Restaurants: Favorites Edition- The Clubhouse

First, some back story.  Big M took some holidays and he came downtown to take me on a lunch date.   I had bought some boots at Army and Navy the day before which I couldn't fit in my bike bag, so I drove the car to work.   Big M rode his bike to meet me.  He rode his bike down the same bike path that I rode my bike down every other day that week.  Except for today. 

Why is that a big deal?  Aside from the obvious health and environmental reasons, it is because on his way home he found $120.00 LYING ON THE BIKE PATH!  I ride that path every day and never have I found any money.  Jealous- Yes.  Jealous x 10 000.  Who was the fool that just stuffed $120.00 in his back pocket so that it could fall out?  If I have $120.00 in cash on my person, it is very safely tucked away in my wallet in a place that I can' t lose it.  Not this guy.  So Big M wins, buys himself some weird keyboard-y synthesizer thing, and takes me to one of our favorite restaurants, The Clubhouse for some sushi.

For years, the Clubhouse has been in the middle of nowhere, but now is in the middle of the Olympic village and hipster town on west 2nd beside the Party Bazaar. I am not really sure what it was before the Clubhouse, but from the decor on the inside, I would guess some sort of Italian, golf theme restaurant. There are golf murals on the wall and great Italian style pillars throughout the restaurant.



I would describe it as eclectic. Big M says the owner of the restaurant was the guy who opened the Eatery. They added a signature wall by the bathroom and a wall full of patron photos to the golf murals and called it good. I like it.

We decided to order a bunch of sushi and share it. Normally, Big M orders the okonomiyaki, a Japanese style pizza, and I get a donburi bowl. Since we were eating on free money, we decided to go crazy.

My favorite of the night was the Sweet Jane Prawn Tempura Roll (2 pieces prawn and sweet potato tempura, asparagus and inari)



My new favorite roll. I love the sweetness that the inari added to the prawn.

The other crazy concoction was the Holy California Roll. (deep fried roll served with special sauce.)



Holy California Roll indeed! Tempura battered roll, deep fried. This is genius and as tasty as you can imagine it would be.

Inari Maki:



Of course, gyoza. When you order the pork gyoza you get 7 pieces and salad. When you order the veggie gyoza, you get 5 pieces and no salad. I don't know why.



The gyoza were tasty and hot. I don't think the salad was really needed. It tasted like it looks.

Sweet potato Tempura roll, because we apparently can't eat enough sweet potato:



Marinated Salmon Nigiri:



I really liked the marinade on this. It had a very Japanese tasting spice that I don't know the name of, but I liked the taste with the salmon.

On the special menu they had BBQ salmon belly in the appetizer section. We found it very amusing that it came to the table last.



Big M loved the crispy skin. I was a bit put off by the fin, but it had a really nice fatty, BBQ flavor.

So thanks, foolish biking guy, for carelessly storing your money.  It was an awesome date night.