Zanzibar

Think of me what you will, but I’m a lady who knows her way around a strip club. I know the drinks are insanely expensive, so to come pre-​loaded, and that everything inside is designed to relieve you of your money. I always leave feeling a little stupid for letting the amount of cash that I did slip through my fingers. But I’ve never felt ripped off as hard as I did on my visit to Zanzibar.
I went with a group of friends after we sang and drank at Bar + Karaōke across the street. We decided to pop into Zanzibar afterwards for some adult entertainment. It was payday, so I felt I could drop some cash on essentially nothing, so I went. I budgeted $ 150 for it, and took $ 100 out of their ATM upon arrival.
Eventually some of the dancers came over, chatted us up, and I agreed to some dances. She took me into the VIP area, which had a $ 20 cover, which I had expected as it’s pretty standard. The lounge bouncer and the dancer both told me it was $ 20/​song. Which is also the standard rate for Toronto.
So I get my dances, and after 5 songs I tap out. That was my $ 100 that I’d intended to spend. She says to me, «we’ve done about 30 minutes, do you just want to take it to 45»? I think that’s a little strange, because in other clubs if there was a premium service above and beyond the regular VIP lap dances, they do price things by time blocks, as opposed to per song. And that’s something you specifically arrange with the dancer. I had been told by both the bouncer and the dancer that I was paying by the song here. Now she’s talking in time block?
I say «how much is 30 minutes»? I had 5 songs — this should cost me $ 100. Even if I’d misjudged and I’d done say, 7 songs, it should still be $ 140. She answers «30 minutes is $ 240».
!!!
So, needless to say I stand the f up. I was flabbergasted. I’ve never had anything like that happen in a club before. I pay the lady, of course. Having to take another $ 100 out the ATM machine… which was its own rip-​off.
I expected a high fee on the ATM transaction, but the screen popped up saying $ 2 service fee. I was pleasantly surprised, as that’s fairly low for the downtown core. When I checked my bank account this morning to figure out how many weeks I’m going to be living on ramen noodles after paying $ 240 for $ 100 worth of dances, I see a $ 10 service fee on each ATM withdrawal. So the service fee wasn’t just $ 2. It was $ 2 PER BILL DISPENSED. What!!!
Needless to say, of all the Toronto strop clubs I’ve been to, Zanzibar took the cake for biggest rip-​off. I’m still fuming and shaking my head at how 5 – 6 songs at $ 20 each somehow jumped up to $ 240.
I recommend the Brass Rail a few blocks north. I’ve always been treated well there, and have never had a bunch of hidden bait-​and-​switch prices foisted on me.

I dont want to drop the line «I’m from Montréal, so I know stripclubs…», but I am from Montréal, and I do know strip clubs. As Unilocal stripclub aficionado, Toronto’s Zanzibar is the city’ landmark… after the CN Tower of course.
It’s looks like a small place from outside, but dont get fooled, this place has more pussy than your neighborhood pet store. There are a lot of girls in rotation, a lot, so make a wise choice on who you want to make it rain on. The girls are very hot, there are enough flavors and styles to satisfy everyone.
P. S.A.: Don’t get fooled, especially tourists I count on you to keep your inner pimpin strong cuz you might get tricked to spend more than you should. It’s 20 $ a song, so just make sure that you know where you at in the count and make sure that she knows that you know how to count too.

Wow I love this place so much, it’s my favourite club to go to! The girls are amazing and the drinks a bit on the expensive side but that’s okay!

Got there late and the place was still crowded. Cool layout and nice décor. Lots of hot (and heavily modified) bodies with mediocre faces. Came with my gf who LOVES a good strip club and within 20 minutes she was bored and ready to leave. The girls on stage barely danced and looked like they’d rather be anywhere but there. The other girls just made their rounds looking for easy scores in the private dance area. Maybe we caught it on an off night but it was a Friday and we expected a lot more. Portland, LA, Chicago, Vegas, etc. all have WAY better clubs for less. Maybe we’ll try again on our next trip to Toronto.

Out for a stag party for a friend who has never been to a strip club with a mixed group of genders. The doormen were very friendly!
We found some great seats, and were offered drinks right away. Our waitress was a bit brisk, but the drinks came fast. Given there was no cover charge, I was happy to pay $ 6.50 for a club soda being a DD. I get they need to make their money somewhere.
There was a great variety of ladies to look at, and our friend told us a few she found attractive. I approached them, and they were very friendly and upfront about the procedure and costs of a lap dance. We sent our friend off with a handful of cash and she came back very happy.
Good night had by all!

