I love this club. There I said it. From its location, (next door to an evangelical church) to its unassuming entrance doors, I love it. One enters Club Paradise and you realize you are in for something different. The bizarre wrought iron stairwell, resplendent with medieval type shields, to nowhere in the foyer is a sure tip-off. You have to be 24 and up to enter Club Paradise. Above the foyer door, a sign reads, "No hats, no jerseys, no tank tops, no gang paraphernalia, no ripped jeans" A smart, strong looking Bartender (Milan) greets me as soon as I enter, the quality of service (and the dancers) is immediately apparent as top notch and I am made instantly welcome. "We try to differentiate ourselves from The House of Lancaster" he says, they have succeeded. Although smaller and a little less slick, Paradise is the choice for the discerning strip club patron at Bloor and Landsdowne. Milan prefers to think of the club as a slightly less expensive alternative to "For Your Eyes Only" or "The Brass Rail", with a full menu with mains at $8, (a basket of fries for $1!) and reasonable drink prices; I think he's right. The dancers are of similar quality to the aforementioned clubs, if not friendlier. Paradise has been operating on the storied Bloor-Landsdowne corner for ten years and the washrooms look like they have not been changed in that time,. Though clean, they could do with an upgrade. Still, I am not there to go to the loo and the modest bar and expansive semi-circular stage makes up for an out of date tile job in the gents. (Full review at stripclubnation.com) read more

Quoted From Toronto Star Article: The buildings at the corner of Bloor St. and St. Helens Ave. are unlikely neighbours. One has clients who worship the flesh, the other has the faithful who worship the lord. Every Wednesday evening, the small congregation at the Bloor Lansdowne Christian Fellowship serves dinner to 100 marginalized and homeless people. Next door, the folks at Club Paradise strip club serve up sexy dances. "They are good neighbours, they keep up with maintenance," says BLCF board member Stephen Mickelson as he stands in front of the two buildings. "Aside from several of their clients urinating at our front door, but their management probably isn't aware of that." When first asked about the interesting contrast with his neighbour, Mickelson replied in an email: "By contrast to our practices and beliefs, namely the exploitation of women, what happens next door to our Church can best be summarized by a quote from Martin Luther, to paraphrase: 'Where Christ builds a church, next door Satan put a temple.'" When asked the same question, the staff at Club Paradise hung up the phone, and when pressed, gave "no comment," as their official comment. In a wood-panelled room, Mickelson, his wife Sophie and a few volunteers are cutting buns for the Wednesday dinner service. The oven is broken and one fan moves the stuffy air around. Mickelson said there is mutual tolerance between Club Paradise and the church, even though values are different. "It's not a show here. We have enough money to pay the bills," Mickelson said of the church."We work through kindness and love. The people who work there, many may have had a hard life." The previous pastor at the congregation used to have a late night café for some of the women who worked next door. The program stopped when the pastor left the position last November. "Thursday nights, we'd open the front doors and some of the girls would walk in for crafts, coffee and tea," Sophie Mickelson said. Some of the dancers have also come in for church services, her husband said. The only reason he knows is because they tell him. "A generation ago, they might have been the exception. Now we're the exception. The Lord's Prayer is not in schools, but this is our heritage. Some people don't know what a church is," Mickelson said. "For where God built a church, there the Devil would also build a chapel...Thus is the Devil ever God's ape." - Marin Luther read more

