Few restaurants take bones from a venison dish and crush them into clay that’s turned into plates. But few restaurants operate with Midland’s strikingly sustainable ethics. Sourcing solely from Victoria, owners Loudon Cooper and Alexander Marano can’t use sugar, pepper, chocolate or coffee on their tasting menus.

But they can mix the most proudly local negroni you’ve ever had, made possible by our state’s thriving drink-makers. Deer – an invasive species – arrives as fork-tender braised shoulder formed into a puck, wrapped in pickled radicchio and balanced by fruity pear.

Pasta is rolled with spinach and dill, filled with goat’s cheese and scattered with honey-candied walnuts. Upwards of 80 per cent of the produce is grown in an offsite garden, and if you want to chat about it, they’ll happily oblige. Rather focus on your baked ricotta and honey cake with quince? That’s allowed, too.

Good to know: An a la carte menu has been added for walk-ins and a limited number of bookings.

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.