Karaoke Cave

Don’t come here if you actually want to sing. No matter how empty the place is when you arrive and how well you tip, the bartenders will ignore your song selections and let the same group of people sing over and over and over again for hours on end. And reading the other reviews on here, this is apparently a common experience.
I used to go to Sing Sing weekly with a group of friends, but we’ve all been too busy lately and our schedules didn’t sync up. We finally managed to plan a karaōke night tonight, but Sing Sing gets packed on Saturday nights, and if you don’t show up before 9, there’s a chance there will be a 1.5+ hour queue of songs in front of you. One of my friends suggested this place and said the wait was much shorter, so we decided to check it out.
We arrived just before 10, and there were maybe a dozen people in the bar area. You can reserve a private room, or sing at the bar. We always opt for the bar, because we like having an audience. You get one song ticket per drink, so we ordered a round and started submitting songs.
An hour after putting in our first round of songs, none of ours had played — while people in other groups were going on song number 2 or 3. At first, we figured it was possible they had queued up 2 or 3 songs before we arrived, so we patiently waited for our turn.
But when people who arrived AFTER us got up to sing, while we were still waiting for even one of our songs to play, it became obvious that the bartenders weren’t even entering our songs into the system, or were intentionally pushing them back. Why, I can’t even begin to guess. When I calmly asked to check on the status of my songs (by that point, one of my friend who arrived 20 minutes late had his song up next, while I was still waiting indefinitely on my first song, which I submitted before he even arrived), the bartender promised me my song was #6 in the queue. 10 songs later, and I was still waiting. When I realized three hours had passed, and I was still waiting with no end in sight, I got fed up with being ignored and lied to and left.
I rarely ever leave Unilocal reviews, but this is among the worst service I have ever experienced. We are definitely never coming back here, and I will encourage all of my other friends to go avoid this place as well. I wasted 3 hours of my life here and have only frustration and anger to show for it. I’ll take the wait at Sing Sing any day over the blatant favoritism and disrespect by the staff here. Sing Sing will at least play everything in the order it’s submitted, without bias — I might have to wait there, but I know my songs will come up eventually.

Love the vibe, food, and staff.
The food here is much higher quality than, and different from, what you’d expect from a karaōke joint because it comes from the restaurant upstairs. The truffle fries are always a crowd pleaser. Love the shrimp beignets. The goat cheese fritters have a lighter taste than you’d expect from ghost cheese.
Great happy hour prices. When you’re in a group you don’t have to go through the hassle of splitting the bill — everyone orders their own food and drink at the bar.
The staff are cool and make good drinks at a fast pace.
Friday nights are pretty packed, with shorter wait times for songs on other weeknights.

Got a really good deal when I checked in on Unilocal and drank pretty cheaply all night. When we walked down into this room the vibe was fun and I liked the way people moved around and got everyone involved when they sang. But it soon became clear that it was the same two people trading off the Mic and after two hours of waiting for our song and the second time hearing Walking in Memphis we decided to leave. Don’t go here if you have any hope singing.

I’ve been a patron at this place well over a year, and i have to say I LOVE this place. I am happy to list all the reasons why:
1-​Staff: When you’re good to the staff, they are REALLY good to you. They are always so friendly and nice and do a great job at making you feel welcome and taken care of. Of course, on some busier nights, their attention goes elsewhere, but isn’t that the case with every bar in NYC on a Friday/​Saturday night?
2-​The other regulars who come here are part of a wonderful community of karaōke enthusiasts. They will never judge you, boo you, or make you regret your choice.
3-​drinks/​food: A bit pricey and a bit out of touch. It mimics the food that is upstairs, which is a swanky French joint. The downstairs should have it’s own menu with more bar-​esque food (WINGS) and more affordable options. Other than that, the beer/​drinks are essentially NYC prices.
4-​Song Choice: They have a pretty surprising and eclectic list of songs. Sometimes there’s a long wait on the weekends between songs (1 hour at times!) but again, it’s what to expect in NYC on a weekend. Come on one of the off days (Sun-​Wed) and it gets much better!
Pros: Great atmosphere, great vibe, great staff, and great karaōke listing.
Cons: Not a good place to grab a bite.

I come here often and am always given exceptional service. The staff are incredibly patient given the nature of their surroundings. What people (patrons) need to understand is that song traffic fluctuates drastically and as a result, so does wait time. Acting like an asshole and constantly hassling the bartenders rarely yields results. If you visit on Fri/​Sat, expect a long queue, if you want a more low key experience, come on a week night. Bonne chanson!

