Mmmm..maybe as Robert's milk coffee/caffe latte observation suggests the whole Italian thing has gone overboard ...from my erstwhile experience of cafe work (20 years ago before the latte boom) a flat white is coffee as my Mum drank it - Nescafe with a good dollop of milk ...today we make it as a long black espresso with a a couple of fingers of milk added cold - not from the steamer ...that's what makes it FLAT ...and what makes it ordered in English. Maybe the baristas you spoke to need to go back to (old) school.

No foam, baby ....zip....

The general consensus among readers seems to be that there should be no foam on a flat white, but every time I've seen one ordered they come out with a layer on top. If the foam is flat, does that still make it a flat white?