Castlemaine's Bar Midland puts regional flavours on the table

It may be small – just 17 seats – but Castlemaine's newest bar and dining room, Bar Midland, is still set to make a splash.

The kitchen doesn't use sugar and there's no meat from farm animals, just wild rabbit and kangaroo on the $110-a-head set menu. Food and drinks are obsessively local and cooked in front of you over a small wood stove built from iron by a local craftsman.

Owners chef Alexander Marano (The Good Table) and Loudon Cooper (previously manager at Theatre Royale) have installed their restaurant in the dining room of the majestic Midland Hotel, opposite Castlemaine train station. The grand old pub was built in the 1870s but the decor reflects a 1930s refurbishment with its dark wood walls, olive leather banquette and prints by Christian Waller, a celebrated female artist of the era.

The ingredient sourcing may be restrained but there's joyful flavour in dishes such as pink fir apple potato crisp topped with butter-browned hazelnuts and broad beans from the chef's garden, and olive-oil-poached rabbit with Jerusalem artichoke puree.

Midland Hotel also offers luxurious accommodation; don't be put off by the scaffolding that cloaks the building.

Open Fri-Sat 5pm-11pm.

1-2 Templeton Street, Castlemaine, bookings via Instagram @bar_midland