CN Tower 360 Restaurant - dress code?
 

The website states the dress code is "smart casual". Please can someone explain what this really means in practice (i.e. polo shirt and chinos, or open necked shirt with a blazer!?)?

We're over in Toronto for a weekend in Nov and fancy taking a meal here, however we were planning a hand-luggage only trip so going anywhere dressy is out of the equation.

TIA ^

Sorry that I don't have exact details as I have only gone to 360 on weekdays (work functions) and didn't exactly pay attention to what people were wearing beyond the business attire of my colleagues.

My interpretation of smart casual in Toronto is that they don't want you looking like you've just come from the gym. Jeans are likely to be completely fine as long as you look tidy. A blazer is definitely more than is required.

Great - exactly what I was hoping for ^

Many thanks

Also worth adding that it's a mediocre restaurant at best. And if the weather's less than perfectly clear, don't bother. Check out www.torontolife.com for reliable or www.chowhound.com for somewhat-reliable restaurant reviews (or just check the Leslieville thread in this forum.)

I'd second this.^ As a first time visitor to Toronto, I'd definitely go up the tower to the main deck and probably up the second lift (elevator to them...) to the Spacedeck (?). The views are stunning and it's particularly surreal to see aircraft below you landing at the nearby Toronto Island airport....

Unless you're the sort of person who likes to do the main touristy things just to "tick the box", there are very many much nicer restaurants in Toronto, particularly if you're only there for a weekend.

In terms of dress-code, in North America anything above beachwear or gymwear seems to qualify as smart-casual....

Note though that if you're planning to go to the CN Tower at a busy time, having a reservation for the restaurant can save you a lot of time and hassle. When I tried going this summer (with a friend visiting from Australia), there was close to a 2 hour wait for going up the elevators (this was on a weekday too). Instead we made lunch reservations for the next day, which means you do NOT have to wait in the main elevator line. We went straight up, and got to go to the normal CN tower floors after our meal. When we factored in the time we saved, plus not having to pay for the lift ticket (it's included in the meal cost), the cost of the lunch was actually quite reasonable.

Thanks - this was a factor in my thinking (the queue jumping more than the money saved).

And thanks to kellytoronto and corpt for being so candid about the quality. I have to be honest though, I'm not really much of a foodie, and my wife is obsessed about tall towers, particularly ones with revolving restaurants (like Dusseldorf and Vienna), so that's pretty much a clincher!

I was dragged to the tower for a business dinner a couple years ago and was pleasantly surprised at the food. I was expecting tourist trap crud ($15 dollar frozen patty hamburgers and the like) and it definitely wasn't that, it was decent high end restaurant/hotel dining room food. The main problem was that it was overpriced. Not a foodie destination restaurant but OK.

If your spouse has a thing for revolving restaurants there is another one in Toronto on top of the Westin Harbour Castle hotel and there are two of them in Niagara Falls (although I can't vouch in any way for the food in either)

Does a reservation at the 360° restaurant still include free access to the observation deck?

I´m considering having lunch there, $50+ surely is a little steep, but if it includes the $25 fee to the observation desk and I don´t have to wait in line for hours to take the lift, it may be a decent deal.

Any recent experience?

Thank´s!

Yes, I'm pretty certain it still does.

There's no extra charge to access the observation deck, but there is a minimum charge per pax at the restaurant. I can't recall what the min charge is, but it's not hard to hit. Basically as long as you have an entree you're in.

When my cousin and his wife from Hong Kong visited us in 2008, this was the exact reason why we decided not to take them for dining at the 360 when we took them up the tower.