Hey Toronto,
You’re doing it wrong.
$ 20 per song plus $ 20 to get into the champagne room? There better be touching allowed, wait you can’t touch?
At least the girls don’t waste your time.
Scarlett — «Hi my name is Scarlett, want to have some fun?»
Me — «Nope»
Scarlett — «Okay bye»

Would be one star but being a lower tier club with not much talent, they had the space available to accommodate a group of ~15 of us without a problem.
Being from Ottawa and visiting Montréal quite often, this club doesn’t even come close to competing with what’s available around me.
Saturday night and there were barely any girls roaming the aisles. A little conversation is nice but you won’t get that here. First thing you get is «let’s dance?». What’s up with the $ 20 fee just to enter the champagne room?
If you want a drink and see some skin, sure go ahead but don’t expect anything special here.

I was here this past Friday night, it was a (female) co-​workers birthday, and she had never been to a strip club before. There were about six of us women in total with EVERY intention of buying drinks/​food, but as soon as the server came around, she was immediately off the bat rude and condescending to us.
Yes, we’re aware we need to buy drinks to watch the show. Yes, we have every intention to do so — can we at least LOOK at the menu for five minutes first?
I don’t know if it’s because women going in there generally spend less money than men, or if she was just cranky/​a bitch, but it sure as hell didn’t make me want to spend any more money than I had to. I’ve been to the Zanzibar a couple of other times during the day and was never spoken to in such a manner.
The drinks are way over-​priced, to the point where I’d rather pay a cover charge than spend $ 17-​$ 18 for two Mooseheads with a side of attitude. Especially considering from a good portion of the bar you don’t even have a decent view of the stage.
Won’t be going back, but I’m sure they won’t miss me, lol.

I’ve heard mixed reviews from this place and in comparison to Brass Rail just down the street, I wanted to see for myself how it measures up on a busy Friday night.
I actually prefer this spot over Brass Rail. Brass Rail seems way too crowded and the girls are extremely pushy. I get that they are there to make money and don’t care to talk but I’m there to hang out and it would be cool to not feel pressured to go for a dance.
At Zanzibar it promotes a much more laid back atmosphere and even though it gets busy and fills up tight, the girls still try to sit down and interact with you. There’s not as much pressure here to go to the VIP, I still went because I wanted to not because a girl was begging me to.
Speaking of the girls at Zanzibar, there’s a select few that are absolutely stunning and were very enjoyable to watch on stage. If I remember names correctly I believe Tonya, Sophie, Arianna and Katana were just gorgeous to watch.
The girls were very cool and really chill. Drinks are expensive and there is a cover for the VIP but I wouldn’t expect any less from a strip club.
I would recommend this over Brass Rail any time and I will likely return to this place sometime again.

My friends and I have walked pass this place many times and had been curious if it matched up to other strip clubs like Brass Rails or Lancaster.
Just this past weekend we decided to check it out. To make a long story short, we were disappointed. We were forced to choose seats near the back of the venue and had a very poor view of the stage. The selection of girls was disheartening as most of them were no where as good looking as the servers.
I would have to say that the service from the servers was great. We constantly got attended to every 15 – 20 mins and one server informed as that a table closer to the stage was about to be free soon if wanted it.
If you are in the area, want to chill at a strip club with a good selection of dancers, check out Brass Rails instead.

I cant write a comment because of the unpolite bouncers. I’m not from this country and they asked for my passport, the most important document that I have as any ID (I wont carry it every day)… I asked to speak with the manager and the guy said the manager wouldn’t care about such thing so… I think there is no worth to go to a place where the costumer is no important…

It was an unforgettable experience, and not in a good way. I gave it two stars because the girl that attended me was nice, but the place needed and upgrade. WARNING… if you Are told to go down stairs for a dance, the guy will ask for $ 20, but the girls will keep dancing and talking. Then when you leave, the guy will say that it was $ 400 and hour and take you for all you are worth. Bad business. Our group was con for $ 1800. Stay away. The Brass Rail is much better.

Randomly went in w/​the guys didnt stay long then 3^rd night quick fast visit, chatted with a hot down as stripper. she initiated commenting on my cool hair lol. dope! she was so pretty & cool !! an EDM girl !!