I'm generally of the position that writing Yelp reviews is for spoiled, angry teens who take pictures of every meal that they eat and then zoom in on the images to try to discern how much they liked it, and why. But people are babies/ all we want to do is complain and I'm certainly not above a good cry session so here is my account of my experience at Club Paradise last night. First off, I'd like to applaud Club Paradise for destroying the House of Lancaster w/r/t both quality and atmosphere. (No T no shade, but the girls at Lancaster seem to be going for that 'slightly above sedated' approach to the trade. Perhaps cocaine should be done in the washroom, and not in the DJ booth mid-song.) The dancers at Club Paradise maintain a level of showmanship that exceeds expectations in a venue that is adjacent to a church. Despite the fact that there were only about 8 patrons in the club, dancers still found the time and energy to work that pole. One woman did an impressive five spins around the pole and landed in the splits, so hats off to her. The reason for my two star rating is simple: ethics. If your customers don't feel as though they were lied to and extorted for cash, they return. If you lie to them and extort them for cash, they don't return and they put your business on blast in a scathing Yelp review. Here's what happened: I approached one of the dancers about a lap dance, and she happily took us into a small private booth near the stage and informed us that the charge was 20 dollars a song. Once we were in the booth, a lot happened. She took her clothes off, and she encouraged us to take our clothes off as well (but nothing below the waist). Now, for all intents and purposes here I should state that my boyfriend and I are both 10s. We wake up 10s and we go to bed 10s. I'm not being an asshole. I'm just stating facts. This dancer was not having a bad time. So anyway, we stayed in the booth for three songs. My boobs were out, hers were out, it was a party. Then we put our clothes back on and grabbed our wallets, happy to pay for the experience. She tells us to give her two hundred dollars. Two hundred! If we were sticking to the price originally agreed upon, two hundred dollars is ten songs. Not three songs. I get the urge to swindle two young kids looking for a transgressive experience that they can tell their friends about, but two hundred dollars?????? Everyone is a loser in this situation. It just felt terrible to be robbed like that. We were surprised and super uncomfortable -- and she didn't seem all that happy to be doing it to us, either. There's no arguing with a stripper, so now we're out two hundred dollars and I'm not happy about that. This would have been a place that we'd returned to if the party hadn't been ruined by lies and greed. A Paradise you are not, Club Paradise. A Paradise you are not. read more

Solid spot. Sexy brunette made my night. Now one of only a few left in Toronto, as they all began shutting down this year.

I wish i read the "not recommended Reviews" down below before going here because it might of steered me clear. I never Yelp or blog about any place ive been to because i usually think they come across whiny and objective, but after an hour at club paradise and reading the reviews below I thought i should share my experience as well, and hopefully prevent someone else from getting taken for a bunch of cash. - So you usually know each song is $20 and then you multiply by the amount of songs you were in the private booth.....I thought i got 3 songs/dances... we got in the booth during a song and then she started dancing at the beginning of the next song. After the 3rd song she stopped dancing, so i assumed that was that and reached for my wallet, but then she sat on the other side of my lap her back to the exit and started to ask me generic stuff ,music taste, favorite colour that type of thing, stalling and preventing me from getting up... it was when i finally asked her what i owed her that she said $300! My stomach dropped and thats when I knew id been had. I told her i didnt have that kind of cash on me and wasnt prepared to spend that or anywhere near that...so i gave her the $60 i thought i owed her. She then called a few guys over and before i knew it the manager and every guy who works in there are yelling and threatening me with a hospital visit if i dont leave my phone and belongings with them. They even looked at my license and said they now knew where i lived and they could always have someone pay me a visit. I offered to pay $100 just to get out of there, but they were only going to be satisfied with the $300 plus an additional $35 fee/tax Definitely one of the scarier situations i've ever been in, Im glad i got out but it cost me $$$$ Stay away read more

