After trying for 2 years to book this highly rated restaurant in our town, we finally made it through the front door. We enjoyed a brilliant 3 course meal , including chowder which was of Maine, USA quality, perfectly presented and a delight to eat....My mains were a delicately cooked rack of lamb with sides of vegetables. Meat purveyors in Port Fairy sell meat of stellar standard and the Blakes' rack of lamb was probably the best I have experienced . My wife enjoyed a succulent local fish, prepared and cooked to perfection. We both found the creme brulee exquisite.
A Coonawarra Chardonnay topped off a perfect gastronomic experience.
The down side was that there were inadequate staff numbers, who apologised for spending their time on the phone instead of serving the diners. Realistically, for a $200 meal in a resort town , they needed to employ sufficient staff.
The other issue is that the ambience was ruined by tightly packed diners in tiny rooms - we didn't want to hear about the private lives of the other diners - surely a set of Bose speakers playing background music would alleviate this problem.
All in all Blakes is a great restaurant and we will certainly (attempt) to take our friends and family along for a quality gastronomic experience. We are locals and consider we are very fortunate to have a restaurant of such quality in our townMore