Blakes of Dover in Dover

Learn to cook a steak ya morons

Blakes has come on a lot since I last visited, admittedly a couple of years ago at least. Went along to the Wednesday open mic night and had a great time. Held outside under cover, with heating! Great music from different singers and musicians and atmosphere, definitely visiting again soon, even though it means a twenty-minute drive!

Docer sole in Dover. Very tasty, good portion with fries, fresh peas and steamed veggies. The tomato soup was outstanding!! Enjoyed the local Dover IPA on draught.

Not the best food and overpriced. Staff (or at least the old guy charging not nice). Food was actually pretty bad, the stout beer was so bad that we didnt drink it although the bitter was nice but still unacceptable. And also minimum on card is 5£ and they dont take amex so basically you cant pay for one pint of bitter with card because its 4£ that is quite sad. Honestly dont recommend probably best to try nearby places. (i went for food only btw)

Although I didn't stay here had a very good meal and the beer was very good.

A great little place good food reasonably priced.

Nice restaurant in Dover. Good food and nice beer garden. Service impeccable. I don't know any rooms there.

Difficult one this as for the bar downstairs I would easily give a high score. The atmosphere is friendly and chilled. They have various things going on such as singers, quiz nights etc. Comfortable seating or table and chairs if you want to order food. Great place. Food wise I was very disappointed. Options for vegetarians limited. Vegans nil. Personally think the food is well overpriced and definitely not freshly prepared as expected in a restaurant of that caliber.I would like the quality to that of a high street cafe. Would not recommend eating there.

Best kept secret in dover. This place is a hidden gem. Lovely staff atmosphere garden and gigs. I highly recommend this place or the priory as they are the only good places left.

The pub is in the basement, cozy. There's more going on here than in the restaurant on the ground floor. There is also a guest garden. Food was really good and inexpensive.

Small, steep steps to bar and garden. Good beer

great traditonal fish n chip non greasy. nice spot after a long dover cliff walk. thanks for the beer.

Cracking little hidden gem a few minutes walk from the town centre with a sun trap courtyard. Good selection of beers & food at reasonable prices. Give it a go.

Great night out on a Wednesday for the open mic night 👍

It already has flair. That can mean many things in a pub.

Great lovely place ! Fine grilled meat and very good desserts

Cute pub, friendly staff. Offer tarot reading evenings on Mondays and the food looks and smelt delicious! Highly recommend the rhubarb cider too! Will be back for food 🖤

Centrally located with a nice beer garden and very good food. Very friendly staff and live music at least on Sunday evenings. We spent a very nice evening here.

Un pranzo veloce poco prima di prendere il traghetto per la Francia, servizio eccellente e cibo buonissimo. Il proprietario, un signore anziano e gentile, è stato molto gentile e ha servito da solo in maniera eccellente dei piatti super buoni.

The place is super nice and unusual, the meals were very good and plentiful, it was great! The only downside was a slight lack of cleanliness in the men's toilets. The women's toilets, on the contrary, were good.

New to England, new to Dover, especially on a Sunday where practically everything thing was closed, we were lost… this place took us in, they were very friendly as well the other folks there. We had 4 rowdy kids, and the employees were very patient. Good food, great vibe, I highly recommend.

A lovely little gem of a pub in the basement of a restaurant with a lovely outside beer garden which is a bonus, the place was welcoming and a warm reception was given to everyone who entered. One to definitely visit again while in Dover.

We weren't in the restaurant. I can only rate the pub. The first thing we noticed when we went down the stairs into the dark room was the smell, which was very unpleasant. We wanted to eat, but not in the dark room and not in the smell. So we went outside to the beer garden. It wasn't so dark there anymore, but you felt trapped. All in all, not a nice atmosphere. To make matters worse, there was also Foster beer. I ate a rib eye steak. This actually deserves 4 stars for this price. But I can't give that to the dingy pub.

The Blake of Dover Burger I ordered was the best burger I've had. Definitely recommend coming here. Live music sounded great. Lovely atmosphere.

Very good food in an authentic pub with a special atmosphere

A few steps from the harbor parking lot. Quaint bar, great selection of drinks, great atmosphere, great service, very tasty food. A nice way to say goodbye to the island.

A great little local pub with reasonable food and drink prices. We chatted it up with the locals and fellow cruisers in town for our 12 day cruise. Definetely worth a stop in.

Excellent service and entertainment with good food and friendly staff and owner.

