The Club Room at The Clyde — Restaurant in Fort Wayne

My wife and I decided to try The Club Room at The Clyde for dinner with another couple, and it was a huge mistake.

We had reservations for four and arrived at around 6:00pm. I expected an actual dining table but we were taken to a tall table (meant for two) as far away from the stage as possible. The table was seriously undersized for four people eating dinner. Our water glasses and drinks were piled in the middle, touching each other! The menu's were very limited and the they weren't the same. Some had different specials and prices?😒 They were also different from what was online. We ordered appetizers salads and a main course. The appetizers arrived quickly but the main course was delivered shortly thereafter.

We didn't receive the salads yet and there wasn't room on the table. We told the food runners that we didn't receive the salads yet but they just shrugged their shoulders and piled the food on our cramped table. I told them that we need our salads before they bring our hot food out and they just said the 'salads are on the way' and quickly fled. I was kinda mad that they were ignoring me and they didn't see anything wrong with what they were doing. Our server then stopped by for the obligatory check. We told him that the salads never arrived and he asked if we wanted to talk to the manager. The manager then stopped by and asked if we'd like a discount rather than the salads. We said ok, considering our food was cold by now and we didn't have room on the table anyway. We all had overdone dry meat on our plates and the meals were cold. The bills arrived and only one meal was discounted.

There seemed to be plenty of people working and the place was 75% empty when we arrived. It did start to get busy about 40 minutes into our night and they seated people at tables all around us. The tables were very close to each other. Peoples chairs hit our backs as they sat down.

The whole experience seemed like a money grab; ridiculously expensive yet cheap tasting food, a tiny menu, seats packed together, a rushed meal, and poor service.

The atmosphere was ok...kind of industrial and stylish. There was no live music when we were there. Apparently it didn't start until 8pm and we weren't about to spend any more time or money there. They had loud music playing over the speakers and huge screens playing videos of concerts (the audio and video didn't match 😂) I could go on and on about how much the place sucked because we spent the rest of the night talking about how...

I like the vibe of this place. The art and low light atmosphere is the perfect setting to experience a good time here. The waitress was friendly polite & fun. Drinks were phenomenal, complex, and creative... the signature cocktails are focused on gourmet flavor rather than sheer DUI level of overproof power. I recommend the Old Fashioned or straight up liquor for that.

HOWEVER there are 2 major flaws that this place of potential suffered from on my visit.

The "band" & the FOOD... yikes.

The band (The Pinch-Hitters?) seemed exactly that... they were called upon to play jazz, in a pinch. A trio of 2 guitarists and a drummer. No sax, no piano, no cello/bass. That's a tall order for a proper jazz band. I'm pretty sure the band plays a series of different genres, and jazz was on the list of what they are "capable of". They were decent skill-wise... but with so many instruments missing, it was like listening to a concert with only 1 earphone in your ear. I'm from Chicago, the birthplace of jazz, so I like my Coltrane played with ALL the tools.

THE FOOD. I ordered the waygu burger. If you are a beef purist then you know it's a borderline sin to take the literal holy grail of beef and put it into a burger. The only exception is if it is cooked to perfection (med rare) and placed on a throne of premium burger ingredients. The cooks clearly set the flame to HELLFIRE & brimstone. That burger was cooked with Satan laughing in the background. [Waygu is high class kobe beef where specially select Japanese cows are massaged daily to keep the meat tender while the cow is alive. They are fed a special diet of apples & beer to keep the mood & flavor of the cow at a legendary status. The meat is so tender & delicious, it tastes like the tears of 1000 angels]. But not here... Chef Lucifer (clearly armed with napalm & volcanic ash) decided to blow torch the meat to death. The so-called waygu burger meat was crunchy & drier than a camel fart in the desert. Royal chefs have been killed for less... what that chef did to that burger can be defined as treason. That burger was clearly cooked by a pyromanic with nothing to lose. Admittedly, I'm alil harsh, nonetheless wagyu carries a high expectation that can't be trifled with. Overcooking it disrespects all the efforts that gave it its revered name.

Other than those issues, I had a great time overall. I will be returning after I finish grieving the loss of that dishonored kobe cow, and will hope for a proper...

Updated review: I was afforded an opportunity to return to the Club Room. We enjoyed the All Stars on a Saturday night! I really enjoyed the band! I feel like the price of the food for the cost of a great show is worth it! On the return trip our service was better. We were provided with water and napkins without asking! Our food was wonderful, the pulled pork sliders had great toasted buns with a good balance of the meat and slaw! Fries tasted great. The Ribs were excellent as well.

My review is based on 2 visits. One at Lunch and one on a Saturday night with a reservation. Visit 1 was for lunch, service was great! Food was so so, I notice everything here is served on Ciabatta rolls. Not good for tenderloins, Cubans or burgers. Please consider this. I ordered the Cuban, had to eat with a fork, it fell apart with my 1st bite. It lacked in flavor and was piled too high with pulled pork. Fries were undercooked. I booked a reservation with just one day notice, I was informed we may sit away from the main area, I agreed to that, it seemed fine. We were seated in the lobby of the main stage... literally the lobby. Playoff football was on, the TVS were blank, no band or otherwise on them, just a big room with absolutely no character.... it was very weird. There were others there who were being seated at tiny tables, no where to sit comfortably. People were requesting tables, you cant even sit at these tiny tables and put a purse or jacket anywhere... lucky enough to get a table. Service this night was atrocious. Our server took the drink and food orders and a runner dropped both off in a timely manner. Drink (HQ) was GREAT, nice and strong! We ordered pizza, and 2 orders of wings and fries. They brought the pizza, had to ask for plates, the runner moved so fast I didn't realize we had no napkins, no waters.... just our drinks that were pretty much empty. So I ate 5 of my 8 wings, 3 were undercooked terribly, with no napkin, no water... had to swallow ice from my melting drink to wash down pizza and wings and use a cocktail napkin to clean my hands after wings. Pizza was great, fries were better at this visit... again needed basics but never saw a server again until it was time to pay. Disappointed in this experience, they do a good job at making you feel like a outsider sitting in the lobby! I REALLY want to go back. Its a beautiful place, just need better server training and maybe more...