I'm a huge fan of this pub. And I do not say that often…read more The food menu really had me at hello and pushed the Bridge to be my top choice pub in Castlemaine. The food was so good in fact, that we came nearly every week for the time we stayed in Castlemaine. There's options for vegetarians as well, it's not your traditional pub food fare. I really liked the feel of the place. It feels familiar and welcoming, vibrant and chill all at the same time. The staff here make you feel at home. It's bustling with locals, there's heaps of live music. And there's a vibin' beer garden back patio. The Bridge Hotel is located right across from the Castlemaine botanic gardens. Just a stone's throw away from the station but away enough from anything that it seems to stand alone. Can't wait to venture back for Mondays in Mexico!

Good food with live music and pleasant casual ambience. Frequented by local community which is…read morealways a good sign.

Had a booking arrived 5 minutes early to find out they hadn't written booking down but found us a…read moretable. A lot of hype on this pub so was expecting good things. I wasn't going to mention the girl chewing gum while taking my order but it is what it is. I asked for Scotch fillet with mash and veg I made it clear no chips.... What arrived was Steak and chips I was a little bemused and returned it . Steak was good medium but the mash was clearly nuked but expected. . Now it seemed to me with a full house 1 waitress stood out as the only person doing the whole pub while 2 other girls just stood behind the bar chatting. The atmosphere is good maybe a little music would be good. Oh don't ask for coffee unless you don't mind waiting to pick it up .( HOT) Overall food 3/5 Service 2/5 Ambiance 4/5 .

This was a pretty awesome pub, but then again that had a lot to do with the really nice beer garden…read moreout the back. Actually, it is more than the beer garden because there is also a pretty nice range of beers on tap as well, which surprised me somewhat since this pub does happen to be located a bit further out from the city centre than I sort of expected it to be. Okay, the service was a little slow, but then again it was a slow day when I paid it a visit. Still, as a pub it is pretty good, the staff are really friendly, and I really do like the laid back atmosphere.

Hands down the best pub in Castlemaine area (worth the short drive or gorgeous bush walk from…read moretown). Great ingredients, top noch chef, awesome front of house Scottish hospitality. The locals in Chewton are a tough bunch to please and they're happy! Front bar has classy grub and some hearty AF classics like the pub chips - with gravy & cheese! Treat yo self.

This place looks so inviting and quaint from the outside but inside it's totally different. The…read morelocals stopped and stared as soon as we walked in, mind you, we only live 5 minutes away from here. And it's as though the barman was going out of his way to NOT serve us, serving everyone around us. Oh no! Outsiders? A female? People with tattoos? I don't know, but it was strange. Finally he decided to take our orders but the whole process was confusing. Do we order food from the bar or from around the corner? And there were a couple of different menus for different sized meals. Once we made our order we decided to sit in the beer garden away from everyone glaring at us. We waited ages for our food to come while people who'd arrived after us received their meals - and it certainly wasn't busy. We overheard 2 different tables of people complaining that they'd received the wrong meals. When the food finally came out it was pretty average. I mean, you kind of expect them to step up their game if you're going to wait forever for it but it definitely wasn't worth the wait. After we had finished our meal a waitress actually brought out our meals AGAIN. Somebody in the kitchen was obviously very confused and unorganised. I wouldn't recommend stopping for this pub but if you're in Chewton for some reason maybe just stand out the front for a quick drink and move along.

I think the mash is one of the best motels in Bendigo I always go there when I have the chance 10/10read more

Since I don't count The City Family as a real pub (it seemed to only cater for pokie players), and…read moreThe Exchange was a restaurant, this would have to be the first pub that I visited (though it is also a motel, but then pubs traditionally rent out rooms). There were quite a few craft beers on tap (and they even promoted Fat Yak during their happy hour, which I missed as I only managed to get here from Melbourne at 8:00 pm). While there was no beer garden, they did have an outdoor area on the street, as well as a restaurant out the back. However, since I was only in town for a short time I was only able to partake in a Fat Yak.

the food was amazing i got the southern chicken parma, just perfection and very filling, have to go…read moreup and order and they dont come to us so thats not the best, it was quite chatty but overall nice place.

