Flower Drum

14th November 2011

On a Monday night i headed in to the city for dinner at one of the bigger names left on my list, Flower Drum. Heading in to the main foyer i was greeted by 2 staff and ushered to the lift which slowly took us up to the main dining room. A decadent and opulent dining room with plush red carpet, Chinese art and a big Chinese centre piece doorway in the middle of the dining room.

Very busy (especially for a Monday night) the meal took a while to get going. After being seated and having my chair pushed in (also happened after i returned from the bathroom), i ordered a Singapore Sling from their extensive drink list featuring wine, cocktails, spirits and beer.

The menu was then presented and explained well by the attentive staff including the 2 banquets and some additional specials. I went with the Chef's 6 course banquet (which actually featured 7 courses).

The first course was 3 delicately battered, amazingly flaky king George whiting fillets accompanied by fresh lemon juice and a 5 spice salt. Great texture and perfect execution, a great opening to the meal.

This was followed by a special of blue swimmer crab combined with an onion and turmeric sauce baked and served in a mud crab shell. Nice presentation inside the crab shell and served with a little salad, it was rich, creamy and flavoursome.

The next course was an old school signature of Cantonese cooking, the Quail Sang Choi Bao. A single large crunchy lettuce leaf filled with piping hot mix of quail meat, Chinese sausage, shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots and spring onion.
The fresh crunchy cold lettuce leaf was complemented with the soft, hot plentiful ingredients with great flavours even if it was rather messy and the filling spilled out the sides when eating (could just be that I'm a messy eater).

The first main course was a half crayfish, steamed and served in its own shell and covered with a delicate broth. Perfectly cooked crayfish and perfectly balanced with the broth that added some depth and quality of flavour to the dish.

Following this was another signature dish, Peking Duck. Satiny, smooth and rich duck with a crisp skin was rolled and served individually in paper thin pancakes, a smooth hoisin sauce and a crisp fresh cucumber. The equal of the Peking duck i had in Beijing and close to perfection.

The next dish i decided to upgrade from the regular grain fed eye fillet to the Wagyu strip loin (for an additional fee). Wagyu Strip loin served perfectly cooked with a very pink medium rare centre with a crisp, brown and lightly spiced outside served on a bed of Chinese vegetables with a szechuan sauce that offered a good chili hit.
Accompanied with a side of fried rice (not you average Chinese takeaway fried rice with plump proper prawns and real chunks of meat and perfectly cooked), it was magnificent end to the main courses.

For desert you were offered a choice of every desert except for the extremely expensive Bird's Nest Soup. I went for the seasonal special of Mango crepe. Fresh mangoes and mango pudding wrapped in a crepe and served with slices of fresh mango, mango sorbet and a mango passion fruit sauce, it was mango overload but not in a bad way. Beautiful fresh mangoes served up beautifully and the taste was amazing.

The final part of the meal was Jasmine tea and almond cookies. The cookies were beautiful and a million miles away from the stodgy cookies normally served at Chinese restaurants.

An exquisite mix of decadent food, surroundings and quality service (including the sometimes forgotten tradition of serving finger bowls with food eaten by hand) lead to a memorable dinner out and a worthy addition to my top 10 rankings.