Mini-Review: The Clubhouse Japanese Restaurant

Last Saturday after Lindy Hopping at the Legion, we arrived at the Clubhouse at about 12:20a.m. Sunday morning. Luckily they were open and the kitchen still cooks almost until the very end when they close at 1:30a.m.

The Clubhouse is a fun restaurant that's definitely not like a typical Japanese restaurant. It's like a diner with booths. A great place to bring people after clubbing or dancing. They play peppy electronic music but nothing too extreme and it's pleasantly upbeat so that I always find myself bopping to the beat whenever I am there.

It's cheap and very cheerful. The menu is encyclopedic (sushi, sashimi, soba, udon, katsu don and downhome Japanese cuisine as well as Western cuisine like hamburgers (of course we haven't tried any of that!)) but everything that we've tried on our 4 or so visits has been good.

They have daily specials like kimchi fried rice on the weekend. We've tried the kimchi okonomiyaki (which is like a Japanese pizza) and the mixed mushroom version as well. Both are excellent. We also have eaten the mochi (a glutinous rice ball with a strip of salty seaweed down the middle) It's an excellent combination of flavours: salty and sweet.

The sushi that our friends have ordered (although I didn't try it) looked decent. But I would recommend being adventurous and trying something off the beaten path of sushi and sashimi.

To give you an idea of how inexpensive it is, Barb and I shared a mixed mushroom okonomiyaki, gomae, an order of mochi, a cranberry juice and a delicous dessert (deep fried banana with red beans in a crepe, and ice cream) for $19 bucks taxes included!

The Clubhouse Japanese Restaurant, 255 West 2nd (at Alberta), 879-8998

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