Zac Efron’s recent guys’ night out at a strip club didn’t exactly exceed his expectations.

“I had this image of what it would be like. I’ve heard a lot about these places, mostly from rap music. So I envisioned myself on a nice couch, stunna shades, with like T-Pain and Usher, you know, making it rain money,” he said Wednesday on Jimmy Kimmel Live. “And it just wasn’t like that.”

Instead, he was just like any other patron at Flashdancers Gentlemen’s Club in N.Y.C. over the weekend. With “High School Musical” costar Corbin Bleu and another pal in tow, the group stayed for four hours getting bottle service and lap dances. “They were nice kids. They seemed to have fun,” a source tells PEOPLE.

But before he was able to head to the club, Efron, 22, had important business to take care of first: calling girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens.

“That’s the awkward part. It’s like how do you even start that conversation without feeling like a total [expletive]?” he told Kimmel. “[But] she was fine with it, yeah.”

Clarifying reports that the group dropped $2,000 on dancers, the “Charlie St. Cloud” star says, “No, no, not at all … I don’t remember. I don’t think I opened my wallet.”

“I’m cutting back right now – I’m trying to keep it between three and four nights a week,” he joked, before adding he’s “not really the type of guy that does that kind of thing often.” [Source]