'HAVEN'T you heard of 'surf and turf','' my straight-shooting fellow diner asks when I remark on the curious and counterintuitive entree combos at The Argus Dining Room: chicken and scallops; milk skin and veal sweetbreads; and the most un-kosher alliance of all, pork and prawns.

Surf and turf? It's a food trend I missed. Merrily, by the sound of it.

''Fish and steak,'' he says.

''Pub food. Famous in the '70s, '80s and '90s.''

I can't imagine a boozer serving ''surf and turf'' would look anything like The Argus, the latest culinary playground of celebrated chef Ryan Sessions, whose former establishment, the Merrijig Inn in Port Fairy, was The Age Good Food Guide's country restaurant of the year in 2010. After selling the Merrijig in May last year, Sessions is back, this time in central Victoria's idyllic spa country.

The Argus is at the Peppers Mineral Springs Retreat, one of Hepburn Springs' landmarks, a 1930s building with art deco flourishes. If there were such a thing as the ideal dining room, The Argus would surely come close. It's a spacious, high-ceilinged white room with accents of brown brick and dark wood. On the languid and chilly Sunday night we visit, the space is ambient with flickering tea lights and the crackling of an open fire.

The Mother's Day lunch rush has passed, and the dining room is sparsely occupied - there are several couples and a group of English tourists - and yet it still exudes warmth. A series of geometric screens divides the space into intimate alcoves. The chairs are upholstered in lavish brown velvet, the tables set with white linen, and several walls lined with clubby black-leather benches. A series of oddly beautiful photos of local producers, including one of a gangly calf in a red cowboy hat - all by local photographer Donna Todd - give the room a moody, contemporary edge.

Peppers owners Chris Malden and Wayne Cross have been trying to establish a hotel restaurant with clout and are giving it their best shot with The Argus, which opened in March. They've assembled a crack team. The restaurant's operators are Frank Moylan and Melissa Macfarlane, owners of North Melbourne's the Crimean and former owners of Kyneton's Royal George and Daylesford's Farmers Arms. In turn, Moylan and Macfarlane enticed Sessions to Hepburn Springs.

The menu here is more robust and rustic than Sessions' foraged and highly worked numbers at the Merrijig, but that's not to say he has ditched the experimentation. Sessions is adventurous, even when gearing a menu to financially restrained times. Servings are generous, presentation is naturalistic, and there's lots of meat - pheasant, eye fillet, roasts for two - but vegetarians are not ignored. The service suits the country environs - it's graceful and down to earth, although we didn't see it tested by a full house. The complimentary starter augurs well: an espresso cup of superb mushroom soup shimmering with globules of truffle oil. The house-made bread is also excellent, served with luscious house-cultured butter.

We order three entrees - including the defiantly weird-sounding special of milk skin and veal sweetbreads. Surprisingly, it's the pick of the bunch - creamy, crumbed sweetbreads balanced by a carrot and cauliflower vinaigrette, and a subtly spicy morcilla (blood sausage) puree. But I'm not entirely convinced by the wafer-thin, dried milk skin.

Our second entree is another bold and pleasing combination: plump scallops contrasted with caramelised and boned chicken wings, a smear of salty black squid ink, peas and pea puree. The salty-sweet mix is also at play in an entree of Crystal Bay prawns (a rather thin variety) and braised pork, with chestnut and parsley puree.

For mains, the Glenloth pheasant is served with parsnips, chestnuts and braised endive, and in ''two ways'': there's a tender crescent of charred and pinky breast meat, while the leg meat has been shredded and encased in a roll of fine pastry - it has a lovely, almost pate-like texture, but the flavour is a little too subdued. The Western Plains suckling pig conjures images of a mediaeval feast - I can imagine a bed-hopping Tudor king being delighted with it. The presentation is uncontrived - whole cabbage leaves and bok choy, topped with pork scratchings, hide a decadent square of compressed pork meat with crackling so masterfully thin it breaks like brulee.

While it feels as if Sessions is still perfecting the mains, desserts are an accomplishment. A rectangle of zesty stewed apples with a brulee top comes with a generous sweep of honeycomb and ginger crumble, punctuated by a dab of salted caramel and a scoop of magnificent butterscotch ice-cream.

Just as irresistible are the syrupy, stewed quince, with a slice of brioche and brown-butter ice-cream. A brilliant finish. With some fine-tuning, The Argus should become another Sessions success story.

And if this is surf and turf, I'm Anne of Cleves.