delicious it’s almost hard to finish. I’ve also tried their angry tiger prawns with polenta, which is flavorful and perfect if you want something a bit lighter.
Sometimes the waiters are a bit standoffish and slow with the service, but it overall hasn’t been too much of a problem. I had a birthday dinner of 10 people there recently, and everything went smoothly. Looking forward to coming back!

Great drinks and food tasted good, however the service was extremely slow and the menu was very limited.
I had the Bacon-​Gouda Mac N Cheese and Jalapeño Margarita were both awesome!

I’ve been to this place several times and have always enjoyed their food. I made reservations for 4 people at 8pm to celebrate with some friends. We arrived and I told the hostess that I had reservations. She stated that a group of people have been at our table for 3 hours and just ordered more drinks. She didn’t know when they were going to leave. The host advised us to sit at 2 separate tables where the 4 of us wouldn’t be together. I told her we didn’t want to be separated. She said sorry and there’s nothing she could do. If a table has been there for 3 hours and is now just ordering drinks, then move them to the bar where there is space. I was disappointed how this situation was handled and disappointed that my reservation meant nothing. What’s the point of making one?
Frustrated with this situation, we left and had a nice dinner at the Farmer’s Union where they kindly sat us with a table that was available with our other reservation.

We were late for our reservation and we had less people, and they still accommodated us — which I thought was really great of them.
They had a great selection of craft beers, and we all got the burger which was delicious.

I had a lovely dinner there. Service was fun, fried not and knowledgable about the menu of food and drinks!
For the food:
Arugula salad — awesome! Fresh, great flavors.
Beets — was missing a bit of the vinegar for my taste (since its name includes the word «vinegar»).
Bone marrow — was not bad at all.
French steak — we got two different cook level, both were cooked perfectly! Such lovely cuts as well.
Burgers — I haven’t tried them but there were no complaints and they got all the specification (sauce on the side, no cheese, etc.) correctly.
Drinks — made very good mascot mule and old fashioned! Will most definitely be back!

The staff here is really friendly… not TOO friendly, just the right amount.
I got here about 45 minutes early before my friend was supposed to join me. I asked to be seated outside, and I ordered a beer. They were out of the one I wanted, and when I asked about an alternative they gave me a sample in a tumbler to try out. That was nice, not every place does that. I nursed my beer for the next half hour or so, and I was never pressured in any way to hurry up, order more, etc.
When my friend arrived we got a couple more rounds of beer, and ordered the steak («Bistro Steak» maybe? I forget which of the two it was) and the Spice Crusted Chicken Wings. The steak was _​perfect_​… highly recommended. We got the leaner cut of the two steaks on the menu, as described by the waiter. It was thick, juicy, and just a bit pink in the middle the way I wanted. The wings were… well, a rather too «fully flavored» for our taste. I think it would work well if someone were already sauced and looking for a food base to cut the alcohol… lol. They are heavily spiced (think Indian spices) and then fried. They are not so much juicy as crunchy as compared with traditional wings.
Environment is quite nice on the outside and the inside. The bathroom is clean. The staff is friendly and attentive. The beer flows like… um… beer.
I would return! I’m curious about some of the other menu items I didn’t get the chance to try.

It’s a 3.5 stars.
Bacon-​Gouda Mac N Cheese: first three bites were amazing, then I started to feel my arteries slowly clogging. This dish can be shared with two people, it’s just too rich to eat by oneself.
Spice Crusted Chicken Wings: some of the best wings I’ve ever had! Nicely seasoned dry rub, served with carrot dill salad. Must try.
The Firehouse Cheeseburger: nice flavor but both the burger and fries were a tad salty.
If it’s warm enough, sit outside. Firehouse No. 1 is located on a neat street. Best thing to do is order a bunch of dishes and share them.