Avoid this club at all costs, unless you want to get extorted like I was. I was approached by a dancer for some private sessions and agreed. We agreed up front to two songs at $20/song, totalling $40. And I literally told her that was all I could afford as I had no extra cash on me and my debit card was in my car. Once in the booth, the song was finishing up - she told me that didn't count. Makes perfect sense. I paid her $40 in advance and when the next song came on, she said we'll start now, to which I said of course. During the course of the dances, she pulled out some blow and asked if I wanted to party. I said no thanks. Just at that moment a server came in, and the dancer *offered* to buy drinks. She ordered the drinks, not me. She ordered herself a vodka and a cranberry chaser, and ordered me a whiskey. I said nothing. She also offered me oral sex, which I declined. The two songs were over and I said I had to go, as I was also with friends who were waiting for me back in the main room. The drinks came. She downed hers and threw mine more or less in my face. I tried standing up but she held herself on me. I told her I was done as I couldn't afford anything more. She kept offering me oral sex and then started complaining that she didn't know why the waitress was charging her for drinks since she didn't order any (the glasses were sitting fucking inches away from her). It became clear that she was going to stiff me with the bill. A cheap move but I guess you can't expect much better from these types of girls. I tell the waitress that I'll have to get my debit card from my car and take out cash at the ATM. This entire ordeal took place in the private booth which, little did I know, apparently was silently tacking on the time the room was charging me for, even though I was trying to leave. I got up and the dancer was telling me again she didn't understand why she was being charged. She started asking me for an extra $20 since she spent that entire song arguing with the server about the drinks. I said no, that's not what we agreed to and I've been trying to leave this whole time. She then put her arm across the exit and kept me from leaving, arguing more. I didn't physically move her - I'll come back to this in a minute. After trying to reason with her a bit more and telling her I was done, and asking for her to let me leave, I told her she was making me very uncomfortable now. She feigned offense to this and continued blocking my exit. I kept my hands off her, but tried moving around her, with her adjusting her position and keeping me blocked in the whole time. Eventually another server (with whom I'd had a few good conversations earlier in the evening) came by asking for the update on the bill, and I asked her for help. When that happened the stripper finally let me leave the booth. By that point, from the last dance we agreed to ending to me getting out of the booth, another 10-15 minutes or so had passed. I spoke with the bouncer and then eventually the manager, explaining how I felt I was being extorted based on what happened. They both maintained that legally I owed them for the amount of time I was in the booth (explaining why she forced me to stay in there so long). This is where I come back to not physically moving her aside. When I told them how she was keeping me in there, they laughed at me. "That's just not believable, look at how small she is" they said. Meanwhile this girl was now telling them *I* ordered the drinks (which I hadn't), that she didn't even drink anything (which she had), and that I owed her an extra bunch of money that we never agreed to, based on time she kept me from leaving. I knew that if I *had* tried to physically move her, she'd have had no problem also accusing me of assault. Either way, the staff are going to take her word over mine, so when I told them how she was keeping me in there against my will and they laughed at me, I knew they were in on the scam. When I spoke with the manager to relay the story, I offered to pay for the drinks as a gesture of good faith because I didn't want to cause any problems, but that I didn't feel it was fair for me to pay anything more for the time spent in the booth considering the majority of it was her keeping me in there while arguing over what I owed her (while secretly racking up the tab). One of the friends I was there with came in and paid for the drinks (he was eager to leave and extremely drunk), but then started shouting at me overtop of the manager shouting at me and the dancer shouting at me, all shouting different things, none of which I could hear. I was trying to ask the manager if we were square while trying to ask my friend to be quiet so I could hear the manager, and then the manager threatened to take me into the back room and "take everything" from me. I feared for my safety and wondered how many others they did this to who weren't so lucky to get out of their without a scratch. Stay away. read more

This place is pure garbage. Very rude ladies that dance there. The door staff think that they have the right to rough up customers if you get dances and they think you don't pay the lady.I used to do security for a different strip club and I would have customers come saying how bad the club is they all would say the same thing rude dancers door staff that think they are high and mighty. read more

Recently my roommate and I were visiting the Toronto area looking at vehicles and decided (thanks to the yellow pages) to stop at Club Paradise. At first we were impressed with how friendly the staff was. Then, we stayed for 2 hrs and not a single dancer approached us. After saying something to waitress, the girls finally started coming over and the night took a turn for the better. My roommate, near the end of the night, decided to go for a dance with this dancer in this cute little black and florescent green, orange and yellow outfit. This dancer danced for 2 songs and my roommate proceeded to ask if she was don't so he could pay her but she never did. After what he thought was 8 songs, but I counted because I was sober, it was actually 13 songs, the dancer charged him 400 for her so called over 20 songs. She then proceeded to tell the manager that he tried to leave the bar when all he did is come over to where I was sitting to tell me he was ready to go and to go get the car while he paid the dancer. After I left the bouncer came over and grabbed him by his neck, the forced him to pay 400 more dollars after he already gave the dancer 200 and then pushed him in a back room off of security camera and tossed him against the wall and proceeded to elbow him in the chest area. After I waited for a half hour in the car he finally came out with some minor scrapes and a sore neck. This morning he has all kinds of bruising and a swollen neck. All because they thought he was going to leave, even though he had already paid the dancer! We have contacted the police and plan on taking legal action im just posting this so no one else makes this mistake! We are not from Toronto, we are from a small town 3 hrs away and I will probably never visit any kind of club in Toronto ever again due to this experience. Consumer beware! read more