360 The Restaurant at the CN Tower — Restaurant in Toronto

Party size: 3—Reservations: yes

This restaurant is above the observation decks in the CN Tower. This is my fifth visit within the past decade as my daughter enjoys dining here and spending time in the CN Tower.

When one reserves for the restaurant they get complementary elevation as well as access to the observation decks after your meal with a minimum purchase per person. The complementary elevation is prioritized (meaning little to no wait for the elevator) and there is complementary coat check in if you are visiting within the cold season. To me, this is best value to visit the CN Tower for anyone who is a tourist or having a mini “staycation”like me. On this occasion we took advantage of the winterlicious menu which comprises of an appetizer, entrée and dessert for a fixed price (cheaper than their regular pre fixe menu.) CN Tower employees for coat check and elevation were top notch service. Sadly, the five star service did not continue within the restaurant itself.

SERVICE: overall 3 ⭐️(only because you do feel VIP from the CN tower employees at coat check and elevators going up who get 5 stars ⭐️)

In the restaurant: 2.5 ⭐️ It lacked a warm sense of welcome when you exited the elevator as no smile whatsoever from who seemed to be the front manager who mentioned we had to wait for the hostess. When the hostess arrived and brought us to our seats she was pleasant.

After being seated, our duo servers seemed to be overwhelmed at the time and we waited quite a while to order and receive any dishes. In fact my entrée (Prime Rib) was brought out with my daughters steak cold. My hubby’s prime rib meal came two minutes after ours and was piping hot…How disappointing for me and my daughter to have a cold meal!!! Hubby said not to make a scene but I’m sure everyone including service knew how I felt.

Service acknowledged to my partner alone as he was paying the bill for having his entrée arrive late to the table (they only apologized to him alone while my daughter and I left to wash our hands after eating dessert)! This apology could’ve happened any time during the hour of service after the entree arrived??…but didn’t!!! Hmm 🤔

The elderly Eastern European paired with the elderly Asian descent server James (I believe) came to refill our water glasses, only did my husbands and then turned around to provide water to a table of 3 Eastern Europeans at an inside table, talk with them for a few minutes and then returned to our table to refill my daughter and I water glasses. This to me was so “God damn” rude!

Also while exiting the restaurant, I stood by the hostess while waiting for my partner to come back from washroom and no one asked how our meal was etc. It was close to the the no service time of 4pm meaning no new guests which meant they had time to ask for feedback. They missed a good chance to avoid me writing this review about their service!

Food: 3.5⭐️

Appetizer: trout carpaccio—excellent! Order if you can! Kids Caesar salad—Decent

Entrée: prime rib — Portion size and accompaniments worth the value however having a piece of meat cold was not appetizing. Gravy lacked any flavour and meat was chewy. Was it because it was cold? Answer is no my partners entrée which was piping hot was just as chewy; so it was quality of meat i.e. the marbling of the prime rib roast. Definitely ask for salt and pepper if you do take a chance and order this.

Kids steak frites: Excellent portion cooked exactly at medium rare for strip loin but it was just cold upon arrival + did not have any flavour or any special steak spice.

Dessert:

Flourless chocolate cake: portion was appreciated however because it was so rich it was hard to finish for one person. We managed to finish everything but two bites however looking around many tables at half of it back.

Pumpkin cheesecake: this was the highlight to the meal there is a marshmallow toasted to the side of it which complemented it very well with the airy and fluffy cheesecake itself. Loved the addition of pepitas on it.

Kids CN Tower Cookie : great...

We were truly disappointed with our experience at 360 Restaurant. For a place known for its upscale setting and high prices, the service fell far below expectations. From a complete lack of proper birthday acknowledgment to inconsistent and inattentive service, the overall experience did not reflect the standard one would expect from a fine dining establishment.

We had informed the restaurant in advance during our reservation that we were celebrating a birthday. However, at no point during the booking confirmation, our arrival, or throughout the entire dining experience did any staff member acknowledge this occasion with a birthday greeting — except for a tiny birthday card placed on the table, which felt impersonal and insufficient for such a special occasion.