The takeaway:
The firehouse serves tasty food accompanied with nice drink selection. The service is warm, efficient and quick.
The details:
We were escorted to the back end of the restaurant after making a reservation.
This place is very popular as indicated by the reviews and the loud chatter that played in the background while we were dining. At times we really needed to raise our voice or lean over to be heard.
We didn’t have to wait long for our waitress. So we got our order in for drinks quickly. I got an pineapple habanero cocktail while my friend ordered a beer. The cocktail was a bit flat and sour, but drinkable. It was served in a mason jar so no complains about that
For appetizer we got the pork belly and the butcher plate. The pork belly was very good. Crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. The butcher plate was nice. With a selection of 3 meats and 3 cheeses. We were commenting about how the slices of toasted baguette never seem to be enough for these plates. First world problems…
For the main course we ordered the steak and burger. Both were accompanied with fries. The fries were tasty with shaved Parmesan and a hint of garlic. The steak was juicy and prepared to the right temperature (medium). The steak was also complemented by spinach that was surprisingly flavorful and interesting.
My friend mentioned the burger was ok.
For dessert we opted to share the one option on the menu, flourless chocolate cake with preserved strawberries and cream. That too was enjoyable albeit small to share.

Setting aside waiting over 10min to track our waiter down, and they brought us the wrong drinks. The food made up for it. On a scale of 1 – 10 (10 being the best)
Bone marrow –7
Angry shrimp — 9
Steak –8
Arugula salad –8
Grilled Octopus –9
Atmosphere –2
Service was friendly, but slow — 6
We will probably revisit and sit at the bar instead of the old dirty wobbling tables in the back hole.
Great food!

Overall, this place was great. We had some minor issues but the pros vastly outweighed the cons.
Pros:
— Charred octopus: literally half of an octopus. charred. Loved this. The octopus was super tender and the little crispy bits were amazing.
— Pork belly: this was crispy but still so tender. The black eyed peas this came with were my favorite part of the entire meal. It could have used a LOT more of the shaved fennel salad though, as the pork belly was just a touch too salty.
— Marrow: YUM. Again, though, just a little too salty. But for $ 18 you get three halves… way too much for 2 people but WHATEVS. BALLIN’.
— The description of the dip for the chips… «Lower middle class onion dip.» I LOLed.
— The drink I got: it isn’t on their online menu (seems to be outdated) but it had bourbon and apricots and was SUPER tasty. Sweet and a little tart. Although it could have stood a good shaking since all the bourbon was at the bottom.
— Lovely staff. Very helpful and attentive.
— Great selection of beer and they let you have a couple tasters of what’s on tap.
Cons:
— Our server never told us the specials… and then I saw a whole fish come out of the kitchen and felt like I was missing out.
— A couple of the dishes being a little too salty (as noted above). I like salty so you know when I say it’s salty, it’s SALTY.
— My husband and I shared everything, including one entrée. We got the steak and fries. Fries were fine but the steak was just not a good cut. It tasted good, but I ordered it medium rare and it was closer to medium than anything. It was VERY tough though so I don’t think the right cook on it would have changed anything.
Overall, we had a great meal. Spent about $ 105 before tip so it was reasonable. I’d come back if only for those black eyed peas…

Came here on a whim with a Living Social voucher for brunch. I arrived at opening time (11am) which seemed to be early for the San Jose crowd as no one else was there and the staff seemed surprised that they were even open… Nonetheless, they were super friendly and helpful. I decided to order a mix of things off of the menu to get a feel for what the Firehouse No. 1 Gastropub had to offer — Southern Fried Chicken Sandwich (comes with fries), Grilled Bone– in Pork Chop and a gin cocktail.
Favorite eat: the gravy with the Pork Chop. It had the perfect saltiness and creaminess to tie together the pork and the polenta. Kind of made me wish I had ordered The Jimmy Dean.
Least favorite eat: the slaw on the fried chicken sandwich. This just lacked a certain something for me. Maybe something fresher or spicier or creamier… like some fresh pineapple or maybe some fresh jalapeños.
Other random notes: The online menu does not match what is reality when you get there… was looking forward to my red flannel omelette :|
All in all, the place was good but not phenomenal. I wouldn’t mind going back but probably wouldn’t go out of my way to return. The service was nice; portions were large… I wouldn’t show up right at opening time because they really aren’t quite open. Might be nice at a different time of day out on the patio.