If I was judging this on karaōke selection alone my review would be a 5 star. Lots of songs and overall good singing environment. However this review is for the bartender (maybe manager?) who’s life calling really seems to be some sort of super hero. I mean, he will stop at nothing to be sure that people aren’t swindling the bar out of free karaōke songs. It’s a shame his crime fighting skills are going to waste in a role as a douchey bartender. I suspect he knows it, which may explains the bad attitude and bitterness.
I went here last night with a bunch of friends and we were really excited to spend our night here and buy many drinks to get lots of tickets for some karaōke. I bought 5 drinks for my friends and put it all on my card, which I then closed (we were switching off buying rounds for each other). The other bartender messed up my order (and didn’t make the best drinks overall) but I took what she made us and tipped her, appreciative of the multiple drinks she just made. Several of us put in songs and we waited patiently for our turn, singing along with everyone and having a great time. The female bartender who made the drinks didn’t seem to completely have her head in the game and I had a sneaking suspicion that the songs we gave her weren’t put into the rotation like they should have been. After about an hour of waiting I went up to ask about it and saw that they keep a lineup of songs on one of their computer screens. Unfortunately, though not surprisingly, the song my boyfriend and I put in when we first arrived wasn’t on there. I said something to super hero karaōke crime fighter bartender, cleverly disguised as your typically douche in a tight-​shirt with crispy gelled hair and explained the situation. He offered to put in my request and switch it with another song that I had put in so that the initial request would play instead, which may sound nice but I when you are buying drinks for tickets I wanted to get what I paid for and it was the bars mistake for losing it. I explained that I wanted the ticket I had already paid for and he stared at me, smacking his gum and giving me a nasty look as though I was trying to pull one over on him. Seriously, he’s looking out for everyone’s safety by making sure nobody is trying to rip him off and get a free karaōke song! He gave me another ticket and my bf and I tried to explain that we had been waiting and since it was their mistake could they please put the song further up. Now I recognize it’s karaōke and sometimes you don’t get to sing your song. But when you are spending money and the staff is making mistakes and refusing to acknowledge that, it’s frustrating. The bartender was self-​important and clearly wanted to flex some of those muscles that he was already trying to show off in his too-​tight shirt, so he antagonized us and made the situation worse. My boyfriend (who at that point opened a tab of his own) asked to close his because he was annoyed at the service. The bartender had the audacity to say «well since I just gave you another ticket I find it interesting that you only bought one drink» CAN’T GET ANYTHING PAST THIS GUY! DON’T EVEN TRY! He’s seen all the karaōke swindlers and knows what you are up to. However given the fact that I had already paid $ 60 for shitty drinks I was pretty angry and tried to explain that we had been there for a while and the tickets were from MY tab. But this dick just wanted to escalate things so that he could feel like he’s really doing something important. And my boyfriend and I definitely could have handled ourselves better but having both had some service experience as well as had been spending our money here we hoped someone might listen and be accountable rather than talk down to us. Oh and **I see that the owner does investigate and comment on some bad reviews. Please spare me that and any explanation that your staff doesn’t like to fight or that it’s an issue because my party was drunk. Your bartender’s attitude was atrocious. We were already upset and then he had to bull that BS about «giving us an extra ticket» to try and throw something in our face and make the situation worse. If he just wanted us to calm down or have us leave he would have stopped talking shit to us. He clearly likes to antagonize and then ask people to leave so that he can feel tough. The security guard even had no respect for him. It’s unfortunate because we were really hoping to have a good time.**
Bottom line, if you want a bartender who is going to ensure that he and his staff get your orders right and you know, provide customer service in a service establishment, this may not be the place for you. BUT if you are looking for a Dark Knight who is going to keep you safe from people trying to cheat this city out of free karaōke songs then this is the spot for you.

We had our work holiday party at karaōke cave this year and it was a big success thanks to the staff’s helpfulness and the great space. We reserved the large room and enjoyed the 2 hours in there as well as the time we spent in the general bar area after our reservation was done.
Thanks a lot for a great time!

I went here for a friend’s birthday and this place was pretty disappointing. While there were clean bathrooms (always a plus) and the drinks were good, if you actually want to sing karaōke, be prepared to wait 2+ hours as others have said for your song in the queue, while the same 3 – 4 people sing over and over and over again. It gets really old after a while. I noticed that whoever was running the queue kept bumping up the bartenders’ picks or others people’s, and I felt myself going from «This is fun!» to «Fuck this shit, I’m never coming here again.»
I will say that the bartenders were friendly and one even gave me an extra song (you have to purchase a drink, alcoholic or non-​alcoholic, per song), but even though someone handed me their extra song tickets as they had to leave early, I didn’t bother using them since the wait was so long. I wasn’t about to stay an extra two hours just to sing.
At one point, as the crowd thinned, one of the bartenders came around and asked us to give him our names so he could bump up our songs. It was a nice gesture, but too little too late, really. The organization here is a total mess.
Plus, the sound system is TERRIBLE. The music is way too loud to properly hear the performers, and I could barely hear myself over the backing audio even though I was projecting. This likely won’t bother people who don’t do karaōke often, but if you genuinely appreciate good sound quality, it’ll bug you.

