U2 Karaoke

I’ve been going on and off to Sing Sing and it always satiates my karaōke needs. They have friendly and attentive service and you never know when a party may erupt. My preference is Thursday night, but any night might rock. I’ve been to Sing Sing at least 100 times in the last 4 and half years and I love karaoking with mostly strangers and fellow Sing Sing patrons that I became friendly with over the last number of years.

Located in one of the most convenient places is U2 Karaōke, one of the worst Karaōke places ever. My friends and I always end up here because it’s in East Village. U2 has horrible service. They do not know how to deal with people and obviously plays favorites. Once I came and was charged for a bunch of people that came in only to say «hi» and did not even sing. They also did not let people who were 21 drink alcohol just because some people in the room were under 21. The rooms are small and ugly. You choose songs from this 500 page book that’s more confusing and anything you will ever encounter. There are barely any music videos; it’s mostly just words on a blank screen. And singing score is totally whack. Worst of all it’s not cheap.

Pros:
1. They have lots of rooms.
Cons:
1. Pricey — they say it’s $ 8/​hour which seems okay, but then later when you get the bill, when the tax and **Pre-​included** tip add up, it’s a lot.
2. If you go in speaking English, they hook you up to the American karaōke songs. I mean, English is my primary language, but my friends and I still speak Korean and sing Korean songs. We had to call them in again and ask them to change it to Korean. I don’t like the assuming.
3. The staff was kind of unfriendly. I had to ask for water like 5 times before I got anything.
K-​town has a lot more cheaper karaokes and better service.

Second time visiting. Thought the first time was better because I didn’t have to pay! This time, we had a birthday celebration for the wife. I had booked a 10:30 reservation for 12 on a Saturday nite but after some cancellations from our original party, we had only 6 and arrived almost 45mins later. They still accommodated us with no problems. I didn’t know how busy they were. We got a small room for 6 people. The selection of songs are quite huge. They pretty much had every popular song that I can think of including Chinese and Spanish songs! The drink selection isn’t much but we ordered two rounds of beers. The only strange thing was that one of the waiters/​workers came in randomly twice during our singing session to check on some stuff but other than that, we had a good time.
I’m not much into karaōke but the wife wanted it so I did it. I got bored after an hour or so. We stayed for 2 hrs. I think it’s better when you have a larger group but I still had fun. The prices are decent, place is clean and people working there are friendly. The place from the outside is a bit hidden as I almost passed it walking on St. Marks. It’s right next to a Tofu Korean type restaurant. It probably will be a while before I have an urge (if even that) for another nite of Karaōke singing!

I love this place! They have all the new songs Plus BYOB! It was a perfect place for my b-​day party.
Drinks are relatively cheap and staff are friednly!
Definitely will come back in the future!

We went here last night because we heard about the 8 dollar per person per hour price, which is good as shit, right?
Song selection in English was great, but I was surprised there were not any Japanese, Chinese or Korean songs. There was like 4 spanish songs. Kinda weird considering the diversity among karaōke goers.
When we went to pay, each person wants to cover their own share, and most of us have card only because hi, it is easier to cut off a card and file a dispute than it is to recover stolen cash (THATS MY PURSE I DONT KNOW YOU)
Dude was all: ONLY 2 CREDIT CARDS CAN BE USED PER CHECK, STORE POLICY
oh really?
–because he didnt fill us in on that policy when he went over a laundry list of how their pricing is and how the rooms work
–no signs were displayed either, anywhere
–also they dont have flavored soju cocktails so they suck for that anyways, because wtf kind of noraebang doesnt have that? I have been spoiled by the better ones I have been to, this place was such a letdown.

We had sooo much fun here on Black Friday, that I feel bad that I waited more than a month to post this review! Alas, here I am!
Price: Great!
Atmosphere: Amazing
Equipment: So-​So
Song Selection: Cool. They could expand to a newer selection! But, it seems that they do try to.
Staff: Nice and helpful!
Will come back here in the future!

