Mietta's Review
This really is a wonderful dining room. High decorated plaster ceilings, wood panelling, the famous murals, black clad waiters in long crisp white aprons and well spaced tables covered in damask cloths set with good silver and glassware. Add the care and attention of the Grossi family to the (multitudinous) offerings of chef, Guy Grossi, and you have a classic dining experience - treasure it. See also Florentino Grill Room and the Florentino Cellar Room.

Other published opinions

The Age Cheap Eats 2010 "Those with truffle tastes on a bruschetta budget should call on Grossi Florentino's little sister and be whisked into its warmth with a welcoming, 'Buongiorno!' Heavenwards, appreciate the Art Nouveau light fittings, shelves stacked with mineral water, and moody artwork"

Age Good Food Guide 2010 Score: 17/20, Two Hats "The sartorial world has its purveyors of fashion and purveyors of style. In the culinary world, chef Guy Grossi - the custodian of one of Melbourne's most important dining institutions - is trying his hand at both"

Gourmet Traveller 2010 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: ** "One of the city's occasion-dining institutions, this is where Old Melbourne gathers under chandeliers to revel in the grandeur of one of the city's great dining rooms and Guy Grossi's excellent Italian food"

Herald Sun 15-08-09 "Our most opulent Italian and still one of the best"

The Age Larissa Dubecki, 1-09-2009 Score: 17/20 "The thing about Florentino is it has remained such a stalwart of our dining culture, we've almost forgotten the fuss caused when Guy Grossi took over in 1999. To refresh your memory, here's what Mietta O'Donnell wrote at the time in hopeful anticipation of a relaxing of standards: "The ties can come off, the jackets can go on the back of chairs and perhaps even women will start eating in the Grill at lunch." Consider it done on all three counts. But the point of this piece is to consider specifically the Mural Room, the rarefied bit of real estate that most people think of when the name Florentino is raised. Physically, it remains very much the same: a piece of old world, dark-panelled mise en place that makes anyone ascending those red-carpeted stairs feel rather special. ... Grossi doesn't steer off the path of tried-and-true flavour combinations - you don't want to scare the captains of industry who have only just gotten their heads around wagyu - but to show that he's in touch, he has scattered his menu with some liquorice powder here and a savoury ice-cream there. His food can be mentally filed under mod-Italian luxe."

The Age Cheap Eats 2009 "If Melbourne is the Vatican city of food then Grossi Fiorentino could well be St Peter's Basilica"

Age Good Food Guide 2009 Score: 16.5/20 "This has to be Melbourne's grandest dining room. At night the room, with its timber wainscotting, carriage lamps and Napier Wailer murals, glows like candlelight through amber"

Gourmet Traveller 2009 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: ** "Chris Rodriguez Dante might have conceived a set-up like this. The ground floor, with its all-day smart-tratt Cellar Bar, is hardly purgatory, but as you rise to the Grill, things get more lavish"

Herald Sun Mike Bruce, 17-06-08 Score: **** "Our most opulent Italian, and still one of the best"

Herald Sun Bob Hart, 23-02-08 "CITIES without at least one restaurant like Melbourne's Grossi Florentino are not cities at all, really. For 80 years it has ticked over, front row centre, in Bourke St - its prices and occupancy rate a useful measure of the financial wellbeing of the nation. As a restaurant complex, the Flo is all things to all people - the entry-level cellar bar with its bowls of pasta, the ground-floor grill with fine tucker at fair prices, and ... above stairs. It's up there that the magic is woven"

Age Good Food Guide 2008 Score: 17/20, Two Hats "No restaurant in Victoria comes closer than Grossi Florentino to recreating the grand, continental European, Michelin-starred experience"

Gourmet Traveller 2008 Australian Restaurant Guide "There are few dining rooms in Australia that can match the grandeur of Grossi Florentino"

The Age Good Food Guide 2006 score 17/20 2 Hats "Upstairs, in the rarefied atmosphere of Grossi Florentino's Mural Room, there's a grandeur that's almost extinct in Melbourne these days. The wood panelling, leadlight and intricate ceiling work hark reassuringly back to another era beck, they've even got little footstools for the ladies' handbags. With crisp white tablecloths, baronial furniture, fine stemware and cutlery and smart service to match"

Gourmet Traveller 2006 Australian Restaurant Guide ** "With three separate eateries on one site, the Grossi family has a lot of bases covered. But it's the grand upstairs dining room that grabs the plaudits: it's a luxurious taste of "old Melbourne town", and a world-class formal dining experience. The attention to detail at the table is unparalleled in Melbourne"

Gourmet Traveller 2006 Australian Restaurant Guide Best romantic restaurants "As a way of impressing, the ever-so-slight formality of upstairs at the Fiorentino, and the Old World majesty of the room and its furnishings, cannot fail."

The Age Good Food Guide 2005 score 127/20 Two Hats " WHILE gentlemen who dine at Florentino's Mural Room need no longer don a jacket, a night out at this uber-expensive restaurant is still special, going by the clientele's fashions."

Gourmet Traveller 2005 Restaurant Guide ** "A grand staircase leads up to the dark-panelled walls and elegant chandeliers ofthe hallowed Mural Room. Here, stiff white linen, sparkling glassware and fine crockery abound, offset by an ambience ofquiet murmurings and Bocelli."

Herald Sun CityStyle Best of Melbourne 04 Best taste of old Melbourne "The Grossi Fiorentino has been around since 1900, a constant favourite with those who don't mind forking out for high-end Italian food in one of Melbourne's most gorgeous dining rooms."

The Foodies' Guide 2004, Allan Campion & Michele Curtis,'Not only one of Melbourne's best Italian restaurants,but also one of the most exquisite dining rooms around,with its Tuscan murals and glitzy trimmings. Guy Grossi creates Italian masterpieces using the very best regional Australian food ... Downstairs in The Grill you'll get two courses,a glass of wine and coffee for $25,for lunch and dinner, but before 7pm.'

Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide Australia 2004, 2 Red Stars, Excellent wine list,'The charming patina of age is genuine, the service fastidious and the options-be they food or wine-endless ... in a class of its own.'

The Age Good Food Guide 2004 2 Hats

The Age Good Food Guide 2003 Best Italian

Herald Sun, sundaymagazine, eating out, Sally Fisher, 2003

The Age, A2, Food and Wine, John Weldon 7/6/2003

The Age, Sunday Life, Eat Streets, 30/6/02

The Sunday Age, 09.07.00, John Hindle

The Sunday Age, 29.08.99, John Schauble

The Age, 27.04.99, John Lethlean Score: 15 out of 20