This place has committed the cardinal sin of karaōke. They don’t respect the list. Avoid at all costs.

Went here last night with my wife …
Crowd was awesome and entertaining to say the least.
No cover = big win.
Reasonable drink pricing = win.
Love the no stage aspect. Took away the «everyone is watching me» fears that many experience.
Not sure why some people struggle to find it … Funny thing about reading the two signs right outside.
Song list was extensive and covered a broad scope.
Definitely a lot of «regulars» but they made it great.
Will absolutely go back soon.

I love karaōke, but it’s infinitely more enjoyable in a private booth with friends than out in a bar where you have to listen to randos and compete with them for spots on the queue. The bar experience at Karaōke Cave doesn’t compare to other places’ booth experiences or the bar experiences I’ve had at several other places in NYC and DC.
I submitted a song on a Saturday night a bit after 8pm and it took over two hours for my selection to come up. It wasn’t that there was initially a long line, but people kept on booting my song back by tipping more. There’s no way to know just how far back you are (beyond the two songs listed on the screens) unless you literally stand right at the bar and squint at the input screen by the register and hope it’s actually on the song queue as opposed to at another window or something else is obstructing it. In retrospect I should’ve just paid more to have an actual karaōke experience instead of that two-​hour wait; since when did waiting on line your song choice become like waiting to ride a Six Flags roller coaster? Sheesh.
How do you submit songs? Good question. At first I heard that to submit songs you need a ticket; you can only one from buying a drink (the highlight of this place is that you can get a Bud Light with a free ticket for $ 5). My friend heard that you can buy tickets for $ 2. When telling two different bartenders I wanted the ticket alone (no drink) to sing a song, neither one said this was possible. Did anyone just say that I didn’t have to buy a ticket and could just submit as a song as-​is (subject of course to the queue based on my tip)? Nope.
There was also horrible sound quality. At first I thought there were consecutive bad singers, but then I realized it was the speakers’ and not the performers’ fault. The singers’ voices were muffled by poor sound quality, and then drowned out by the overly loud music. You could barely hear even the best and the loudest of singers. Additionally since there’s no stage, you have to make sure you don’t bump into others as they pass by you.
I went there in November, but none of their books had been updated since March. This includes a surprising lack of recent additions at the back of the books, which I find standard at other places. Of course they could be present on the app, but I only discovered the app’s existence when I glanced at a small sign by the door while leaving the place. Either which way, 99% of people there would only check out the books, and so there would be eight months of music they would have zero access to.
I will not be returning to Karaōke Cave. If you’re looking for a more enjoyable bar karaōke experience, go to Pulse — you get a shorter wait time, a more prominently displayed song queue, better sound quality, and a more frequently updated song collection. Naturally the Cave’s booth section could be a better experience, but I’m not taking my chances.

It’s a shame that I’m writing a bad review about this place because the restaurant & service upstairs is great. However at the karaōke cave I’ve had the misfortune of dealing with the same bartender/​server (Kourtney) twice, and although I tried not to hold her bad service against her (b/​c we all have our days), I literally cannot tolerate dealing with her one more time. I don’t see myself coming back here just because of her.
Forgetful about everything, including the cutlery that I asked for twice, which in my opinion should have come out as soon as the food did, if not beforehand. She was constantly on her phone, negligent of her customers. And even worse, she was visibly irritated upon being asked for anything. Wether it be for napkins, ketchup, cutlery, a glass of water, or another drink.
After spending a good amount of money on food and several drinks later, I asked her for some karaōke tickets. Which she then proceeded to tell me that I would need to buy more drinks in order to sing a song.
First off, she forgot to give me the karaōke tickets for the previous drinks I ordered, and now she’s telling me I have to order more?! Plus, on the ticket it clearly states that a karaōke song is $ 1, not the price of a drink. What kind of a scam is she trying to run here?! Girl, Bye.
P. s. I am a bartender and waitress with many years of hospitality & customer service under my belt. Kourtney, you are a sad excuse for a bartender/​server. If you hate your job so much, do everyone a favor and look for a new one.

I’ve been to Karaōke Cave several times now and never wrote a review about it. I truly do love this establishment and it deserves some praise on Unilocal,in my opinion. Never before have I loved a public karaōke bar, save for Karaōke Cave.
The bartenders are lovely, kind folks. I can’t speak for the food, but the happy hour specials are nice and cheap. It’s basic stuff, but it is well worth it. The way it works is if you buy a drink, you get a song. The more drinks you buy, the more you can sing. If you’d prefer to not drink, you can offer them a dollar per song and that works too.
The ambience is really cool. It’s dark, with plenty of room to sit and dance. Every time I’ve gone here the groups of people that are there are really into it. I mean, people are dancing and stomping up a storm. If you’re not into singing, it’s a hell of a lot of fun to watch!
I’m certainly considering renting the space to celebrate my own birthday here. I’m sad this establishment only has three stars, because unlike some other public karaōke bars in the city, this one has great service and great fun. Check it out, you won’t regret it. And tip those bartenders! They are super nice!

