Did check out darling cabaret, or the sauna club, unfortunately. Wish I had. Heard they were full of sharks and pricey, but this was years ago. I could be remembering wrong.
Showplace was fine. Probably your best bet for "value" if I was to guess, but again, I didn't go to the other places you mentioned. Hit Showplace, a privat, and an agency that's now defunct (met a pornstar though, so that was amazing).