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 Good Food Guide 2013 Score: 15.5/20
Gourmet Traveller 2013 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: 1 Star "To enter the Florentino on a Friday night is to see it in full flight as a Melbourne landmark. II padrone, chef Guy Grossi, is shaking hands ald kissing babies out on the street in winning style"
Age Good Food Guide 2013 Score: 15.5/20 One Hat
Age Good Food Guide 2013 Score: 15.5/20
Gourmet Traveller 2012 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: Two Stars "A chorus of buonaseras greets guests as they ascend the stairs to Grossi Florentino's dining rooms, where Melbourne's great and good have feasted beneath the murals and chandeliers for decades"
Age Good Food Guide 2012 Score: 16.5/20, 2 Hats
The Australian John Lethlean 07 May 2011, "If anyone is at the wheel of Guy Grossi's flagship dining room, he - or she - is asleep. The power of observation, anticipation and attention to detail has left the wheelhouse and gone for a kip at what has become, over recent years, a staggeringly expensive ship"
Read full review ...
The Age Cheap Eats 2011 Score: ***
Age Good Food Guide 2011 Score: 14.5/20
Age Good Food Guide 2011
Gourmet Traveller 2011 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: ** "Hats off to the Grossi team for striking an admirable balance between tradition and innovation, for tantalising twists on classic dishes and near-peerless service. No wonder this grand panelled icon continues to attract powerbrokers, courting couples and other sentimentalists"
Herald Sun Stephen Downes, 24-11-09 Score: 31/50 "I suspect one of our best-known restaurants, Grossi Florentino, may be tending to live off its reputation. When I lunched there, its expensive food ranged fron ordinary to good - way less than the magic that $50 main courses should provide. It remains a gorgeous space in which to eat and service is excellent"
The Age Dani Valent, 17-05-2010 ""
Age Cheap Eats 2010Age Good Food Guide 2010 Score: 17/20
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"
Age Larissa Dubecki, 1-09-2009
Age Cheap Eats 2009
Age Good Food Guide 2009 Score: 16.5/20
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
Gourmet Traveller 2008 Australian Restaurant Guide "There are few dining rooms in Australia that can match the grandeur of Grossi Florentino"
Age Good Food Guide 2006 score 17/20
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."
Age Good Food Guide 2005 score 127/20
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.'
Age Good Food Guide 2004
Age Good Food Guide 2003
Herald Sun, sundaymagazine, eating out, Sally Fisher, 2003
Age, A2, Food and Wine, John Weldon 7/6/2003
Age, Sunday Life, Eat Streets, 30/6/02
Sunday Age, 09.07.00
Sunday Age, 29.08.99, John Schauble
Age, 27.04.99, John Lethlean Score: 15 out of 20