How does a group of nice girls end up at Zanzi’s? We were actually here a while back for a drunken bachelorette and our girl who was getting hitched wanted a lap-​dance and we were too lazy/​drunk to make it up to The Brass Rail, so into Zanzibars we went.
The interior set up was kind of like a theatre as they had those movie theatre style seats facing the stage upfront. The servers were wearing white merry widows and looked like backup dancers from a Whitesnake video, not good! But one look at the clientele and I realized that they were only pandering to their custies who also looked as if they were stuck in the 80’s.
Once we got settled in at the tables we got excited as we saw a pretty dancer in the distance. She looked like a skankeriffic version of Mary-​Anne from Gilligan’s Island all decked out in a cute yellow gingham check dress and we thought she’d be a perfect lap-​dance candidate for our naughty bacheloerette. As «Mary-​Anne» got closer we realized she was good from far, but far from good as she had skinny chicken legs, buck toothed chiclet veneers (that glowed eerily bright under black lights!!) and a tragically asymmetric boob job so we quickly averted our glances back to the stage, where sadly the view was not that much better. The quality of the dancers was okay-​ish and definitely made me feel better about embracing cellulite and whatever other flaws we girls get obsessed about. For the most part the performances weren’t anything earth shatteringly sexy as one of the strippers did a number to a Green Day song which in no way conjures up anything rhythmically sensual and the dancing was more akin to Gestapo marching than a sexy bump and grind. Still I give massive kudos to the girls as it must take nerves (or good drugs) to get nekkid in front of the disgustingly nasty, fugly old and raunchy men who conveniently seemed to be developing wet spots in their pants!!!
In the end we found a buxom bleached blond girl who fit the parameters of our bachelorette’s preferences and up they went to the second floor for a private lap-dance…after about twenty minutes our friend came back downstairs beaming with a stupefied grin on her face, so our night of siliconed schtick was indeed a sufficient success!!!

If I had to pick one word to describe my experience at Zanzi, it’d be ‘average’.
Pros:
– Girls were fairly attractive (dancers, waiters, and those who walked around). I wasn’t stunned by any means, but they were nice.
– No cover.
– We went on a late Sunday night and that’s also comedy night. They had a few local stand-​up acts. They weren’t amazing but what do you expect. I found it fun/​funny.
Cons:
– Drinks are pretty steep (around $ 8/​beer) but there’s no cover so they have to make it up somewhere.
– Some of the girls got bitchy/​snooty when we didn’t spend a lot. I don’t know if this was an act or if they were actually upset. But I didn’t let that bother me too much.
– Most of the stage dancers were pretty flat-​chested. They were still attractive but when you go to a strip club you kind of expect a bit more in that department lol. We went on a Sunday so maybe they bring out the A material on Fridays/​Saturdays.
– The interior looks pretty dated.
– The music they had playing wasn’t exactly stripping music. They had rock playing at one point which kinda killed the mood.
So, Sunday night at Zanzi was okay. I’d go back but I don’t expect my mind to be blown away.

Warning: Canadian strippers don’t accept dollar coins — must have been a sad day in the stripping industry when the treasury stopped printing paper dollar bills.
The girls in here are not worth five dollar notes. Sorry.

I don’t remember
much of what took place that night.
Bachelor party.

I am a rare breed. It isn’t often that someone can review a strip club, not for the quality of their women, but for the quality of their food. Yes, that’s right, my name is Neil and I have EATEN at a strip club (hey, I warned you all I was a dumpster diver).
This dates back a number of years to my college days at Ryerson. Upon suggestion of a filthy Polish friend, we decided to venture to the Z for a little bit of somethin’ somethin’ before our next class. Seeing as how we were both hungry, the only logical thing to do (it seemed logical at the time) was to kill two birds with one stone by eating at ‘the rips’.
We both opted for a standard burger and fries; both tasted store bought. It was probably something they picked up at Costco or M&M Meats. But hey, we’re at the rippers, food isn’t exactly their specialty so not sure why I am complaining.
Overall, I gotta give 2 stars for the food, 3 stars for the entertainment (thank you Svetlana).

Some of the girls here are really scary. Like zombie pirate women or something. SCARY STUFF!
Wrinkly waitresses. Streaky polls (Eykgh!). Creepy patrons (ugh I was one of them for 10 minutes of my life).
Don’t get me wrong there were still some nice looking ladies here but every now and again you get chills as you look up to find out the one trying to bring you for a dance is king tuts corpse hovering over your knee. *shivers*
THE BEST PART ABOUT THIS PLACE is the guys at the door! They remind me so much of Bruce Campbell from Spiderman when hes the doorman! Wow! Such awesome guys l0l.

It’s a strip bar kids. It’s loud and obnoxious and totally Yonge street. But it’s not that bad. It’s not like the ones in the far east or the far west, but it’s no For Your Eyes either. The girls are not total amazons, but they’re not lazy either. They will work that stage like acrobats and work the private dances like it’s rent day every day. The shows are totally worth it, and shit, the sign is so loud and over the top that you feel like you just HAVE to go in.