What it means
Top-drawer means of the very highest quality or class, absolutely first-rate. The image comes from the top drawer of a chest, traditionally where the finest and most precious things were kept, the good jewellery and the best linen. So a top-drawer performance, a top-drawer hotel or a top-drawer player is one from that special drawer: nothing but the best.
Usage examples
"Their hospitality was top-drawer from start to finish, we wanted for nothing."
"The new chippy on the high street is absolutely top drawer, the batter is light, the chips are double cooked and the mushy peas have a colour that has not been seen in this town for at least fifteen years."
"The new signing is absolutely top-drawer, worth every penny they paid."
"Top drawer save from the keeper at the back post in the final minute, the lad threw himself across the goalmouth like he was being paid bonus and pulled the cross out of the top corner with one glove."
Where it comes from
Top drawer as a compliment took shape in Edwardian England, when the well-organised household routinely kept its finest linen and jewellery in the topmost drawer of the bedroom chest. By the eighteen-nineties the phrase was already metaphorical, used by upper-class commentators to describe people and things of the highest quality. Through the twentieth century the expression travelled down the class system without losing its sheen, and now it works equally well for praising a goalkeeper, a fish and chip shop or a piece of acting from the latest Sunday night drama.
Other ways to say it
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