J Club Bar & Grill

🍽️ Restaurant Review:

📍 Quick Facts

• Location: 26 McKenzie Towne Gate S E #500
• Phone number: (403) 474-7700
• Website: jclubgrillandbar.ca
• Best For: Pub food

We visited JClub on a Tuesday evening at 20 minutes past 9. We had just finished a day-long event and were just too dang tired to go home and cook. We figured the place wouldn’t close for another hour and a half, so we weren’t yet in that ‘staff is trying to get cleared down and get home’ window. 

Google gave them a 4.7, which put them, ratings-wise, ahead of some of the more well-known and high-end restaurants in the city. That was a lofty claim for a small bar/grill combo, but sometimes it is the hole-in-the-wall shops that surprise you with the quality of food. We had to find out for ourselves. 

There were only 3 or 4 tables occupied when we got there, but considering it was past most people’s dinner hour, this didn’t surprise us. 

We were seated, watered and handed menus.  

Our first impression of the server was that she was prompt but not friendly. Realistically, as long as she did her job, we could live with that. 

We were famished after not eating all day, so we ordered onion rings to tide us over until our main meal arrived. Geoff ordered J’s signature Beef Burger, and the Crispy Korean Chicken Burger looked appealing to me. We had recently fallen in love with Korean BBQ chicken, and we had always enjoyed kimchi, so it seemed like a natural fit. 

The onion rings arrived in record time, served with side plates so we could share. 

The coating on the onion rings was unpleasantly hard and difficult to bite into. I got the impression that they had been left in a fryer too long and were just overcooked, while Geoff thought they had already been fully cooked, then reheated at too high a temperature the second time around to get them out to us quickly. 

I managed a couple but then decided to wait for my main. It felt like the hard crust was scratching the inside of my mouth. 

After we were finished with the appetizer, the empty container and side plates sat on our table. While our dishes remained uncleared, our server sat in the corner scrolling on her phone, not paying us the least bit of mind. When our mains were ready, she brought them directly to the table without clearing the previous course. We all had to pitch in as she had difficulty placing the plates on the already full two-seater. 

Each meal came with basic fries and 2 oz of ketchup.  Geoff’s burger was tasty. It came with a secret sauce which was tangy and well-seasoned. The patty was cooked perfectly. 

My meal was another story. The chicken burger had kimchi, Asian slaw and a sriracha mayo, all components we were used to, but in this case, it was unbalanced and incredibly hot. 

The burger was literally dripping with sriracha; after only one bite, the plate was almost covered in drops of hot sauce. 

After two bites, my mouth was on fire; I couldn’t eat it. Geoff decided to give it a go and see what he thought. He was a ‘Frank’s hot sauce’ kinda guy and usually didn’t mind extra heat, but after a bite or two, he realized that it was even too hot for him to eat. 

We both enjoy spicy food, but spice or heat shouldn’t blow out your palate so you can’t taste anything else for the rest of the night.

 What happens when food is too hot—

Hot foods contain capsaicin, which tricks your brain into feeling extreme heat. Your mouth sends pain signals to your brain and then reacts by numbing your taste buds as a protective measure.Taste is blocked: Inflamed taste buds cannot process normal flavours for a short time. 

If you use too much ‘heat’, the correction would be to balance the dish by adding salt, fat, sweetness and/or acid. 

The server did offer to swap out my burger for me. We decided on a grilled chicken sandwich, which I opted to take home, considering we were tired and Geoff would have been well past finishing his meal by the time we got the replacement. 

At home, we discovered she had added a carrot cake to the bag as an apology. A nice touch, but not necessary. 

The replacement Grilled Chicken Sandwich was good, but nothing to write home about: Grilled chicken, arugula, sliced almonds, tomato and fig mayo on a six-inch sub bun. The sandwich seemed like an attempt at ‘high-end’ cuisine, without quite realizing the end goal. It tasted fine, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to order it again. 

The carrot cake tasted like Sysco (restaurant food supply) standard fare, that someone had tried to make ‘fancy’ with a few berries and strawberry sauce. The coulis/sauce was lovely but didn’t go with the carrot cake at all. Geoff’s comment was ‘the line cook is trying to act all ‘cheffy, ’’ and that sentence seemed to sum up the whole restaurant visit, not only the dessert.  

Food was okay, at best; unfortunately, it felt like a three dressed up as a nine. 

📊 Scorecard
🍴 FOOD — 3.5 / 5

✨ EXPERIENCE — 3.5/ 5
Average of Service & Hospitality, Atmosphere & Vibe, and Value for Money.

• Service & Hospitality — 3.5 / 5
• Atmosphere & Vibe — 4/ 5
• Value for Money — 3.5 / 5