I am a singing (and rapping, as it turns out) fool. Therefore, I love karaōke.
In theory, U2 Karaōke is perfect. Clean rooms, great song selection, filtered mics that make your voice sound professional and clear.
The downside? On a Saturday afternoon, after singing (and rapping, as it turns out) with the husband and a dear friend for a few moments, we realized that we were dying from heat exhaustion. Air conditioning is essential in the summer… and to make my beautiful instrument as clear and gorgeous as possible (my voice, obviously).
U2 is a hot place (both literally and figuratively), and I highly recommend it.

I am a fan. The sound system is new, you can tell by the harmonizing background vocals in the music track. Even the décor had more of a modern feel.
They have a bar area, so you can order drinks from the bar or add the tab to your private room (which are charged by the hour).
There is a smoking section hidden behind the bar past the stairwell.
I would definitely come back here…

Note: I was really drunk so maybe this review is not accurate.
After stopping at 4 other restaurants/​bars, I demanded to be taken to a karaōke place to sing my heart out.
I know U2 is a Korean place but hello… I’m not Korean. Anyway, I asked the guy for the list of Chinese, English and Spanish songs instead.
The room we were given was spacious, the sound quality was decent and I was pleased that they actually had real music videos for all of the songs (you know those karaōke places where they show weird 80s-​90s videos of girls in bikinis or couples walking along the river in place of real music videos?). Anyway, I was impressed that they even had the videos for songs in Chinese. The guy who worked there (who is not Chinese) didn’t know how the Chinese song list was organized. I figured out that it was by title, but the titles weren’t in order by number of strokes or pinyin. It was pretty much impossible to find anything I wanted. Instead, I had to squint in the dark and flip through each page to look for song titles that I recognized. Before I knew it, I had already wasted 30 minutes.
I couldn’t even find my favorite Jay Chou songs. So sad.

Cleanest karaōke joint I’ve ever been

I love karaōke so much, my fiancé bought me my own karaōke machine to have at home. U2 is what started it all. It’s the karaōke spot I go to again and again. $ 8 an hour per person per hour, for a private room is not bad at all. The rooms are super clean and sometimes, they even put this paper like guard on the mics which I really appreciate since lord knows what drunken new yorker had his mouth all over it the night before.
The service is consistently awesome and the light effects make me feel like a rockstar. The ONLY reason they don’t get 5 stars with all this love I’m throwin at them is because: they don’t always serve cocktails (I hate beer and I think I remember one guy telling me they only do cocktails on weekends) and the «food selection» leaves a lot to be desired. Once they step it up, I’ll make weekly visits… cause I don’t have those cool lights in my house… yet…

WAITING FOR TONIGHT OHHHHHH (all sang at the same volume)
Good times with the best friends here, I’m not a huge karaōke junkie, but we came here with a reservation and they treated us well, they had new songs (Party in the USA and Fergalicious) and oldies were the theme of the evening anyway, and by oldies, I mean Backstreet Boys, pre-​mama Britney and NSYNC.
Minus two stars because the bathrooms were disgustingly filth, and they don’t serve food on weekday nights.

To end the night of «the time of my life» before my actual birthday my party of eight had an enjoyable happy ending. Karaōke enthusiasts would have to take an elevator to the third floor which upon entering music and very advanced night club quality lighting would drown one’s vibe to the microphone of decomposition. We had a fairly good size private room for two hours. The controls are easy to use, leather couches are comfortable as well as the air conditioning temperature.
I rate U2 Karaōke Lounge four stars as the rate is $ 8.00 per hour/​per person on a Saturday night minus food and drinks. There is only one stall for the women and men’s facilities respectively which easily build a long-​haul bread line on a busy Thursday, Friday or Saturday night. The women’s facilities lack basic amendities of toilet paper and paper towels and was not cleaned which I had to inform the staff at the bar of the lack thereof amendities. Whatever happen to hour by the hour on the hour facility checks? Beer and wine only as U2 is not a full-​service bar.
U2 has a good sound system. The song list is comprehensive with many updated 2009 and 2010 singles, titles or albums in the industry as well as Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, and more. There are some renowned Broadway and Off-​Broadway musical songs such as Godspell’s «Day By Day.» Some of the songs to my utter dismayal as Mariah Carey’s «Dreamlover» played the official music video but without the words.
U2 is a newly karaōke bar residing opposite street of rival, Sing Sing in the Village’s night life on St. Mark’s Place.

