A restaurant offering a ‘fine-dining’ take on classic northern dishes has launched in Rochdale’s newly restored Victorian Gothic town hall.

The Martlet Kitchen, named after a mythical bird with no legs, has taken flight under chef Darren Parkinson, formerly of Shibden Mill in Halifax. It is open all day from breakfast, via a straightforward lunch menu featuring grills, then afternoon teas and a more refined evening menu.

Traditional dishes include Bury black pudding and rag pudding from Jackson’s Farm in Milnrow, with suet pastry and a beef filling, while much of the produce is sourced from Lancashire, Cheshire and West Yorkshire, including Grastang blue cheese from Dewlay cheesemakers in Preston, ice cream from Grandpa Greene’s in Oldham. The evening showpiece is an ‘RTH fillet rossini’, comprising a Lee Horsley beef fillet with truffle, duck liver pâté, wild mushrooms, rösti potato and wilted spring onions.

The drinks list includes beers from the local Phoenix and Brightside breweries while spirits – including their own Rochdale Town Hall Gin – are produced by Defiance Distillery less than a mile away at Spotland Mill.

The Grade I listed town hall in Greater Manchester is one of the country’s masterpieces of Gothic Revival architecture – and of Victorian-era municipal magnificence. Restored at a cost of £20m over four years, it attracts architecture buffs with features including a great hall with hammerbeam ceiling and stained-glass windows. One of the building’s biggest fans was said to be Adolph Hitler, who apparently intended to transport it brick-by-brick to Germany if his invasion of Britain had gone to plan.