The Stag

Port Fairy has a number of "fine dining" restaurant (with prices to match), and on our recent trip we had dinner at The Stag.  We hadn't been here before.  It's attached to the Country Comfort motel, but don't let that put you off, the restaurant is in an old part of the building.  However, it seems that in the country, people dine early, so when we arrived for our 7.15 pm booking, we were amongst the last to arrive at a nearly-full restaurant - and hence we ended up with a long wait for both our entrees and our mains.
 
Our rolls arrived fairly quickly, but it was a choice of soy and linseed or nothing!

There were mixed reactions when the food finally arrived.  It certainly displayed all the signs of careful and thoughtful preparation, but ...... .   The calamari entree was said to be very good, but I had mixed feelings about my "spring vegetable" salad:   it looked pretty, and I'm sure the various little bits and pieces were prepared and arranged on the plate with great care, and the dressing was good.  But it wasn't what you'd call "substantial".  My flathead was good, but the duck was pretty raw (and hard to cut)  - oops, sorry, that should be "rare", because, when queried,  the waitress assured us that it was intended to be that way.   Seems we have some catching up to do in this department.  The steak was said to be good.

So, in culinary terms, The Stag would probably be well-rated by those who take it on themselves to assess these things.   But, being mere mortals, we were left with mixed feelings.