We dropped by this place on the recommendation from another pub! We were tired, wet and in search of a good meal. Blake's didn't disappoint. A traditional English pub. We had fish and chips and burgers. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their meal.

Perfect cellar bar with great beer and vibe, right by the sea and in the centre of town

Great service. The beer was good as expected. But my wife drinks wine and we were not sure they had wine. But the wine selection was more then serviceable. The food was good also! We sat outside in the garden!

We ordered our lunch at the bar as requested. Waited almost an hour for steak and oven chips. Half way through eating it the local "characters" came in. When I say characters I mean a group of about a dozen locals who were each having a personal battle with themselves to see if they could get their BMI above their IQ. Shouting and swearing constantly as if to prove my point, they ruined what was otherwise a decidedly average meal. If you're looking for good food in a tranquil setting, go somewhere else. If however you want school canteen fare whilst surrounded by the dregs of Dover then you'll absolutely love it here. No need to book.

What a great night yet again, jaxson playing tonight was absolutely awesome, great beer and a brilliant barman

Selected the carbonara meal from the menu. It looked very bland and uninteresting on arrival from the kitchen. The sauce was tasteless, unseasoned and watery whilst the pasta was soggy and reminiscent of pot noodle. Sorry Blakes. You've lost a customer. Overpriced for what I got.

But of an oddity here. We came in for food then found out there’s a cellar type bar downstairs. Lots of kids arrived to go down. The ground floor food level was nicely laid out, with an old atmosphere but not that big. We decided the food was ok priced expecting to get a nice portion of fish and chips each. When it came we were surprised. Bit small. I think they regard this place as A la carte which is weird serving fish in batter with chips. That wasn’t a la carte but the portion was. Altogether not a bad experience and we’re happy that we didn’t eat that much before going out in the end. A quirky place I guess worth visiting as there’s not much in Dover really.

We visited on a Thursday afternoon during a stopover t dover port. This place seemed well recommended on Google but the Kitchen was closed and it really smelled like an old pub. We ended up leaving and going elsewhere.

Our meal was sooo beautiful! Fresh produce. Really well cooked. Great draught beers and wine. In fact the drinks were really cheap! We will definitely come back. Maybe the best meal we’ve had in Dover.

Had a meal here 2 weeks, an although at the time the food was nice, I have since been very unwell after tracking it back. The service was poor as the chap who served us was miserable , didn't strike any conversation. Prices are good but that stack up against quality and service. Absolutely not

Typical rustic pub - large selection of drinks.

Booked for a 60th Birthday, food was not good, in fact three people in our party became unwell after eating the carbonara, given a knife to cut the birthday cake which broke when pushed into the icing which caused a cut on the birthday boys finger. The guy who served us couldnt have been more miserable and made some of us feel uncomfortable by watching us the whole time. overall a really bad experience. AVOID

Open mic night on a Wednesday is brilliant

A proper old school bar. Good beer and great service from the staff, particularly Jon behind the bar. A great spot for a quiet relaxing drink.

Excellent food served downstairs in the pub. Local pub feel with friendly staff. Decent prices as well. We had meat pies and both were delicious.

Had Chicken Forestier for dinner and a pint of Mosaic pale ale. Food was good, beer was decent, service was fast. There was live music downstairs. The place itself is quite charming. Overall a very good experience.

What a fab find a little bar and restaurant hidden away Lovely steak and all the trimmings

Superb meal... excellent service!

The quaint outside enticed four of us in but don’t be fooled. The food was poor , served barely warm and chicken grossly under cooked hidden with a thin watery mushroom sauce . Glasses had lipstick on and cutlery grubby. Toilets downstairs seen better days and lots of questionable under age drinkers being served in the bar area. All in all very disappointing . The next day we to The White Horse , now everything there was incredible . We also ate in Dinos and Il Rustico - again all in the same area and can recommend fully.

Fab little hideaway down stairs restaurant. Really good food Enjoyed our steaks . Rib eyes ! The pate was gorgeous! As was the crispy breaded Brie ! Had a lovely tine

One of my favourite venues in Dover. Has a really relaxed vibe

Food was terrible came out barely warm. Service was awful and took forever. Toilets where unclean. And full of drug takers whilst staff served underage people

Wow, hidden gem with the best home made tomato soup ever

Fantastische cosy restaurant. Heerlijk kneuterig en het eten is van zeer goede kwaliteit , zeker gezien de prijs

Review of the pub (cellar bar) / beer garden experience, I didn't stay in the hotel. Decent place to go for a burger or fish & chips. The bar allows you to order food so if the restaurant doesn't have room you can always go there. The tap selection was good but not too varied and the barkeep was friendly and talkative (I assume chatting up the regulars). We sat in the beer garden which is a cozy-ish patio space, half covered, and half with picnic tables in the open. The main complaint about that area is it wreaks of cigarette butts and patrons come out and smoke a table away with complete disregard to their proximity to me and my food (there were many other tables available).

