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Flower Drum

Though Flower Drum has been around since 1975, it hasn’t lost the spring in its step. Under the watch of Jason Lui (son of chef and co-owner Anthony Lui) the front of house – never a slouch in the service stakes – is more focused than ever, the uniformed waiters working the richly hued, carpeted rooms with accuracy and aplomb. The kitchen, too, is firing, producing mostly Cantonese dishes of subtlety and simplicity – thinly sliced stir-fried pearl meat, noodles made from a mix of barramundi meat and Chinese sausage – or rich and full flavoured, as in a gorgeous lobster eggwhite omelette. The emphasis is on simply cooked, high-quality seafood – Darwin mud crab, Tasmanian morwong – though the Peking duck still ranks as a classic and the pinenut-stuffed eggplant may become one. The wine list, in lockstep with the menu’s ambitions, delivers both Big Night Out theatrics and more subtle thrills.