For every drink you buy, you get a free song to sing. It is a fun place and very intimate. If you’re worried about singing in public, this is a great place to be, as the crowd won’t judge. They are rather encouraging.

40^th bday group and we popped in on a Saturday night over Mem Day wkend. Pretty psyched because it didn’t appear busy. The bar staff was very attentive but the drinks were expensive for what I consider a «dive» bar. $ 12 for gin (my drink) but no cover and you get a song with each drink. The rotation was long and the staff kept letting the regulars (who were RUDE) sing song after song until we asked to be bumped up. I mean dude, I know this is your neighborhood joint and all, but let’s be fair in love and karaōke. After all, we had already spent about $ 75 in booze between the 8 of us.
In retrospect, I would have booked a private room in Ktown for $ 80 and went BYOB.

I wanted to say that the owner was kind enough to investigate that matter and comment on my review. He was very nice and professional about it. He was also right in that I was not double charged for my order, it was a misunderstanding on my part. So I will give credit were its due.
Unfortunately, his staff completely flat out lied when telling their «version» of the events, which upsets me greatly, but what can you do, they clearly needed to cover their own butts.
It really can be a fun place, if your lucky enough to go at the right time.
Had the staff at this place, been as respectful and responsive as the owner, the night would have ended in a much happier note for everyone.

Had a fun time at this place! It’s in a basement and has a very casual divey feel compared to other karoake spots I’ve been to. They have a great selection of drinks and songs. I rarely do karoake but i’ll luv to come back here again.

1 drink = 1 song, or you can pay $ 1 per song. DEAL. I was impressed by the huge broad song selection too, there’s something for everyone here, from show tunes to 80s goth to metal to 70s classic rock to 90s «gangsta» rap to dumb contemporary pop if that’s your thing. The ONLY reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is because I like to sing «Rainbow Connection» in a Kermit the Frog voice and they didn’t have that, but I’m probably the only person on earth who would make that complaint.
Depending on how busy it is you may have to wait a bit to sing, but I remember the days when bars had these things nobody has heard of today called «Juke Boxes» where you pay money to hear a song, and sometimes it takes awhile for your song to come on because hey, other people put in songs too, so get in line! Nobody freaked out about it back then, and that’s how it is at every karaōke bar in the city if you don’t get a private room.
What’s great about this place is it’s not slammed like the typical K-​town places, it does get busy but you don’t have to wait long for drinks, and you can usually find a place to sit and hear your friends when your song isn’t up. Anyway, I got hammered for cheap because of the reasonable drink prices, made a fool out of myself messing up songs, didn’t spend a lot of $ and went home happy which is what you want out of a karaōke place, right? If you get hungry though make sure and order bar food early though as it comes from the restaurant upstairs and they close earlier than the bar.

I like to be fair. Like I said in my previous review, I’ve had great times at this place before, which is why I left 2 stars. I decided to give it another shot last Thursday, this time with a completely new crowd– my coworkers. We arrived at around 5:30, since we work near and the place was empty. I warned everyone that it might be, but that only meant we had the place to ourselves! We all had a great time! There seems to be new staff? They were great and best of all FAIR.
After our holiday party yesterday, again I suggested this place (to a new crowd). They agreed and had a blast. Same bartender as last Thursday, who was great. I wish I would have gotten your name! We were a group of about 20? There was noone else there for about an hour. But after people showed up, they were FAIR and incorporated their songs with ours. I want to say we a chance to sing, with no complaints. Four stars for the new staff, and quick attentive service.
I like to give credit where credit is due.

Had a «best of all worlds night» last Friday night! You know the kind that I mean, where everything just works out?
That’s the night it was.
I had: 4 friends visit from San Fran, 1 friend celebrating a birthday and 1 friend who FINALLY got a night off from work.
This spot is mostly an NYU scene peppered with specks of drunk adults/​grad students from the area. The floor is sticky and the bathroom is broken and there are I think 3 – 4 rooms in the back for private parties but the main bar area is where you want to be. Just pick a song, wait your turn and you can sing your heart out in true public American Idol style.
It took forever for our songs to come on but when it did we had so much fun!
Now word to the wise: during the night there will be drunk college and post college students all over the place. IE one massively drunk overweight gay man that sang EXACTLY like Madonna (ITS WAS EPIC!!!). … Vogue-​ing and everything. BUT! There’s comes a part of the night where I guess the THEATER Majors come out. Then your happy moment in the spot light get heightened to the fact you song like a deaf-​toned duck squaking into the already bad mic next to the beauty of their trained voices!
No shame!