Lovely place to eat.. good atmosphere great staff 🙂

Tolles Pub mit Biergarten . Freundliche Bedienung

Best lamb shank i've ever eaten. Nice atmosphere and interisting beers. Highly recommended Greetings from Düsseldorf

Not accessible, but great venue and atmosphere

Great food! Loved the mushy peas with the fish and chips. House Burger was also good. They had a few bottled low alcohol beers, which is great.

Immer ein sehr schöner Aufenthalt. Das Essen ist sehr gut

What a hidden Gem of a place this is! Wandered in here on Sunday afternoon after hearing a few reviews over the months and what we found to our investigation into Blake's of Dover was a great place with. A well stacked bar plenty of delicious food options and the icing in the cake was a lovely outside areas to relax and enjoy the great live Band that happened to be playing 😄🎵🎶. Very friendly locals a great Ribeye steak, great atmosphere. Would highly recommend this place as we ended up staying the whole afternoon and will definitely be enjoying a Sunday afternoon there again.

My goodness it was the best steak I ever had 😁 Staff is amazing. Also there was nice live music this Sunday.

Wir haben hier gesessen und es war lecker, die Portionen sind nicht zu groß 👍🏼 wir haben uns sehr wohl gefühlt

Had the worst fish in all UK at their restaurant. Horrible.

One of the better places in Dover, extremely busy when we visited. Service was polite, if not particularly welcoming, and the beer was fine - Wantsum, Adnams, nothing too exciting. The large outdoor area is a bonus as the bar itself is very small. Overall, did the job, but wouldn't rush back.

Amazing food! The fish and chips were not too greasy and cooked perfectly. The breaded brie is to die for.

Good food at very reasonable prices. Outside bar downstairs with good live music

I had the salmon. It was pretty good. They have a back garden if you fancy eating in the sun. Cosy inside.

We sat upstairs in the pub. Proper english pub food, not had jam roly poly in ages! Some of the best food from our holiday. Lovely selection of beers/ciders. Very nice barman that served us. Will definately be back if in the area. Thanks to all the staff!

It's a secret and impossible to find. But I loved it.

Great little pub with outside seating in the back. The food we ordered was good and a great selection of beer! We walked down from the Dover Castle and the beer was our reward.

Great steak, ftiendly atmosphere and live music.

We enjoyed a very good fish and chips with a pint of beer. The man serving was very kind!

Great food and a nice little beer garden. Been several times now.

I only had a drink in the dive bar after they had stopped serving food and the restaurant was closed. The cellar is very dark. There is lots of outdoor space,.covered and open. I didn't particularly enjoy the atmosphere but it must be very different on a busy evening. There were 2 ales, a house bitter from Wantsum.and another beer from Wantsum. Mine was in reasonable condition.

We feel so fortunate to have stumbled upon this gem. The food was delicious (the chicken dish with mushroom sauce was superb), super selection of beer, cider and spirits. But best of all was Joe. He made us feel right at home and made excellent recommendations for a smooth single malt whiskey.

The meal was very good and I enjoyed the evening

Great vibes and nice English meals.

Good food and beer they serve food on the ground floor and also have a bar downstairs on a Saturday night They had a singer on

Won't be rushing back to try another Ribeye with an orange spray tan or microwave pudding

The place is small, but it makes you feel cozy and warm inside. The food is 10/10. The best chicken and mushroom pie.

Very nice honest food with a great atmosphere.

Traditional pub with good tap selection and perfect fish n chips. No frills, just real cozy comfort.

Moved to Dover area recently and visited blakes afew times. Not a bad pub but what really lets it down is the miserable old chap that serves behind the bar. Real lack of customer service. Puts me off coming into the place.

Best food in Dover. This is a amazing friendly warm place amazing building and decoration. Great outside area with sofas and seating and bbq also fab musicians

Good restaurant, downstairs there is a pub with garden.

