Flower Drum should not be confused with Flower Drum Song (song).
| Flower Drum | |
| Current-Owner: | Anthony Lui, William Shek, Patricia Fung |
| Previous-Owner: | Gilbert Lau |
| Head-Chef: | Anthony Lui |
| Food-Type: | Chinese |
| Street-Address: | 17 Market Lane |
| City: | Melbourne |
| Postcode: | 3000 |
| Country: | Australia |
The Flower Drum is a Chinese restaurant in Melbourne, Australia, which is widely regarded as a Melbourne institution.[1] [2] It is frequently booked months in advance.[3] [4] It is located just off Bourke Street in Market Lane in the Chinatown precinct of the Melbourne CBD.
The Flower Drum was established by Gilbert Lau and opened on 26 May 1975.[5] The restaurant originally opened in a converted car park at 103 Little Bourke Street and took its name from the 1961 film, Flower Drum Song, a Rogers and Hammersein musical about expatriate Chinese and their life in America.[6]
In 1980 the restaurant scoring two chef's hats in The Age's Good Food Guide's first edition.[7] Since then the Good Food Guide has named it 'Restaurant of the Year' on numerous occasions.[8] In 1985 the restaurant moved around the corner to its current site.[5] In 2003 Lau sold the restaurant to his employees: executive chef Anthony Lui, William Shek and Patricia Fung.[9]
In 2019, Anthony's son, Jason, who is now the restaurant's operational manager, has ushered the restaurant into the digital age by refreshing its menu and creating a recognisable social media presence for it.