Blackwood Hotel — Restaurant in Victoria

We phoned twice during the week, once to book for Saturday night and the next time to adjust numbers. Both times we were very clear that the booking was for a Saturday night. Both times we had spoken to an actual person, not left a message and assumed everything would be ok. The second time, the person on the phone had to look up our booking to adjust it - so surely it must have been on their Saturday night page. Perhaps they gave our table away, perhaps they just assumed we'd turn up and happily squeeze in where we could. Upon arrival, the person who greeted us advised that they 'don't take bookings for Saturday night', and when I explained we'd phoned twice, they said 'probably booked you in for tomorrow night'. I didn't expect profuse apologies, they were super busy (we discovered there'd been a festival that day), but some acknowledgement of the inconvenience, a simple sorry, would have gone a long way and cost absolutely nothing. They offered to seat us out on the verandah, but after that less than warm welcome, we decided not to stay. As it was, we had travelled 40 minutes to be there, and our friends just over 2 hours. We had better service from another pub, who although couldn't fit us in, were so kind about it and shocked to hear we'd made a booking that wasn't honoured elsewhere. We eventually headed to a neighbouring town and had a lovely dinner, a little overshadowed by the absolute waste of time and lack of care that Blackwood Hotel showed. I debated leaving this review, but was so surprised about the lack of service, I had to. Needless to say we...

I had the Wagyu rump steak with Chimichurri sauce cooked medium. Steak was cooked to perfection, the char-grilled flavour matched with the spicy tang of the chimichurri was a flavoursome delight, everything balanced in flavour like an orchestral sensation for the taste buds. Was served with a copious amount of chips, which were very nice though if I were nit picking I could say they could have done with a little more seasoning. The salad nothing fancy though the dressing was nice and went well with the steak sauce. A beautiful meal which exceeded in some ways some other authentic Argentinean restaurants I've been to in the past. Highly recommend the Wagyu/Chimichurri combination here!

Also had the Sticky Date Pudding as we couldn't resist, again a large serving generously topped with butterscotch sauce and a couple of dollops of icecream, all delightful and my partner remarked that it actually had chunks of dates in it which is rare in itself.

A beautiful old pub with beautiful views, friendly helpful staff and some incredible meals.

Definitely...

Country charm meets city hospitality! Set in the very quiet little outpost of Blackwood in country Victoria, just a short drive from Trentham or the townships of Daylesford etc, with cute and historic accomodation options for a wind-down stay away from the busyness of life, is this newly revived gorgeous little pub with a great food offering and drinks menu, pool table, fireplace and friendly and attentive staff. We stopped in for a couple of beers on our first night, just a couple of minutes walk from our little cottage homestay. We came back the second night for dinner which was a delicious experience! The food came out quickly, we had the Wagyu rump steak and some sides. Portion and quality was GREAT and we selected some yummy wines to accompany, with a lovely whisky to finish. There was a warm and inviting atmosphere and the staff recognised us on our return, making it feel like our little local. 🥰 Forgot to take a photo of our meal as we were too busy...