Blake's Tavern — Restaurant in Providence

My brother, father and I were going to an event across the street at the Strand and decided to grab a bite at Blake’s right before. We arrived to a thirty minute wait which we were perfectly okay with. Unfortunately, multiple groups of people of similar sizes who showed up after us were seated before we were. No big deal, it happens. While standing there we noticed a minimum of three instances where food was brought to the wrong table. In one situation, they tried to drop food on a table where only half the people were there and they still had menus.

We were seated and ordered drinks which came at an expected pace. It came time to order and two of got a soup or salad in addition to our sandwich/burger and fries. The other ordered a pizza. The food came and the soup and salad didn’t come out first as would be expected but rather everything all at once. The pizza didn’t come out at all. The waitress was oblivious to the fact that she was missing a pizza. Once it was brought to her attention she stated “let me check on that” and returned with “the pizza was sent to the wrong table”. Not wanting to be impolite, we eat the soup and salad before the pizza arrived, but then stopped and waited once finished. The waitress returned to the table “7 more minutes”. Longer than seven minutes passed and when the waitress went to check she sent out a pizza, but not the one that was ordered. It was probably the next one that was done cooking. Finally, we could all eat our entrees. My burger that was ordered medium was well done and at that point it was cold. My brother and father were indifferent about their meals too. It was time to pay/leave was no offer to discount the meal or take the pizza off the bill. We weren’t going to make a fuss about so we paid and left. One thing is for sure. I won’t be going back...

My last experience at Blake’s Tavern left me and my friends dismayed. We entered the establishment, were seated by the hostess, and explained that we were a large group doing a tour of all the Providence bars to commemorate our final weeks in Providence as we have been students the last four years. Some of us are international students who have come to call this city home.

When it came time to present our identification, we did so without hesitation. Many of the IDs were state licenses, while some of us presented international passports, a valid form of ID to be served under Rhode Island Law. Quickly, our server turned combative, denying the stipulation that passports qualify for proper identification and declaring that these individuals would not be served. I have never been met with such extreme prejudice in a pub. Our group kindly vacated the establishment, and the situation only worsened: Entering the next bar, the servers informed us that Blake Tavern had CALLED AHEAD to stonewall our group and recommend that they not accept the legal identification of our international friends. Unabashedly, the new bar told us point blank that because some of us “look like we are underage,” they would not even attempt to check our IDs or serve us. This move was purely vengeful on the part of Blake’s tavern— preventing us from patronizing their competitors’ businesses because they kicked out hundreds in revenue that night.

What was supposed to be a night celebrating the bars that have welcomed us with open arms for the past four years quickly turned sour to an evening of discriminatory law-bending and...

Watch out for the surprise menu price changes, not kidding. Ordered the beef skewers, menu has the price listed as $16.00, the check comes and it’s $21.00. I asked the wait staff who took our orders, his reply... the meat prices change some times and they don’t update the menus and shrugged it off. What the actual heck is that all about. This is after trying to order dinner, the place was dead, so it’s not that they were busy- we ordered a Caprese Salad with grilled chicken and Beef Skewers and Sweet Potato Fries Appetizers. Five minutes after order our dinner, our waiter is back asking what did you order??? With the menu in hand. Okay, fine confirm our order, and five minutes later he’s back asking what side did I want. Fine, whatever everyone has a bad day. The basket of Sweet Potato Fries, yeah that’s a plate with a small portion of fries prices at $6.50+. The beef skewers were okay, I ordered the sweet potato fries as the side, they were pretty good. The Caprese Salad with grilled chicken, my wife couldn’t eat due to the huge amount of capers on it, we switched meals, I love capers and there was a lot of them, the fresh mozzarella and greens were good, the ‘dressing’ was a thick, syrupy balsamic, the chicken was god awful! Inedible garbage. Rubber, tough, chewy strips of what appeared to be precooked ‘fake’ chicken strips they must have microwaved to death. Just so very disappointing. I would not recommend going here for real food. Pub grub, fried wings and beers, maybe. Nah, that’s a hard no, I wouldn’t want to get...