Circa 1876

Amazing atmosphere and friendly staff delicious cuisine. Highly recommend we will definitely be back.

Amazing from the moment you arrive.

Overprice food. The meat was cold and overcooked.

Fabulous friendly staff, enjoyed our meal very much. Amazing deserts!! Wines were quite good also, and the location is very central for Pokolbin!

Fantastic service, the food was sensational, the atmosphere was incredible. We enjoyed every moment of our lunch. I highly recommend this restaurant. I had never eaten tooth fish and it’s melt in your mouth

This is our 3rd visit to Circa 1876 and we came away incredibly disappointed yesterday. We booked a meal from 6 pm for a family of 4. We ordered 2 x 3 course meal and 2 x kids meal. Kids behaved impeccably aged 6 and 9 years. It was my birthday celebration. We've eaten all over the world and visited many expensive restaurants but never before have we been asked to have our dessert course in a waiting room to get the table ready for the next sitting!! We were left in the waiting room and joined by 2 male adults. When we paid the bill of $300, the table we left from was still unoccupied 30 min later. Shocking service and experience. The poor waiter was nearly in tears having to tell us to have dessert in the waiting room after being given instruction by his manager to move us along.  We waited 90 minutes before we got round to our dessert course. We understand they have 90 minutes/sitting but you can't expect a paying table to move on if the restaurant is running behind schedule. It's unacceptable and even worse being left to eat off a low table with strangers in an enclosed waiting room.

Deliscious

Unfortunately after 2 confirmation emails, no phone calls, or error emails, we arrived for our anniversary and where turned away, very disappointed.

The restaurant was quite busy but we were served quickly. Although limited, the food was incredible and each course was better than the previous. Great value for such quality in the Hunter Valley.

Out first experience at Circa and was really impressed. The food was beautifully presented and full of flavour. Service was outstanding without being overly intrusive. Loved the old character of this restaurant. Highly recommend!

The food was good but nothing special or inventive. The food was very fresh and tasty though. The setting was beautiful. We loved wondering through the different rooms. The fire place in the front room was lovely. On our arrival we were told quite rudely that our booking was at 6pm instead of 6:30pm and that we only had 1 hour to eat our 3 courses, instead of the agreed 90 minutes. This was incorrect and the timing mistake was the restaurant's fault. This left a very sour taste in my mouth and ruined the evening for me if I am being honest. Our orders were then not taken for about 15 minutes so I cannot understand their opening comments. After the hour had elapsed then they had not asked us to moved to other table, as earlier stated, and they allowed us to stay at our table for the 90 mins and then served us desert in another room in front of the fire place. This room change was actually very nice and more relaxed and a lovely way to end the meal. I was just not happy with the service and lack of communication from them.

Such a beautiful restaurant. Loved the setting- so romantic with Dinner near fireplace. The food was delicious with many different elements on each plate. Love the paddock to plate . The waitresses were so knowledgable and very approchable. Worth every single dollar. Would def come again.

Absolutely lovely food and delightful service. So nice to be able to support this beautiful restaurant in The Hunter.

This is one of the best restaurants I've been to. The location is stunning, the service flawless, the food unbelievable and the atmosphere just lovely. It's kind of like an old hunting lodge, but without any of the grotesque connotations. The wood, leather and classic decor with log fireplace just create such a great feeling of a warm country retreat.

Great fine dining in the middle of wine country. The old house makes this restaurant something different. Good service and amazing ambience. We had the three course menu with a bottle of sparkling. I had the zucchini flowers which were rich but not over bearing and my girlfriend got the duck pate which she enjoyed. For mains I had the toothfish, it was well cooked but had a this Asian twist that I wasn’t overly impressed by. My partner had the beef tenderloin that was cooked to request perfectly. For desert I had sour dough ice cream that was not too sweet but definitely not savory. All up I’d give it 8/10. We left happy and satisfied.

Delicious Food and good service

Made booking / received confirmation, however on arrival was told the booking was invalid. Drove 1hr each way. Understand the Covid19 restrictions but the situation should have not happened this way. There was no attempt in finding alternate solution or compensation.

This is our fourth visit to Circa. Staff are always friendly who were very knowledgeable with each of the dishes. Food was amazing, thoroughly enjoyed our meal. Only negative was the chairs are really uncomfortable and dont encourage you to stay any longer than necessary.

We had the 5 course meal with paired wines. 4 of the dishes were delicious but the other was not enjoyable and very much required an acquired taste. The pre-dessert cake tasted like a supermarket bought cake and filled us up completely. We felt it was unnecessary. Overall the food was well presented and enjoyable though. The paired wines were mostly well matched but the volume of wine was disappointing. I would suggest we only received 75ml of wine per dish. For the $60 per person cost it is way over priced and we felt we had to ration each sip. Finally the service from the waitress staff was enjoyable and made for an interactive experience. It was a shame the wine waiter was not of the same mindset as he did not offer any chat and didn’t smile once. Overall it is clear the chefs care a great deal about the food and it shows with quality ingredients that are well presented. Shame the experience was not consistent throughout and value for money for a $400 meal.

Quality ambiance, service and food at a reasonable price reflecting the food and service.