Very tasty food with good portion size at a reasonable price. Even though the plan was packed we…read morewere served and food arrived in a timely manor

Great little bistro, nice environment and very family friendly…read more We went there on a Saturday night, no trouble getting a table for six. Kids play area was ok, not much to entertain them. Widescreen Telly and some lego and a ride on motorbike. Food was served quite quickly, looked excellent and was great value for money, the seafood basket was cooked beautifully and presented magnificently. Other meals that I saw looked fantastic as well. The staff recommended the Chicken Surf and Turf which my wife had, she also said how good this meal was. Overall a fantastic place for meal and great value for money.

The curse of the Cumby…read more My partner and I attempted to eat here once before but had to cancel our meals before we received them because he was called out for work. We should have taken that as a sign because our second attempt tonight was a huge let down. We arrived at 8:15 - 15 minutes before the kitchen closed - and we were definitely the last people to order meals for the night. I feel as though $45 for 2 bistro meals is asking a bit much but we grinned and bared it because we were hungry. I orders the blackboard special of grilled flathead and the better half went for a parma - both with chips and salad. There's nothing like looking forward to a nice meal then receiving something so soul crushingly disappointing. Getting battered fish when you've ordered grilled fish SUCKS. Technically after the kitchen had closed so it just wasn't worth mentioning. But even for battered fish it was below average, the chips were soggy and the Greek style salad was served with a mound of bean shoots on top. Who puts bean shoots on a Greek style salad?! I wasn't the only one who wants disappointed. The other half said he was blown away by the fact that his chicken parma tasted as though he was eating air i.e. it was totally tasteless. He basically had to drown the meal in salt and pepper to get through it. I definitely won't be giving the Cumby another try.

Thought I would post on today's experience…read more First time in Bendigo, as soon as we drove in the wife and I both commented on how much it reminds us of New Orleans, it has a very similar look/feel. So decided to see if there was some American food, was not disappointed by the yard bird. Sitting out on the balcony eating hot wings, brisket burger, southern fried chicken, drinking bourbon and Dr Pepper. Feels like I'm back in the states.

We had a late-ish (after 2pm) lunch on a Saturday afternoon at Yard Bird so there weren't very many…read moreother patrons. We opted to sit inside in the air conditioning but the bar is also surrounded by a great balcony with tables overlooking the centre of town. The menu offers pretty much everything you'd expect from an American restaurant and is fairly priced but the theme is poorly reflected in the decor. Yard Bird is situated upstairs in an old Irish hotel so it's hard to throw a couple of baseball cards and Budweiser signs around and call it an American bar. I ordered the shrimp po boy and while I was impressed with the generous portion of food I received it was night impossible to eat. When something comes in sandwich/roll form you expect the be able to pick it up and eat it but the whole outside of the roll was covered in shrimp sauce and it was poorly packed (for presentation). It didn't taste too bad but the shrimp really did feel like they were pre-packaged, crumbed and frozen. I understand that seafood is generally on ice but I would expect crumbing/battering/coasting to happen in-house and whilst I can't say for certain this hasn't been the case here, I can say that it didn't seem like it to me. My partner ordered the southern fried yard bird (chicken) and was impressed with the fact that he received breast meat rather than drumsticks and wings. It wasn't amazing food but it certainly wasn't terrible and the price helps that along a bit too. I'd definitely like to give Yard Bird another try at a bustling time.

This restaurant is something that Bendigo has been lacking and needed. A fresh, modern Australian…read moretake on Asian dishes done really well. Beautiful decor, great food and cocktails. The stand out dishes on our table would have easily been the bao buns (served DIY style with the buns, crispy pork, bean shoots and coriander deconstructed for you to mix as you please, along with hoisin sauce), the vegetable spring rolls (quite large, served with greens to add on top to your liking) and sand mullet (served whole to your table to carve - be careful of the bones). We finished out the evening sitting outside, drinking espresso martinis and enjoying the warm summers night. A great experience.