I'd like to add my five stars to recommend this cellar bar as an undiscovered gem. Dover at half past eight on a freezing Monday night in March is not a welcoming place, the only eating places open are chain burger bars and none of them allow dogs (the highly-regarded, historic town pub closes the kitchen at 8pm - beware). Blake's cellar bar hit the spot for all the right reasons: very hospitable, down-to-earth, welcoming, cosy, cheerful bar staff; decent pub food, good beer, very affordable-priced wine list; dog-friendly. It may not look much but a lovely atmosphere, friendly locals and especially the tarot reader who gave us a set of tarot cards. We had a great time and felt very welcome. Thanks guys!

Dover is bereft of decent pubs, but Blakes is a Beacon of hope if you're looking for a good place to drink. Go down the stairs, and there's a snug little bar with ample tables and chairs. There's two decent draft real ales, a cider, and a good selection of craft keg and lagers. Outside, there's an excellent area to sit in comfort to enjoy your drinks with your friends.

Always have a great time at Blakes, especially when Joe is working as he always looks after you and is very friendly. The food is of a great home-cooked standard and their steaks are always reliably excellent! The beer is always fresh and of a good selection (they have their own) and the whiskey selection is also massive!

My husband and I visited tonight we had the steak and it was really lovely hats off to the chef! Nice and quiet pub lovely staff will defo come again thank u

Having heard rave reviews about the brilliant steak that Blakes serve, my husband and I visited this evening. My husband had the worst steak ever. It was very fatty with a massive amount of gristle. The lamb shank wasn't much better, it had been cooked for so long the bones were soft and the red wine sauce was terrible. After all of the build up from friends, I don't think we will be returning and I wouldn't recommend to anyone.

Our host John from St. Martins House directed us here. Although it seems very tiny we discovered another level downstairs with a Pub, outdoor patio & garden. The food was excellent and service was prompt and friendly.

We only went to this restaurant because our first choice was not serving food. What luck! It’s very welcoming and a typical old fashioned pub. My husband was allowed to try the beer first at their suggestion and would totally recommend Black Prince if you like a dark mild. The food was delicious and served with a smile! An added bonus was luv music going on so we had a little sing too!!

We ate upstairs, a lovely restaurant, staff friendly, food was excellent, generous portions, delicious. I had chicken and prawn, my husband had the steak and my sister had traditional fish and chips, we had garlic bread, it was all cooked to perfection, this was our first visit and we will definitely be going again, live music downstairs after the meal was great, bar staff friendly and helpful, we had a great evening out.

Sat down at a pre-booked table at 12.15, only to find the chef had been 'delayed' (driving back from a long trip!). Had a drink and waited for about 15 minutes, and hurray, the chef had turned up. Ordering was straightforward and the very large plates of food arrived in good time. It was okay, but not inspiring. My steak and kidney pudding was very hot in the middle (microwaved), and the others having the chicken in a (thin) mushroom sauce (with salad - why?) said it was okay. Overall the food was a bit bland but it was edible. Front of house are so important in selling a restaurant - and the only way of describing this part of the experience was that it felt that we were being tolerated. The table was unlaid when we arrived and was sticky!!!! The Trip Advisor web photos (both inside and outside) are nothing like the reality. Sorry, we found it a bit dingy, cluttered, mucky and uninspiring. This means that it is unlikely that we will be returning to this restaurant. It could have been a much better experience.

Blakes, castle street. Great food, very friendly staff and entertainment. Great food choice. Fish and chips and the steak pudding, recommended.

It’s a pleasant restaurant and the staff are friendly. Inside it feels like a typical old fashioned town pub. The food is homemade, tasty and reasonably priced. The menu is very traditional. I did enjoy my pudding with custard, which was particularly good.

Visiting dover for the weekend and we was not impressed with the hotel's food where we were staying so went for a wander and stumbled across blakes had a couple of pints of really good real ale and some great food and a great price so much cheaper than a lot of the other places around town and had a bonus of some live music

Called in mid afternoon on a Saturday. I had a lovely steak, done to perfection, with sauce, salad and chips. My husband had liver, bacon mash and veg. Both meals were absolutely gorgeous and well priced. Staff were very friendly too. Can't wait to return!

Très bon resto, chaleureux, les plats bons et copieux. Si on cherche le resto typique anglais c'est là où il faut aller.

Guided by our host at the Churchill House we dined at Blake's. Awesome everything, waiter, ambiance, food and drink. Nice music playing softly in the background..very relaxing and tasty..I had the Dover sole, and it was everything and more it should be..drinks were good and the service was superb...pretty busy on a saturday night but did not distract the waiter...peeked downstairs at the pub it was quite crowded as well and cosy...perfect location easy to walk to from our place.