My previous visit was an awesome one because the food was great and our server Rob was amazing.
Unfortunately, this time around we weren’t so lucky. We were not seated in Rob’s section and our server was just pretty blah. Rob did stop by to say hi to us though… he remembered us!
Onto this visit…
Our waiter (a blond, long haired young man) came to take our order. He was oooook, and didn’t really make an effort or check in on us after we placed our order. We had to flag him down and he made us feel like we were bothering him.
I ordered the Pan Roasted 38 North Chicken Breast and my brother ordered The Urban Cowboy steak… a young lady came to inform me that they were out of the chicken. I ordered The Urban Cowboy steak instead.
The steak was really good and I enjoyed my fingerling potatoes.
Unfortunately, our server wasn’t on point and that left us with a sour taste… and I had raved about this place to my brother!

I had a living social deal for this place and was going to expire in two days! So my husband and I decided to finally try it on a Monday night for dinner. No local sports teams were playing so the place was not packed at all during would be peak dinner times.
We came in around 7:30pm and got a table right away by the window.
Now, from reading reviews and looking at pictures I knew I had to order the bone marrow to try because I LOVE bone marrow.
We both weren’t that hungry as we ate a lot of snacks at the movies so we decided share a firehouse burger and fries. Cooked medium. Add some bacon.
It was a pretty fine burger. Juicy. Cooked exactly medium as ordered. They were generous on the bacon portion. Bread to burger patty ratio was about perfect. All in all, it was a great option. Fries were ok. Not particularly memorable to me.
I actually asked them about their foie gras burger as I saw some people posted pictures of this. I was told that they use to serve it but the vendor whom they got the foie gras from since changed in quality and it didn’t meet their expectations so they’ve stopped serving the foie gras burger. (maybe they’ll find a new vendor again some day). I must say, I really appreciated hearing this. Goes to show this place cares about the quality of food they provide patrons. They could easily have kept with the less than standard foie gras and serve it for potentially good profits (to those who may not know better, because…‘hey look, there’s some foie gras on the menu, let’s order!’) but decided it was better to not serve it than put out a lesser dish.
I guess some detail goes into making their bone marrow because it took a bit of time for us to get it. We were actually served the burger first and just finished that meal before the bone marrow arrived. But I really did not mind because I’d rather have gotten it right than rushed and I had no need to have to eat that before my burger. I must say, again, the portion was GENEROUS. Three fat bone marrow with huge chunks man! I mean, I’ve gotten some lame bone marrow before where *scoop scoop* «ugh there’s barely anything there!» Not this place. Huge chunks of bone marrow with each. My husband loved the seasoning. It came with more than enough crostinis. I wished it came with some pickled items. I mean it had an arugula salad with picked onions, but I love eating bone marrow with caramelized and pickled assortments. Nevertheless, a great deal here.
Service was prompt and courteous. The waitstaff were all nice.
All around, a pleasant time spent.

My boyfriend and i came here for dinner Friday night. We wanted to go somewhere with good drinks and since we never dined here before, we decided to give Firehouse a try. We arrived around 9pm and there was a lot of outdoor seating.
We were super hungry and we wanted to try several dishes so we ordered 4 different ones to share. The menu was deisgned to have 3 different portions of food which includes: smaller plates, larger plates, and bar snacks. We ordered 3 from smaller olates and one from bar snacks. I was glad we didnt order the larger olatrs since the portions for smaller plates were not too small and we had a chance to try several dishes.
We ordered Bacon mac and cheese, bone marrow, beef and brocollini, and french fries.
The bacon mac and cheese came in a big bowl. It was pretty good but i felt the cheese was a bit too rich and a little too salty. I wouldn’t be able to eat just this on my own. The french fries were just french fries. It was nothing too special. I loved the bone marrow! So flavorful! The beef with brocollini was in point as well.
For drinks, we ordered a drink each. I got the Rusty ginger blade which was easy to drink.
Service was excellent! The staff was very attentive and super friendly.
I had a little trouble with parking validation and 3 staff plus the security guard were running around to help me with my parking situation. Ya’ll know who you are =p