Florian Opera Bistro

Ate at Florian before Madame Butterfly, as I had done many times before. I’d considered that it would make for a double treat for myself. It was so disappointing! Worst restaurant meal I’ve had in years. The Italian salad, an utter mediocrity of a dish with chopped lettuce, cabbage, or both, a few tiny slivers of shredded salami and something ferociously hot which killed the already absent flavours on the plate. I pushed it away before it did permanent damage to my taste buds. After a delay sufficient to recover the taste of my Chardonnay I opted for the cheese platter. Platter or splatter? It was amateurish in presentation but the grapes were tired old soggy things, the dampish crackers had forgotten how to snap, crackle or pop. The three different cheeses were determined to remain anonymous, altogether Flavour free. After leaving the Bistro I was advised by member of the Lyric staff to eat at a restaurant nearby in future. His helpfulness, in contrast with the supercilious carelessness of the Bistro waiter, did put me in an agreeable mood after all and ready for the Operatic treat to follow.

I went to a show with a couple of friends (ages 23-24), this being my first opera. We saw the Florian restaurant and decided to pre-order 2 desserts to share during intermission. At intermission, we went and joined the queue of opera-goers who had also pre-ordered food. We were seated pretty quickly but lacked silverware. We were one of the last tables to get our food, and we only got one of the 2 desserts. When I flagged the waiter down, he just said they ran out of the apple tart and did not offer a substitute. I asked if I could have something else and he said he would have to check. We ended up getting a different dessert though my friend couldn't eat either because she is allergic to chocolate. I thought the whole PRE-ORDERING thing was to make sure everyone got what they ordered! The other tables around us got the dessert we had ordered, just not us. I think we were picked on because we were younger than the general crowd... CRAZY overprice for mediocre at best food and TERRIBLE service. Seriously, for the price it's not worth it. Nothing was good about this experience.