Firebird

Rating: 3

We ate lunch here in December 2024.

Pulled pork tostadas
Mushrooms on toast

In the heavy northbound Christmas traffic, we decided to pull in at the first place we saw in Levin. Despite only being 12.30, it wasn’t clear on entering the Firebird whether it was open or not. There was one member of staff, who hadn’t turned around to face us, and a couple of people sitting in this large, slightly dark room with a second-hand-shop vibe. We were informed that they were open, but that there were no pizzas, nothing from the mains menu, and actually she would prefer we just ordered from the brunch menu. This narrowed it down to about six options.

Firebird has a Mexican slant to their menu, and we were looking forward to the tostadas. Yet another unavailable item, she didn’t have any of their usual tostada bases but popped everything on a big tortilla instead. It was pretty good but not groundbreaking.

What was groundbreaking was the mushrooms on toast. The seasoning was incredible - we couldn’t name exactly what was going on and reckon some of the Mexican spices had snuck in there, but it was a flavour explosion. This kind of dish reminds you that mushrooms on toast, so often a throwaway, can be a total powerhouse when done correctly.