Circa 1876 at The Convent - Pokolbin

Great service and beautiful food. Great variety of meals to choose from. Wine by the glass is a bit overpriced and background music was a touch load but overall a great experience .

We selected this restaurant for the great reviews for vegans and vegetarians. Unfortunately, it was a big disappointment for both vegan and vegetarian diners in our group. The vegan main consisted of carrot peelings and what looked like other kitchen scraps. However, the meat-eaters enjoyed their meal, but felt the paired wines were a bit uninspiring. The venue is gorgeous and be sure to have a seat in the lounge room if you do go.
Overall, we felt that the meal wasn’t great value for money especially if you are a non meat eater, and there are other better options in the Hunter.

Great Food! Restaurant design lived up to its name. Such a quaint space with great value. Food was generous for fine dining. Reservations is a must! Thanks for the memorable experience!

Fantastic food and service as always. Such a beautiful restaurant and grounds. An excellent place to celebrate with friends or as a couple. Will definitely be returning.

Great food and atmosphere. The service was friendly and professional. Highly recommended. The fire place was also amazing.

We had the 5 course meal with wine accompaniment which was outstanding, complements to the Chef.
The service was great from all the staff, will definitely be going back and would not hesitate to recommend to others.
Thank you for a great evening

Wonderful food, well matched wines and a great experience all around

The meal was delicious. The presentation outstanding. The service excellent. The atmosphere stylish and cosy ( with beautifully set up tables in an old timber structured room with big open fireplace)
Worth visit for a lunch to combine great food with beautifully surrounding .
Kids friendly, special kids menu.

We thoroughly enjoyed dining at Circa 1876. Jade, Ged and Karen were warm and welcoming and extremely knowledgeable. The food was absolutely delicious with perfectly paired wines. We highly recommend the whole experience.

deep impressive ，good food，nice garden

All the staff were knowledgeable,attentive,and accommodating whilst not falsely friendly. The food was presented by the waiters with informed style. Wonderful flavours from delicious fresh ingredients to savour at every course. Trent the chef has a vision and skill which should see this restaurant have a hat! Highly recommended!

Circa is like a red that has aged exceptionally well. Various depths of flavour in our entrees and mains. The lemon tart had the perfect thin, and melt in your mouth short crust pastry. Would rate as one of the best lemon tarts l’ve ever eaten

While the restaurant was nice it wasn’t everything I had imagined. The food was good, although my partners selections were much tastier than mine. When we arrived we were told the degustation menu was not available on Easter Sunday. We were never told this even on the two occasions where they called to confirm the booking (the first time I didn’t have my card on me) they didn’t mention it. Had they, I would have cancelled the booking because it was the only reason we selected the restaurant so it really set the night off on to a bad start. The staff were ok, not bad but not impressive nor did they seem particularly knowledgeable. The wine list was short and uninteresting my partner is a chef and studying wine so it really wasn’t what we expected. All in all the evening was ok but not the special treat we had hoped for.

Amazing food!!! Every mouthful brought a smile to our faces and we left very happy. Will definitely be back.

Was fantastic. Had a lovely time. The wait staff were fantastic and the food was amazing.

Amazing food and service. There were some issues with the sound system, but this didn’t have much impact on the overall experience. Will definitely be back.

Most beautiful restaurant and grounds, outstanding food and service.

Amazing place fanatic service and the food
Is divine

We came back to Circa after our first visit 3 years ago. We had a pleasant experience then. Food was devine, wine list was great. However it was not the experience we had last Sunday. Food was average, wine list was unfortunately shocking. Selling up-market price of wine for bottle-shop wine. That night, we were tossing on our choice of Reds, all of the pouring are not our prefence, we moved on to the bottle list. Prior ordering our Pinot Noir (listed as $90) on the menu, we politely asked the Somellier and advising him that we like our wine bold & full body, leather & woody style (we understand Pinots tend to be lighter, but we have had some flavoursome Pinots that are very chocolaty, woody & leathery). The Som instantly said, “yes and the Pinot Noir is fantastic”, he was not at all sound convicing but we went ahead anyway. On the first pour, we had one sip and made us cringe. It was not at all what we were after, very blend, light like water with aggressive tanin that rips our tongue apart. Som tried to argue with us by still convincing it was a high selling item. We didnt get charge for the wine, seems to us Circa is now very commercial catering for tourists only and lost its identity. We will not be back neither will we recommend.

