| rev:text
| - We were celebrating a very special occasion and wanted to do something a little out of the ordinary. I had never been to the 360 Restaurant before and when this was proposed as an idea, I thought why the heck not? The reservation process was dead-easy (thank-you OpenTable).
When we showed up, there's the hassle of all the security measures although you kinda feel VIP standing in separate lines PLUS you didn't pay $22.99 for the elevator ride. The annoying part was the obligatory souvenir photo. A nice family was having their photo taken when we arrived. The staff member told us they would take our picture, but not to worry - you don't have to buy it. Seeing as we were actually trying to beat the last 2 guests of our party as this was a surprise, we were in a hurry. I didn't have time to wait for a cheesy photo. I tried to get out of the photos, but she wasn't having it. Based on her reaction, it seemed like she thought I was trying to jump the line. Thankfully, one member of our group did a much better job of explaining the situation and we were granted a hall pass.
When we got to the entrance of the 360 there were loads of people just everywhere. What's the deal? I thought you could only get there if you had a reservation? They check this downstairs before they let you ride up. We waited for about 60 years before even getting to the hostess desk. I confirmed the reservation and they told me our table wasn't ready yet. They were kind enough to find us a place to sit and wait. Poor planning... it was right at the elevators. We were waiting there long enough to start attacking the candy bowl. And also long enough that our guest of honour arrived and caught us (unprepared) on the couches. SURPRISE! (Fail.)
We waited another little while still and then were finally seated. Thankfully, we got a good window table. I didn't even think to make that request, but once inside the restaurant, I realized there are some tables that seriously suck in terms of the view. I didn't know what to expect of the rotating experience and actually feared motion sickness, but it's slow enough that you don't really feel it (and it's not a disaster for the servers). I was told it takes about 73 minutes for a full rotation. Our timing was excellent as we saw full daylight, sunset and night time. It was interesting to see the city from a different perspective, plus play the guessing game of which buildings are which.
Dining:
The wine list is extensive, but offers some reasonably-priced options as well as some bottles in the thousands of dollars. Beautiful wine cellar in the center.
The menu offers a couple of prix fixe options. One at $55 and a another (better) one at $68. The $68 offers an amouse-bouche and the better appetizers such as escargot and entrées such as prime rib. There are also plenty of à la carte options. Appetizers averaged around $16. The entrées varied from $35 to $60 per lb for seafood. There were also seafood platter options, the largest at $325. It would feed quite a few people, so it's not super outrageous when compared to the rest of the menu.
I opted for the à la carte, but did a terrible job of it. My appetizer of a half-dozen oysters ($18) were fantastic. Gigantic malpeques! Although only served with horseradish and seafood sauce. I prefer more interesting toppings. My main was an eggplant vegetarian dish. The eggplant portion was breaded and pan-fried. Absolutely delicious. There was subpar paneer and some 'protein'. All served with a curry-flavoured sauce. It was actually very filling, but I only really enjoyed the flavours of the eggplant. My dessert was by far the worst option. I ordered the caramelized pineapple with star anise, Vanilla cream, galangal sorrel gelato ($12) because I love pineapple. Bad move. I didn't realize galangal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galangal) and sorrel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorrel) are both herbal/medicinal flavours. I thought it was weird. Others called it offensive. It was described as the flavour of Buckleys. Lesson learned: never let me order dessert for you.
We then went downstairs to the observatory. Jumped on the glass floor, walked around outside, hung out at the look-out. The look-out now has cool digital viewfinders? binoculars? (I don't know what they're called). That's new since I was there last.
It was fun as an experience, but a little overpriced for the food and service. There was nothing overly exciting on their menu. Pretty standard stuff. (Unless you count Buckleys gelato as exciting...)
I won't be back any time soon unless a tourist drags me here.
This might be my longest review yet! I originally hit the word limit before getting to the food portion and had to edit out the long parts about the adventures just getting to the restaurant. I'll save that for my autobiography.
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