There were three of us in total, though only two arrived initially. When the server asked how many people were in our party, we clearly said three. However, water was only provided for the two of us who were present at the time. Even after the third guest arrived and sat down, no one came by to offer him water. After we asked for it ourselves, the server passed by our table more than five times without making any effort to refill the third guest’s glass.

During the birthday cake service, the server placed some extremely cheap-looking candles — the kind you might find at a dollar store — directly onto the cake without asking us. These candles melted into the cake and completely ruined its appearance before we even had a chance to take a photo. After we requested a change, it took over 20 minutes before they finally brought out the candles we had prepared ourselves, which had been sitting in the cake box the entire time.

In addition, every time we asked the staff either to bring out the cake from the fridge or to take it away afterward, it took more than 10 minutes for them to follow through. Often, the server would nod, walk away to serve other tables, and simply forget our request. We had to remind them again, and even then, another 5 to 10 minutes would pass before anything actually happened.

As for the food, it was just okay — below average overall. We ordered two identical ribeye steaks. The first one came without the sauce we requested, and without it, the steak was utterly bland and tasteless.

Although water was eventually served to all of us, the inattentiveness continued throughout the meal. No one refilled our glasses after they were emptied, and no server came by to ask how our food was or if we needed anything else. For a restaurant with an average cost of over $200 per person, this level of service was extremely underwhelming and disappointing.

Our dining experience here was a world apart from a fine dining restaurant at a similar price point where I celebrated another friend’s birthday just last week. In fact, this restaurant is even more expensive, so I truly don’t understand why the service was so poor. Perhaps it’s because this restaurant heavily markets its scenic views; however, due to the heavy fog and rain yesterday, we didn’t see any night views or sunsets at all. Instead, the rotating dining room combined with the thick fog made us quite dizzy, and one guest...

This was the BIGGEST let down I have experienced- if you want to witness a pretentious establishment with a massive side order of poor service… then look no further because this restaurant gives you the true definition of wasted potential.

You’d think a restaurant describing itself as ‘premium’ would live up to its expectations, especially at the top floor of an iconic landmark… well, let me tell you, it surely is a landmark of horrendous service- shout out to Hamid a member of staff who (putting it politely) is not suited for this vicinity. According to this member of staff, meals should be devoured within seconds of receiving it as he came up to our table and said “ you need to eat this now, the kitchen is closing…” and kept on hurrying us throughout each course - maybe Hamid should have focussed on getting the orders correct as he forgot our drinks and provided the wrong dessert. To add fuel to the flame, my friend wanted to have the seared Tuna, and he kept saying to her that “it’s not seared, it’s raw” despite the menu saying Seared Albacore Tuna… - and because you know her so well, she actually really loves Tuna in all forms… one should probably try considering revising the menu and its descriptions before trying to sway customers to choose something else. Zia provided pretty decent service and checked to see how we were- he probably noticed I was quite flustered by Hamid’s approach to customer service.

The delayed cocktails and mocktails was nothing premium- watered down, pour-quality concoction, interesting choice in garnishes, in a ok glassware … not sure if this was just because it was left at the bar for ages and forgotten about before being brought to our table. The water on the other hand was pretty decent.

Food overall was alright, nicely garnished and some interesting dishes on the menus- is it worth the price? Hmm, well if the service and drinks was better then… Yes, but really, you’re just paying for a lovely, rotating view, alright food (looks nice though!) and you can’t forget the questionable service…interesting to notice that this is a running theme with other customer reviews on this restaurant. Management needs to look into this as this establishment has a real potential to do well but it’s currently wasted, and it seems as it has done so for a while as the running theme for this restaurants reviews have been quite similair throughout the years.

I regretfully paid for an awful service charge - looking back now I had wish I had seen a Manager straight away. Awful service, mediocre food, horrendous cocktails/ mocktails- but the water is nice!

To top this experience off, shout out the staff in red tops representing CN tower who agreed that this restaurant was “bad”. The staff team in red (who I was informed are separate from the restaurant) were polite and helpful- maybe 360 restaurant can take a leaf from their page and change this place to make it ‘360 great’ instead of ‘360… piss take…’ - thanks for making my first meal in Canada memorable for the wrong reasons. Wish the jet lag could have kicked in earlier, would have saved me from...