CN Tower 360 Restaurant

Hello from 🐳 Mrs. Fancy and 🐋 Mr. Fancy,

This is quite and exceptional experience. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity if you ever find yourself in Toronto. The CN Tower, one of the most famous buildings in Canada - which was the tallest freestanding building for quite a while - holds a great experience for anyone that wants not only a meal, but a different experience. It’s not everyday that you would sit in a revolving floor that has an amazing view of the city at 351 and something meters tall.

🐳 Weather is important! The experience would be ruined if you are planning to visit on a foggy/gloomy day. Plan ahead for a day that you trust the forecast.

🐋 Also, please try to go before the sunset. This way you would be able to see the entire city during the day and night.

As any other great restaurant, the experience starts even before you are greeted at the restaurant itself. This was a cold and windy day, which we needed to protect ourselves. Wearing our winter jackets is always somewhat awkward. You are greeted at the base of the CN Tower by the staff that shows you the way for the reception of the restaurant. At the reception, they would take your coat, check your reservation - do make one in advance - and give you your elevator ride ticket. This ticket is good for only one travel of the elevator up and down. Which is good, as you don’t have to pay for the elevator ride as you would when visiting the tower.

Once your Jackets are checked, you can make your way to a reserved elevator for the restaurant. The way for that elevator is well maintained with a beautiful piano and furniture. There is a photographer that will ask to take a photo of you and your party. These photos are on a chroma-key screen to later add you to the CN Tower Background. You can buy these photos later if you want.

Now! You go up in the elevator and you are greeted at the restaurant by a very polite host(ess). They take you to your table and make sure to make note of the number of your entrance - this part is important. You see, the restaurant revolves 360 degrees during an hour, and as such… You might loose your table if you come back of the washroom, which is stationary. So take note of your table number!

The tables are made of stone - probably some sort of marble - and are presented with electric candles and clean silverware. There are tables that are very close to the window and some that are not so much. All tables definitely have a view. But if you are not by the window, you might be a bit obstructed by the window tables. The menus were in english and french. Clean and well designed.

The server and the busser are very attentive, always checking on you and making sure your water is always full.

🐳 Disclaimer: if you are from a culture that you are not used to servers checking on you all the time, you might be annoyed. They are there all the time! But this is the way they live here in Toronto…

Our Server was quite polite and explained all the details of the restaurant and the revolving aspect of it. He took good care to explain the menu and ask about dietary restrictions. Mrs. Fancy is allergic to shellfish - which if live here in North America, you know it can be a bit challenging - and some soups and sauces might be cross contaminated by the shellfish, or even prepared with it. The server was very careful to explain each dish that we’ve asked for on how they would be prepared. This way we knew for sure that we didn’t have to worry about anything. Not necessary as most restaurants just take note of your allergies, but definitely welcome to see.

Now, LET’S TALK FOOD! Let us show our simple starters…

🐋 Mrs. Fancy had duck wings. Yes, that’s right, duck! It is AMAZING! I thought it was just for the “fancy-shmancy” ring of it, but it’s great!

🐳 The duck was great in flavour, but it was a chore to take meat off the bone. But I would definitely order it again.

🐋 Mussels were perfectly cooked, with an amazingly seasoned broth that pulled it all together. It was hard not to slurp it all off the pan once I was done eating all the mussels. The bread helped me contain myself.

🐋 Mrs. Fancy is the only apple of my eye, but this one was good too! Jokes aside, this drink is on the sour side of the green apple flavour. It works amazingly well with gin and cider.

🐳 I’m a fan of sour drinks, CN Sour was great! I highly recommend it.

🐋 Now, as the server was cleaning up to serve the entrées, I had a moment of laughter as I saw Mrs. Fancy NEEDING to get a new knife for eating steaks

Now the main course. We’ve ordered the Honey-Rubbed Chicken and the Prime Rib. Both were great!

🐳 The meat was soft, well prepared and with a crispy skin. These are the things that I look forward when eating meat - of any kind. The meat was served on top of mashed potatoes and the sauce of the chicken transferred to the mashed potatoes, giving it a great flavour. Combined with the mushrooms and the greens, the dish was well rounded. The flavours didn’t fight with each other. The preparation of the vegetables was also good. The mushrooms weren’t soggy, and the spinach not wet. Somehow my dish fits perfectly with my cocktail, they’re a great combo! The wooden notes, and the sourness of the drink elevated the sweetness umami aspects of the meat!

🐋 Oh hey! Disclaimer: I like my meat like my tomatoes: Red and juicy (I know, I know, my humour is the best)

🐳 Yep yep… His humour is not a bug, it’s a feature… 🤖

🐋 Moving on… The meat! Yes, the meat… Sweet sweet tender, smoked, aged, prime rib. I’m not going to lie, I was expecting the medium to be a bit more on the rare side. But I will not complain. This was amazing. The tenderness of it was just something out of this world. While I would question a bit the choices of the fried onion, I cannot say that it was something short of perfect. The heritage carrots still had some bite to it; that complimented the horse-radish, jus and meat so well that I honestly might have changed my mind about the usage of jus like this. I used to believe that jus belonged to the past in french cooking, but this made sense. If I am picking holes on this, I would say it was a little too “brown” flavoured. But amazing nevertheless.

After our main course, the server asked if we were celebrating an occasion. It just so happened to be a special day for us. We did not think much of it, but when our dessert came, we understood why.

Flavourful desserts with great presentations. Definitely stroke Mrs. Fancy sweet tooth.

Now, this is all fun and games, but prices are important. The food was good, the experience as well. Don’t forget you are paying to visit the tower as well. If you are not going to the restaurant, you have to pay for the visitation. Because we ate at the restaurant, we could visit the tower afterwards for “free”. So the tickets are definitely included in the meal price. To eat here you are required to pay at least $75 CAD per person. This is the requirement to allow you to get there and see the tower. Considering that each adult pays $43 CAD just to get in and see the views, that doesn’t look too bad. This price gives you the 2 course meal for one, or you could go for $90 CAD for the 3 course meal. They do offer a la carte meals as well, but you would still have to spend the minimum requirement.

In conclusion, we highly recommend this experience. If you want to impress someone, if you are celebrating something, if you need a special place to mark an occasion, this is definitely the place. Overall this deserves 5 stars for us, not because it was perfect on the food, but rather the whole experience.

Mr. & Mrs. Fancy