When I moved to Cincinnati from the left coast this spring, I thought I had seen the last of great, fresh seafood. And that’s been more or less true.
Nevertheless, there is decent seafood to be eaten in the Midwest. The trick is finding it and keeping your expectations realistic. Blake’s Seafood Grill is an ambitious restaurant that endeavors to provide excellent food and a comfortable, unpretentious fine dining experience. By and large, they succeed.
The Scene
Located out in Deerfield Township, Blake’s sits at a bustling, fast-food-worthy intersection. Inside, though, it boasts a tasteful nouveau-cuisine decor with a self-consciously low-key nautical cast. The spacious main dining room is attractive, sporting an open kitchen, hardwood floors and model schooners on the wall. The friendly, competent staff seem to be in abundance, but they move pretty slowly. To be fair, the night I visited the place was packed with what looked like the usual clientele: affluent but unpretentious burghers.
The Scoop
My dinner companions and I started with raw oysters (the daily special: Malpeques, $1.35 apiece) and crab cakes with red-pepper aioli sauce ($9.95).
The oysters tasted as you might expect — not the light, cool, barely-there experience you’d have from Seattle bivalves but, rather, a slightly more briny, chewy mouthful. Still, nice enough. The crab cakes (served with an indifferent coleslaw) compared favorably to Baltimore’s: pudgy, sweet, and divinely rich — simply wonderful. The house “Wedge” salad was merely half an iceberg lettuce head covered with what seemed like bottled Thousand Island dressing, bacon bits and cherry tomatoes. Besides being refreshing (iceberg’s lone merit), the salad had cheapness going for it: $2.45. It also was big. The waitress said all Blake’s salads are large.
We thought the entrées a mixed bag. The wood-grilled rainbow trout ($12.90) seemed somewhat overdone but tasted good. The lobster tail ($15.95) had the trademark buttery, nutty richness one would expect. The horse-radish-encrusted salmon ($14.95) pleased one diner, who praised its lightness, moistness and lack of strong flavor. To me it tasted a mite fishy, but there you are: Even Midwesterners who live for 10 years in the Pacific Northwest eventually become salmon snobs.
The Blake’s Sirloin (9 oz. $14.75), however, cast a pall over the table. Ordered medium rare, it came out practically mooing, and the hickory grilling gave it an overpowering, gamey flavor. The side vegetables were unremarkable, although the garlic mashed potatoes received universal kudos.
We loved the desserts: The gorgeous Mile-High Chocolate Cake ($5.95), luscious layers moistened with gooey sauce and dark icing; and the Cappuccino Hazelnut Gelato ($3.95) — sophisticated yet yummy, with the delightful freshness only homemade ice-cream can provide.
The Sizzle
Formerly the swanky Hyde Park Grille steakhouse, Blake’s has undertaken a daunting task: providing the freshest seafood possible to discerning customers far from either ocean, in a posh but unintimidating setting. Their array of choices was frankly dazzling. Clams, lobster, fresh and fried oysters, Chilean sea bass, shrimp, squid … you name it, practically. What’s more, you can order chicken and a number of different kinds of steak. (Nothing truly vegetarian, however.) Without exception the presentation was beautiful, and the service was just fine. Considering how many different ways Blake’s aims to please, they do well. ©
Blake’s Seafood Grill
Go: 3159 Montgomery Road, Deerfield Twp.
Call: 513-697-0800
Hours: Monday-Thursday 4:30-10 p.m.; Friday-Saturday 4:30-11 p.m., Sunday 4-8:30 p.m.
Prices: Moderate to expensive; some seafood seasonal/market prices.
Payment: All major credit cards. No checks.
Red Meat Alternatives: Fish, of course, plus a handful of chicken dishes and salads.Grill catches a mixed bag of underwater favorites
This article appears in Oct 2-8, 2002.
