This standout restaurant in country Victoria is raising the steaks

Geelong's star is rising and its newest hotspot is Geelong Quarter, a $200 million development in the city's arts and culture precinct. It's where you'll find the architecturally wondrous Geelong Arts Centre, the city's first major new-build hotel in almost 20 years in the Holiday Inn & Suites, and now the super sophisticated restaurant Maestro. As a Melbournian who recently moved here, an hour west of the big smoke, it's all very exciting.

Maestro is the creation of Adrian Richardson (La Luna Bistro in Melbourne, among others, and one half of TV's Good Chef, Bad Chef) and executive chef Migo Razon. Set in a first-floor corner with panorama windows gazing across the city, it's stylish and open-plan with a vast kitchen on show.

Meat plays a starring role - after all, Richardson is aka the "maestro of meat" and has a cookbook simply titled Meat - but it's complemented by seafood and fresh regional produce, keeping allcomers happy. Pasta is homemade - perhaps linguini entwined with prawns, or gnocchi with mushrooms and truffles - and meat is dry-aged onsite.

My first taste is over a long lunch, starting with nibbles of melt-in-the-mouth tuna tartare and house-smoked salmon. A shared serve of venison sausage with skordalia, red wine jus and salsa verde leads nicely into the main event, a Black Angus scotch fillet that is literally the most tender steak I've ever had the pleasure of wrapping my lips around. It almost collapses in surrender at the sight of my knife and pairs well with crisp Wagyu-fat roasted potatoes and rocket salad. Wines are sourced everywhere from neighbouring Moorabool Valley to the Loire.

"We've assembled a team of top-notch professionals you'd typically find in Melbourne's finest dining establishments," says Richardson. With Geelong's rapidly rising culinary scene the catalyst for luring Richardson here in the first place, and now Maestro joining the fold, the future is looking tasty indeed. maestrogeelong.com.au

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