Club Downtown sucks. On paper it...
Club Downtown sucks. On paper it seems great, $10 dances, full contact, middle of downtown Montreal, what's not to like? A number of things make this "cheap" club incredibly expensive.
I've been to Club Downtown twice. Once 3 years ago while visiting Montreal, and once tonight. I didn't review it then after a terrible experience because I figured I just had some bad luck and they should get the benefit of the doubt. No, it's institutionalized awful. Three years ago I had a girl pull the shadiest maneuver I've ever had pulled on me at a club. After the last dance when I told her I was done, she wanted to chat for a bit, and I did. After the chat, she charged me for an additional song because it was still in the room. I thought that was ridiculous and she had stalled me intentionally, but the bouncer took her side. I gave her the money and walked out.
Tonight I wandered in again unintentionally, and decided to give it a second shot since I had already paid the cover. The layout of the seats seems designed to make for horrible dances: They're single uncomfortable dentist waiting room-style seats with rigid metal backs and arms that make it almost impossible for a girl to straddle you, so for most of every dance, you get an "air show" which defeats the purpose of a full contact club because the girls are out of reach. Lap dance area is also on the second floor of the club, so it strongly encourages multiple dances if only because you feel bad for the dancers having to walk those stairs each time, and every girl seems to jump right into dancing without waiting for the next song, so you're almost guaranteed to lose out on half a song. Also, and this happened with every single girl I went in with, they didn't take off their tops until the second song, which makes me think it's just the way things are done at that club. After finally finding a girl that actually sat on my lap a bit for my "lap dance," I asked her about the "bed shows" which are supposed to be fully nude, no contact. She said they were lesbian shows only (a lie, since an earlier dancer called it a solo show that cost $10 a dance as well, and the signage also supported that). She said it would be $20 for two girls, so I was like, ok, sure, that could be fun, why not.
Girl 2 shows up and they get up on the bed and start joking with each other with the clothes on in the middle of the song that was on when we got there, and then started to argue a bit, and they're discussing something, and it's pretty clear they don't want to do the show without some Purell alcohol sanitizer. I joke, "This obviously doesn't count as the first song, right?" and girl 2, who spoke English better, said it did. I was shocked. I probably should have called an end to it right there, but I figured may as well just get a second song during which something lesbian-related might actually happen, since I was there anyway. They spent most of the second song talking and laughing like old friends, and about 30 seconds of fake rug-munching. I put an end to the show after that song because it was lame, and pull out a 50 for both. Girl two drops the bomb of it being $20 for each of them, so I in fact owed $80 for that half minute of imaginary cunnilingus. I pointed out the first girl said it was $20 for two girls per song, neither denied it, but instead dismissed it as "Her English isn't great, she explained it wrong." ...Right. Because that's a valid reason to try to rip off your customers. I wasn't going to even TRY getting management involved, if it was going to be 2 against 1 if I did.
I honestly can't discourage people from going to Club Downtown enough. To clarify, since I know I'd be thinking things while reading this review: I'm not cheap, I'm not on a budget, I had $500 on me from the ATM that I was ready to spend, but I prefer a little bit of fantasy with my fantasy. I know I'm viewed as an ATM by dancers, but Club Downtown really makes you feel that way too. That's a shitty club, regardless of how cheap their dances are. Go to Cleopatra. The girls treat you like a human being, give some of the best dances I've ever had, while still only costing $10 a dance. Downtown's girls are hot (if you're into the stick figure + bolt-on tits look), but that's really all they have going for them.