Liutaio Music Café
A music café and music shop on Mill Road with a tea-house feel.
Table reservations are tied to the set menus, so walk-ins are the usual route for a casual visit.
Liutaio is a music café and music shop at 224 Mill Road, a little beyond the busy centre of the street. Its website describes a mix of Eastern and Western food and drink, where the aim is a place to enjoy good music and good company.
The name
The owners explain the name in two ways. In Italian, liutaio is an old word for a lute maker, and the word describes a maker of stringed instruments, a luthier. The café's other name, written in Chinese characters and pronounced liu-tai, means a balcony, which the website links to the balconies of old tea houses, where friends and families could meet away from the noise of the street. Tables, chairs and crockery are chosen to echo those traditional tea houses.
Food, drink and music
Dishes include roast duck, dim sum, char siu, pan-fried gyoza and seafood green curry, with hot food served all day alongside more than 50 drinks, hot and cold. Live music is played on selected evenings, and staff sometimes play instruments themselves; the website and Facebook page carry the schedule.
Practical notes
Table reservations are available only with the set menus, with a minimum spend per guest. A 10% fee is added to dine-in orders and 3% to card payments, and last orders are 1.5 hours before closing. The website's opening hours vary between pages, so confirm times before travelling.
Nearby
Within a few minutes' walk
