[Penny]

On Friday night my friend and I headed off to see the Phantom of the Opera at the Circle Lounge, Berkley Cienmas, Botany Downs.

More on the movie later...

From the lazy boy seats to the meals delivered to your seats, to the general service. It was the best movie experience I have ever had.

You arrive about 1/2 hour before hand, where they check your tickets, give you a lounge pass, and give you a menu to look at. There is no pressure if you feel like ordering a meal (for $12.50 extra) then you just go back to them, otherwise you can just sit down and enjoy the atmosphere of the lounge, have a drink or two, and watch the projection for cinema 1 go round and round (me the geek enjoyed this and hit the person up about how fast it goes etc).

We decided to order a sweet platter for 2, which bascially was meant to include samples of all the desserts($28.50). We asked for this to be devlivered 1 hour into the movie.

They call out that the Phantom was ready for seating in Cinema 3. We head over to the bar and get our complimentary popcorn and softdrink, and proceed to be seated.

We sit down play with the seats, mines right back I could have gone to sleep.

I think it was really good value for money, given the free popcorn and drink, it was meant to be $28 per person, it only cost us $21 per person. When you consider a normal movie viewing is $14 + whatever you eat and drink it all adds up.

The only problem was, our sweets never arrived. Becuase we were watching the movie we never went out to complain. However when we mentioned it as we exited, they said they had it there but couldn't find us. I suspect they put the wrong theatre number down for us. They happily refunded our money no worries and apologised profusely. I wouldn't hold it against them this time, but if it happened again, I probably wouldn't be too impressed.

On to the movie, The movie was great, The only cast member I recgonised was Minne Driver and it would surprise me if she sung her own part. Otherwise I would recommend anyone to go and see it. I haven't seen the show so I cannot compare but I did throughly enjoy the movie. One I would consider buying on DVD (to add to my Musical collection!)

[*ZenithalRavage*]

hmm, sounds good. I think I'll go see that movie too. Too bad we don't have theatres which bring you chow here

[kall]

They do sound good...

When you write up the Phantom Review, I would like to include it as an Article...actually, I'd like to include this thread as an Article too...it would be good to have an Entertainment Venue Review section in there.

[Penny]

yeah they are good you should go. Umm if you want to include it as an article you can. The only review bit about the phantom was the last paragraph. I'm no good at writing those kind of things.

[nih]

What food were they serving for meals? Did it look good?

[Penny]

Umm I wouldn't really eat it. I'd rather go and get something like Nandos. But it is all designed to be eaten with fingers or skewers. My friend reckoned some of it looked ok. There was so eithic stuff (obviously not rice... unless you want to try and eat that with a skewer!).

www.circlelounge.co.nz

but it doesn't really say what food it is