Clubhouse (Vancouver, BC)

The Clubhouse restaurant has been in operation for 9.5 years. I remember reading an article about how it was "the first izakaya" in Vancouver, and that began my subtle hinting to family, friends, and M about how we *had* to make a trip down to that industrial area near Mario's Gelato and Tantra fitness (rawr!) to try them out. Since Clubhouse is only open for dinner on weekends, and not open Mondays or holidays, it kept on evading my plans...

It wasn't until we were going home on Saturday from the beach that M and I got a chance to drop by Clubhouse for some of their hospitality and food!

As the reviews on Urbanspoon claim, Clubhouse has a slightly "eccentric" feel. There are murals of golfing greens and mountains on the walls, as well as stained glass windows in the front. Chalkboards around the bar area advertise the daily specials (we never *did* remember to ask what Geso was...), and there is a photo board that short people can only speculate are customer and staff photos (it is about 7-8 feet high...not around my eye level. :)

We ordered a half and half sashimi to start with. After a long day and the sun / sand at the beach, the tuna and wild salmon sashimi was a godsend. As I told M, "for once I like the tuna more than the salmon!"



Clubhouse also has a selection of "Holy Makis". What are Holy Rolls? They are rolls that have been coated with panko, deep fried *just* to brown the exterior, and served with a special dipping sauce. We speculated that sauce was a light ponzu sauce with finely grated daikon, but we'd have to try it again to be sure.

It was a great creation. The one we ordered was their Dave & Mike roll, which is apparently named after two of their regulars. They both work at YVR and the roll consists of tuna, salmon, asparagus, and red bell pepper. It was an excellent variety of temperature and textures with the warm crisp coating, solidity of the sushi rice, bite of the asparagus and bell pepper, and buttery salmon and tuna. The sauce was a great accompaniment to the roll - soy sauce would have been too salty; the ponzu sauce added the right touch of tang, sweetness, and savoury without being too overpowering.



Next up was the Alaska roll. I was expecting more from it - it was simply imitation crabmeat roll (shredded) with smoked salmon on top. M likes to combine things - admittedly, once we dipped it into the special dipping sauce that came with the Dave & Mike roll, it was much better!



We ordered the sashimi and the holy roll almost once we sat down and had a glance at the menu. M also ordered the Alaska roll and a mixed meat okonomiyaki in a second round of ordering. I had known that the okonomiyaki would take a while to arrive, but there was quite a fair wait before it showed up. We were not disappointed however - while it wasn`t the okonomiyakis we`d experience at other restaurants, it was a great change. It arrived on a sizzling hot plate and was a yakisoba casserole of sorts - with chicken, beef, pork shallots, and cabbage in the mix. It was quite large, so we had to pack more than half of it home.



Clubhouse has reasonable prices and extremely hospitable staff. Our server was more than pleasant, and being that it was warm day, she was always around to top off our glasses of water (about 4-5 times!). Another staff also answered our questions about the restaurant, giving small anecdotes. Apparently the current owner kept the original name from the previous sub & sandwich shop at the location. They decided to take a spin on the "Clubhouse" name and change it to an "after golf watering hole", hence the golfing murals.

The menu also advertises noodles, hot pots, and Japanese curries. There is also a daily "fresh sheet" and a section with names like "sumo wrestler combo", or WWF combo - up to 84 pieces of sushi on a platter to satisfy all your (and probably 4-5 of your friends) sushi cravings!

Clubhouse

255 W 2nd Ave [map]

Vancouver BC

Phone: 604-879-8998