An English Import Struggling to Get Seen

Having eaten junk from a franchise we knew (see: Burger King Irish Selections), my wife and I still had touristing things to do. Or more sleeping in the hotel room as, even late into the trip, we still hadn’t managed to get over our jet lag (spoilers: we never did). One of those two things happened after the Burger King. By the time we were free (and/or awake), it was late into the evening (which, by Dublin’s terms, meant “past eight”) and so our dinner options were limited.

Searching around in the area we were staying at, we found a small little pizza place, Fireaway Pizza, that few others were going to. It was weird, in fact, because the place looked really nice. It had good decor, a friendly person working up front, and a fixings area you could see so that you could point out what you wanted on your pizza if you wanted the person to build you something custom. It reminded me a lot of Mod Pizza here in the States, a “make it as you like” pizza place for single-serve pizzas, except for larger pies. This seemed like the kind of place anyone in town would like, especially since there weren’t a ton of pizza places right around where we were staying.

About the only explanation we had for why the restaurant wasn’t busy (outside the food itself, which we’ll get to) was the fact that Fireaway Pizza isn’t technically a local chain. They’re an English chain, based out of Buckinghamshire, and it’s possible that the Irish denizens didn’t feel like going to a British chain when there were other, local selections to choose from. The Irish aren’t exactly fans of the British (I do hope that doesn’t come as a shock) so it could be a matter of local preferences, or national pride, or who knows what.

Regardless, we’re dirty Americans, and we just wanted pizza, so we ordered a pie and a side and within ten minutes our order was up, hot and ready, and we were able to take it back to our hotel room to eat it in relative peace. Admittedly we could have eaten it at the restaurant as we were literally the only people there, but we didn’t. Even a single clerk watching us felt like too much social interaction after a day of touristing.

Our order consisted of a veggie pizza with pepperoni added on (because I wanted veggies, but my wife says a pizza isn’t a pizza without pepperoni), and then a cheesy garlic bread on the side, which was almost as big as the pizza itself. Of the two the pepperoni veggie was the better option, although neither of them were so shockingly great that we fell in love with the place. It wasn’t bad, and as far as chain pizzas are concerned I’ve had much worse… but I’ve also had better.

The pizza crust was pretty good. Light and tasty, without too much flour to its texture. It had a decent chew to it, with the thin, hand-tossed style holding up well to all the toppings. The toppings were mushrooms, bell peppers, sweet corn, onions, and black olives, with the added pepperoni thrown on, and it was a nice mix of flavors. I hadn’t had corn on a pizza before, but the sweet corn wasn’t too sweet or overpowering. It was more there for texture, and it was just noticeable enough without feeling out of place. The pepperoni was nice, too, with a decent bit of salt and peppery spices to its mix.

I think it was the tomato sauce and mozzarella that held the pizza back some in my estimation. The sauce was thick but lacked a ton of flavor. A good pizza sauce has a tasty herb blend to it, with a mix of tomato sweetness and herby salts, but this sauce was lacking. It wasn’t too bland but it really could have done with just a bit more flavor. And I felt about the same for the cheese. It wasn’t offensive, but mozzarella on its own isn’t the best base for a cheese. You want a blend, with some sharp cheeses mixed into the fatty melt of the mozzarella. Fireaway just uses mozzarella and it does hold the pie back some.

Still, the pizza was far and away better than the cheesy garlic bread. As you would expect, this was basically a pizza crust with mozzarella, as that’s what the chain has in abundance. To get the “garlic” part of the garlic bread the chain uses a garlic oil blend and, frankly, this didn’t add nearly enough flavor. When you offer a garlic bread that should come with garlic. Actual garlic, chopped up and sprinkled on the pizza. It shouldn’t just be a diluted oil, especially when the cheese you’re pairing it with is fatty and bland. Everything about this mix was wrong, and the cheesy garlic bread really didn’t hold up at all.

I don’t want to say that this is the reason the chain wasn’t doing well in downtown Dublin. As I said, pizza options were limited around that area, and while the pizza didn’t quite match up to what I wanted, it wasn’t offensively bad. I’ve had offensively bad pizza (see: Domino’s) and this wasn’t even close. It was just fine, and most people don’t care that much. Pizza is pizza and if it’s fine enough they’ll eat it.

But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Dubliners know better and they chose to stay away because there were options they knew of that we didn’t. The restaurant and its food alone wasn’t so bad that I could understand why they were struggling… but I do have to admit that unlike a lot of places I ate at during this trip, I don’t think back fondly about Fireway Pizza. They were a place we ate at. That was about it.