The food was probably the best I have ever had! The waitress had such a great knowledge of wine and the manager was full
of joy and fun.
I have been in hospitality for many years so I have rather high expectations.
Over all the night was one of the best dining experiences I have ever had.
Thank you Circa we will be back :)

Great ambiance and the set course was really of good value

Beautiful location, with great food. There are loads of great restaurants in Hunter Valley, but this place is special due to the age of the building and the grounds.

This is a gem! We have visited on several occasions in the past, when on visits to Australia from the UK. The building and surrounding vegetable gardens provide an excellent background.

The food was perfectly prepared and the service was excellent; all together, a perfect occasion!

Superb experience - the food, the environment & service. Very highly recommended!

Circa 1876's menu is so interesting and also offers a wonderful tasting menu for vegetarians and meat eaters. Every dish was outstanding (including the divine bread). The service was a wonderful combination of friendly, knowledgeable and timely. Lots of thoughtful and individual touches made our meal experience very special. You get what you pay for at this lovely restaurant.

Such a great experience. The staff were friendly, the food was amazing and the restaurant was beyond excellent

Delicious food and wine in a very nice atmosphere. Only ‘criticism’ was that the airco was too cold and that our starter came when we just received our amuses bouche. However, these are details. It was a very nice experience, would recommend it to anyone staying in the Hunter Valley.

Beautiful environment, great service, excellent food.

Beyond amazing! We both agreed it is the best restaurant experience we have had. We are from Sydney, have travelled a lot, this was the best. Modern, exquisite food - due to the name and fit out, thought it might be old fashioned.. couldn't have been more wrong! Fitout of restaurant is beautiful, old meets modern done cleverly - very impressive. Everything tasted perfect. Great sized servings. We had the 7 courses to make sure we could try as much as possible. So glad we did. Foie Gras was delicious. Moreton Bay Bug my favourite course - cooked perfectly and with a little cube of Pork belly. All the mains were exciting and different. Every course was just to die for. Will drive back from Sydney just to go there again. LOVED IT

Lovely atmosphere, perfect food and service was friendly but professional. Fine dining at it's best.

This is absolutely a great restaurant for any occasions. The wine paring and cocktail is nice too. It has 2 courses and 3 courses options and 5-7 tasting menu. The scollap, soft shell crab, beef and toothfish are outstanding choices. I went there twice. The services are nice too, which brought us there twice.

Amazing risotto and generous servings for a fine dining restaurant!

Service was perfect, the food was outstanding, and you couldn’t ask for a better setting.
A perfect valentines dinner.

The experience started walking into and through the wonderful old building and set the scene for the evening that followed.
The ambience and decor was very relaxing and comfortable.
The staff were very friendly and were able to explain each dish on the menu.
The food was exquisite and each course provided a wonderful taste sensation.
The dining experience was relaxed with the staff both engaging, yet giving us space to enjoy our dining.
Well worth a visit - you will enjoy the whole experience from the time you walk across the bridge.

Beautiful food and brilliant service plus added extras for my sons birthday dinner. Situated in a beautiful part of the Hunter.

One of the best restaurants I have eaten at. Food, service and atmosphere make it a must do restaurant for food lovers

The gardens were beautiful :)
The food was delicious, the toothfiah and bone marrow in particular.
Our waiter jade was lovely and very accommodating.

Thanks would reccomend.

The food was amazing! The staff were attentive and knowledgeable. We would definitely return and would highly recommend the 7 course degustation.

Great food, excellent service and all round very good experience.

Absolutely amazing tasting menu with local wine pairings. We tried both chefs and vegetarian tasting menus and they were perfectly matched to our tastes. The wines were paired beautifully with the dishes. I came back to the winery next door and bought two bottles of the wine that was paired with our dessert. Jayde, our waitress, was so lovely and knowledgeable about the food and wines and made us feel at ease. I’m so glad I came here.