Flower Drum

Ph: 9662 3655; 17 Market la, MELBOURNE 3000

Chinese, $$$, *** for Food & Ambience, Good Wine List
Open Mon-Sat noon-3pm 7 days 6-10.30pm, Closed Usually two and a half week break after Xmas; Licensed; AE DC MC V
Chef Anthony Lui (7-11-07) Owner Anthony Lui, Patricia Fung & William Shek (7-11-07)

Photo: Tony Knox

Mietta's Review
Gilbert Lau has sold his interest in the restaurant to the staff who have been in the kitchen and on the floor for more than 20 years, he remains a consultant to the business. As you would expect from this fine establishment, the transition has been seamless, just like the dining experience itself. The menu is Cantonese done exceptionally well. The service is elegant and so intuitive it borders on ESP. The wine list is an epic, and easier to traverse with the helpful hints of the sommelier. The Flower Drum continues to out wit the ravages of time, and just keeps getting better.

Other published opinions

The Age Larissa Dubecki, 20-3-2009 Score: 16/20 "it's good to see Flower Drum is staring down the wolves of commerce with some of the best staff-to-guest ratios you're likely to witness outside of Gitmo. The feudal hierarchy of managers, waiters, busboys and unexplained dogsbodies makes for some fascinating spectator sport. Their ability to see a water glass in need of topping up at 50 paces is uncanny. The tables are spaced so generously you could swing a feral cat without hitting a neighbour, and the wine list is bursting with the kind of hero labels that were created with executive pay rises in mind. But one of the essential ingredients of fine dining is missing: a sense of excitement."

Gourmet Traveller 2009 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: ** "As recognisably Melbourne as 'Toorak' or 'Collins Street', there was a sense, for a while, that the city's most famous restaurant had slipped into complacency. That torpor seems to have been arrested: there's a fresh sense of endeavour at what is probably Australia's best Cantonese restaurant"

The Age John Lethlean, 29-4-2008 Score: 17/20 "It's something of a foodie thing in Melbourne, an unwritten rule: don't order off the menu at Flower Drum. Even if the menu is a fresh, new document supplemented by a printed list of daily specials, reflecting a new attitude to contemporary standards from a hitherto bulletproof and somewhat resistant-to-change restaurant. Even if the venerable Gilbert Lau has left the building, only to be wheeled out on special occasions as the seemingly immortal patriarch. You don't order off the menu at Flower Drum. Now, let's get one thing straight; I hardly ever order, full stop. I've been as a paying customer twice in my long life and as a guest perhaps 10 times"

Age Good Food Guide 2008 Score: 17/20, Two Hats "A restaurant as lauded as Flower Drum could easily be crippled by the weight of expectation that descends on it at every sitting. Not this place, which oozes confidence and ease and serves up exceptional Cantonese food day after day"

Gourmet Traveller 2008 Australian Restaurant Guide "The Drum has an undeniable sense of occasion. The long wait for the day of your booking to arrive, the lift ride up to the spacious carpeted dining room, flocks of attentive waiters fussing around you all point to the Special Occasion or the Big Night Out"

The Age Good Food Guide 2006 score 18/20 3 Hats "Flower Drum receives gushing praise with such predictable regularity that it is tempting to go looking for any cracks emerging in its 30-year tradition of excellence. But try as the churlish might, it's hard not to be seduced by this grand dame of Melbourne dining. It's true that this institution does play favourites; first-timers will be seated near the door, while A list movie stars and captains of industry are ushered through to the back"

Gourmet Traveller 2006 Australian Restaurant Guide *** "At Melbourne's haute Chinese institution, it's the tingle of anticipation that carries you past the world's slowest lift, blinds you to the somewhat down-at-heel decor and propels you safely into the hands of the staff - adroit, charming and an example to waiters everywhere."

Gourmet Traveller 2006 Australian Restaurant Guide Best Chinese "It's grand and very expensive, but if you can afford to put yourself in a waiter's hands here for the night, the experience is memorable."

Gourmet Traveller 2006 Australian Restaurant Guide Best business lunches "If the budget's looking healthy, and the guest from out oftown, there's little to match Flower Drum for brand power."

The Age A2 Jane Faulkner 9/4/05 "And to match that food is a great wine list, excellent Chinese tea, spacious tables dressed in crisp, white napery and neatly set with good chopsticks, and everattentive, impeccably attired staff happy to accommodate every diner's whim. And the sense of occasion offered at the Flower Drum makes it a splendid choice for any celebration."

The Age Good Food Guide 2005 Restaurant of the Year score 18/20 Three Hats "While still a fine-dining restaurant, the atmosphere now seems less starchy, a little more fun, perhaps. There's also less focus on steering customers from the menu and into the uncharted territory of chef Anthony Lui specials"

Gourmet Traveller 2005 Restaurant Guide *** "Celebrated restaurateur Gilbert Lau has moved on but the Flower Drum remains in safe hands. Consistency and equilibrium are central to its success. These are evident in the balance oftraditional Cantonese cooking and innovative dishes, and a dining environment that, despite its spaciousness, retains intimacy."

The Age, A2, 15/5/04, Matt Preston,'this is a new, post-Gilbert Lau era for the Drum and the experience now is a lot more relaxed and fun.It also seems a fair whack cheaper.'

The Foodies' Guide 2004,Allan Campion & Michele Curtis,'The big Grandaddy.Flower Drum isn't voted Melbourne's best restaurant year after year for nothing-just don't forget your credit card.'

The Age Good Food Guide 2004 Awards-3 hats, score 18/20, excellent wine list

Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide Australia 2004, 3 Red Stars, Good vegetarian options,'one of the finest Cantonese restaurants and most innovative dining establishments...staff are friendly and always helpful.The menu features the best in locally sourced produce, beautifully turned out with delicate flavours and expert presentation...The wine list deserves your proper attention'

Vogue Entertaining & Traveller, March April 2003

The Age Good Food Guide 2003. Best Chinese. Score 18/20

Herald Sun, Weekend, Bob Hart, 30/11/02

The Herald Sun, 29.05.01, Bob Hart Score: 19 out of 20."

The Sunday Age, 03.10.99, John Schauble Score: three and a half stars."

The Weekend Australian, 9-10/8/03, Alison Crosweller