CIRQ Rooftop Bar & Lounge — Restaurant in Sydney

Most Karen review I'll ever write but I was genuinely so let down by my time at Cirq. I was excited to attend for the first time for my friend's Birthday over the weekend, she had a large "table" booked for dinner for a party of around 20 or so people - each person paid $90 per head ($50 a head for the "vegetarian meal"). I was disappointed when there was barely any seating at our table which wasn't a table but rather 4 smaller round tables (similar to what you'd have at a club rather then a dinner booking). The lack of seating and table space would have made eating dinner more difficult however the "dinner" we paid $90 a head for was only finger food (cheeses, hoderves , wedges and fruit etc) which was brought out over a couple of hours - everyone was awaiting their "meal" which never came. Whilst the food we did eat tasted lovely, for the price we paid, the amount of food was honestly laughable - I paid $50 for the vegetarian "meal" but all I was given were a bowl vegan wedges? Despite having already been served wedges at the table. Thank goodness I paid for the vegetarian option because everyone else had the same lack of food I did. To pay this amount of money for finger food at such a lovely looking establishment was a huge let down, my friends and I left hungry and got McDonalds afterwards - that's saying something after looking forward to this dinner for weeks. Last let down was when we ordered two standard glasses of the house sauvignon blanc toward the end of the night only for the waitress (who was very kind) to bring the EFT machine over and charge $71 for TWO GLASSES of white wine?? (Cheapest glass on their menu is $24, quick maths says it's not adding up.) We naturally cancelled the wine, we all left hungry, thirsty and disappointed - my friend was so embarrassed that we spent so much money for such a disappointing night. The staff in general were absolutely lovely and the location is picturesque with a good vibe, however there are many things that need improvement - for a booking well over $1,500, at the very least a proper meal should be served and a table to eat it off with seating for each person who paid to be there. The place was 2/3 empty so I'm not sure why we weren't at a proper table? Conclusion - Cirq has a lot of potential but they're not reaching it, probably wont be back for a while...

The views & drinks are great, but the service is very poor compared to other rooftop bars in the CBD.

I went with a group of friends on 7/3/25, we arrived at 11pm. It was quiet, a quarter of the inside tables were full (outside was even emptier because it was raining). Plenty of staff as well, at least 8-12. They were attentive for the first round of drinks. But after we’d finished our round, nobody bothered after. One friend went to the bar to order a drink and they said it was table service only. You couldn’t order from the bar. Ok, fair enough. Eventually, we manage to signal down one waiter and ask for a couple of cocktails. He said yes. But another 20 mins rolled by and nothing happened. The bar was even emptier now. We had to find another waiter, and asked them about the cocktails, they talked to another one. It seemed the order never went through. Then they sent us the bill, which was only for the first round of drinks. We said we’d ordered another and were still waiting on the second round of drinks. They apologised, eventually the drinks came and the new bill arrived. All of this reeked of bad mismanagement. If this was really busy and packed, I’d understand, but it wasn’t. This was a mostly empty bar with heaps of staff.

If this was a pub, I wouldn’t mind. But this is the flagship bar at Australia’s only 6 star hotel. When you go to a 6 star hotel, you expect the service to be better than your average bar. That’s why you pay a premium. If you compare it to other similar premium rooftop bars like Bar 83 or Dean & Nancy on 22, they are a lot more attentive to taking orders from the customer. You certainly won’t wait 45 minutes for a cocktail after asking a waiter twice. And this isn’t just a one-off, look at the other recent Google reviews and you’ll see many people complaining about how bad the service is for getting drinks. Overall, I wish I could recommend it because the view and the drinks themselves are great. But the wait times on service is so bad it’s only worth having one drink up there...

The views from the 26th floor are stunning and the venue itself is great. The service and food however are severely lacking. I don't usually post reviews but the service i received over the weekend compelled me to do so in this instance. We were a table of 9 and the layout of the tables does not cater for large groups- the waitress could not service one side of the group who were sat on the couch, and had to slide all food and drinks over the table across the guests. The 3x small tables nestled together at varying heights do not allow for 9 people to eat comfortably and we had to clear the table ourselves and move plates to allow for other dishes to be placed down. A drink was spilled, and everyone on the couch had to get up and exit, so the waitress could slide in and clean up the drink, then slide back in to be seated. At times when certain dishes came out the waitress did not even attempt to find out who the dish was for and dumped it on the end of the table and walked away. I was not drinking alcohol, and my bill came to $120 for a starter (prawns) main (steak) and a side of potatoes, which came 1.5 hours after i was seated. My friends had all finished eating when both my starter and main came together. I am aware this is tapas share plates, but we told the waitress when ordering we were not sharing- she followed up with the chef when she saw everyone had finished, but it was still another 20 minutes for both meals to arrive at the same time. The table tried many dishes and i believe the standouts were the platters (Seafood and charcuterie), lamb cutlets, and the chicken skewers. The prawns were tasty, but cold and the steak was sinewy.

If i was to come here again it would just be for drinks- there is a $75 minimum spend per person, which is easily done with a few cocktails. I would not recommend the...