Cocooned in a gauzy dining room in a historic mansion,a handful of diners get the best of both worlds:a farmers’ market worth of produce,transformed into compositions as poised as the surrounds.

A small canoe-shaped rye tart is packed with smoked trout paste (from nearby Tuki farm) and beads of salmon roe. A cellophane-thin tube of pastry boasts a belly of mushroom parfait and a crown of perfumed pickled quince. Central Highlands corn-fed duck paddles in a preserved plum sauce sparked up with pickled rhubarb.

Dessert might star the season’s best fruit,like an ode to the Harcourt apple. Attentive service and a soothing ASMR soundtrack of chefs tending to sauces in the open kitchen complete this dreamy dining experience.

Continue thisseries

Central Victoria

Up next

Bar Merenda

Delightfully laissez-faire,with serious wine flair.

Bar Midland

Come for the ethics,stay for the hospitality.

See all stories