Wine, dine and share good times at the refurbished Gold Mine Hotel in Bendigo

While yet to truly hit its straps, the historic Gold Mines Hotel in Bendigo gloriously made over is cause for celebration, with its genre-busting selection of pub classics served up with class.

The Gold Mines burger features namechecked central Victorian produce and great hand-cut chips.

Definitively putting the garden into beer garden, the expansive grounds at Bendigo’s reborn Gold Mines Hotel are reason alone to jump in the car.

They are, quite simply, stunning. Designed in the mid-19th century and maintained for more than 150 years, they are a verdant wonderland of shady nooks and sunny knolls, where peacocks once roamed and a thousand couples have said, “I do”.

MORE REVIEWS

BUCKET LIST: 26 GREAT VIC COUNTRY PUBS

NEW LIFE FOR BAYSIDE BEAUTY

GO FOR THE SCHNITZ, STAY FOR THE CHIPS

Pan-roasted fish.

Gold Mines Hotel should be on your country pub bucketlist.

The gardens at the Gold Mines Hotel are worth the visit alone.

Quietly reopening its doors on New Year’s Eve after an extensive refurbishment to bring out the best of its Gold Rush-era bones, there are myriad wine, dine and good time spaces within the historic double-storey, stucco-brick surrounds.

Co-owner Tim Foster from Kyneton’s acclaimed Source Dining is on the kitchen roster, his menu here a genre-busting selection of pub classics with name-checked local produce teamed with restaurant-style plates.

Char grilled McIvor Park pork.

FOOD

Surprisingly, it’s the pub grub that proves more successful in these early days than the more ambitious offerings that tend to fussy and busy.

A lovely gin and beetroot-cured ocean trout, for instance, hardly needed the pig face succulents and puffed rice, the avocado and pickled cucumber and witlof, and certainly didn’t need a mound of brown rice alongside ($16). Pan-tanned gnocchi, however, topped with a summer garden of veg, crunchy-fried tempura zucchini flower and Holy Goat cheese is an enjoyable rendition of classic flavour combos ($16).

Fish and chips ($24) are excellent — well the fish, certainly. Changing daily — snapper one day, rockling the next — under a delicate batter, the fish’s steamed, flaky flesh was perfectly cooked. Though two fillets is generous, and the salad well dressed, forgettable chips are disappointing.

I much prefer the terrific hand-cut numbers served with the immensely enjoyable burger —
a hefty patty of Inglewood beef cooked pink and juicy and topped with smoky McIvor Farm bacon, caramelised onion and cheddar on a toasted bun. Extra points for beetroot ($22). More McIvor Farm produce is on the parma ($26), a crisp-crumbed fillet topped with mozzarella that needed more time under the grill.

Oven-roasted chicken

DRINK

Bendigo Draught on tap, a fridge filled with Macedon riesling and chardonnay, and a cellar of Macedon pinot and Heathcote shiraz keeps the sips suitably local.

SERVICE

Adam Cash — ex Union Dining — leads a young, sweet-natured team. There’s table service in the covered courtyard and the formal dining room (which will be in warmly cosseting demand come winter), while it’s order at the bar for those basking in the garden’s glory.

X FACTOR

There are plans to transform the cellar into a late-night, Chesterfield-filled “supper club”, with upstairs accommodation still to come.

BANG FOR YOUR BUCK

Good for pub fare, but larger plates are priced with restaurant ambitions yet to be realised.

VERDICT

While yet to truly hit its straps, a historic hotel gloriously made over is cause for celebration.

[e-mail]

Putting the garden into beer garden, Bendigo has struck it rich with the Gold Mines

Gold Mines Hotel

49 Marong Rd,

Golden Square

5443 3004

FOOD

Modern pub bistro

HOURS

Wed from 4pm;

Thu-Sun from noon

CHEF

Tim Foster

BOOKINGS

Yes

TIME BETWEEN ORDERING AND EATING

27 minutes

PERFECT FOR

A garden party

DESTINATION DISH

The Goldmines burger

NOISE LEVEL

Perfectly pleasant

ONLINE

goldmineshotel.com

REVIEW

Dan Stock

PICTURES

Gold Mines Hotel