Flower Drum

• Melbourne icon

Eight long-running Melbourne restaurants spill on their highs, lows and famous diners

From cooking for Serena Williams to waking up to a flooded restaurant, the people behind landmark venues look back at moments that made them.

• Emma Breheny and Ardyn Bernoth

• Good Food Guide

From Mick Jagger to a secret menu: 50 years of Victoria’s Restaurant of the Year

Its silver service and classic Cantonese food has made chefs, politicians and underworld figures all fans. We look at its legacy on its golden anniversary.

• Ardyn Bernoth

• Review
• Melbourne

Flower Drum

Old-school service skills and timeless menu classics.

• Good Food recommends

I’m coming to Melbourne for the week. Where should I eat? The critic’s top picks for visitors

These are the restaurants, pubs and bars that reveal our city’s essence, and who we are as Melburnians, says Besha Rodell.

• Besha Rodell

• Lunar New Year

The chefs’ guide to Melbourne’s Chinatowns, and what to eat when you’re there

Ahead of Lunar New Year, five top chefs share where they head for “textbook Cantonese cooking”, “a warm Cambodian hug”, or crispy suckling pig.

• Daniela Frangos

• Restaurant news

Is this the end of suckling pig on Melbourne restaurant menus?

Victoria’s main supplier of suckling piglets is struggling to find an abattoir, and the knock-on effect is making life difficult for some of the city’s top restaurants.

• Richard Cornish

• Best of

From fun and hectic to high end: 11 of Melbourne’s best yum cha restaurants

From budget to blow-out, trolleys to table service, enjoy dim sum for days at Melbourne’s best yum cha spots.

• Sonia Nair

• Review
• Melbourne

Icon review: Flower Drum is a drum worth beating

Despite its accolades and popularity, this Melbourne Cantonese restaurant is widely under-appreciated and misunderstood, writes Besha Rodell.

• Besha Rodell

• Review
• Melbourne

Flower Drum

This nearly 40-year-old stalwart delivers dishes that let luxury produce shine.