I only gave out 2 GOOD stars because:
1) For the rooms /​floors they have available, convenient in the city.
2) for the nice spacious room with 2 descent big flat screen TV’s with Laser /​lights all over around.
NOT GOOD:
— Selection of song SUCKS! (most of them are oldies)
— 2 different systems (HOW CONFUSING). IF you don’t find a particular song, they might be on the other system (with particular animation dancing on the background).
— Song book is HELLA CONFUSING. Chinese songs were old too!, Not a lot of spanish. So what do you have???
— No food???
— Some of them are regular videos that cannot cut the singer out! (meaning that you and the video song is singing together… LAME!!!)
— Futnitures (Sofa) is not as comfy as other places.
$ 8.00 /​Song Per Person is everywhere, but if you don’ t have what we want, then It’s NOT WORTH IT!

Since Sing Sing wasn’t open at 3 pm on a Saturday, they directed us across the street to U2 Karaōke.
Apparently they had only recently opened, which probably attested to the weird signs in the bathroom (do not throw toilet paper in the toilet…) and the antiseptic smell that permeated the lobby area.
But, the space itself was pretty cool — a lounge feel that was more upscale than the usual karaōke bar. Our room was really nice — clean, pretty upholstery on the wraparound couch, our own private light show and new screens and equipment. Not to mention a giant book full of songs.
I sang*, I drank soju, and I sang some more.**
It’s a little pricier than Sing Sing, a 2-​hour run with your 3 other friends will run you $ 94 (inc the soju). However, they were super courteous, very accommodating and didn’t seem to mind that we kept adding time to our initial requested stay.
*song of the afternoon — Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin sung by yours truly.
** there might have been some Queen and Bee Gees as well. Ahem.

Our last stop on the 2^nd day food-​crawl. We needed some karaōke to burn our calories!!!
Once u stepped out from the elevator on the 3^rd floor, you’re immediately greeted by a guy who quickly showed you a room for u to sing. There was ladies dancing in the «waiting room», not sure if that supposed to work as a dance floor, but apparently it was since there was some disco light going on as well.
With hourly flat rate of $ 8/​pp, you just need to keep an eye on your watch. I luv the button to ring for service in the room, made everything more convenient. The most surprising thing was the fancy lighting that usually made me dizzy seemed to work with the beat of of the song, so after awhile, my dizzyness disappear as well. I luve it. Plenty of space between the tv and the sofa, made things easier for us to dance to the tunes, such as YMCA and the Nobody song, plus they have «Party in the USA» by Miley Cyrus, woohoo!!! oh yeah, I sang that!!!
We ordered bottled water for $ 1/​each and sodas were just $ 2/​each. Totally not bad at all. I would definitely come back here if I’m in NY and in need to sing out loud in privacy.

U2 is a promising new karaōke spot on St. Mark’s Place. It’s an alternative to Sing Sing, on the same block.
Their main room is attractive, with plush seating and a lightly-​stocked bar with basic amenities like beer and house wines. Now-​ubiquitous flatscreens display the song of the moment.
Our group rented a room for an hour, at a flat $ 8/​person rate. It was the first time I’ve seen fancy lighting in a karaōke room, where dance lights pulse to the beat to whatever song we were belting out. The karaōke system is in Korean (friendly staff briefed us on how to use it) with songs in Korean and English (maybe other languages). It was a bit chilly in the room, but after dancing and screaming into a microphone for about 10 minutes, we warmed up.
When we got thirsty, we got bottles of water ($ 1/​each). While it would be nice if U2 offered food, with all the cheap eateries right across the street, I see why they don’t. (UPDATE: They’ve got food now!)

Everything looks so cool and trendy. The song books are huge. The rooms are cozy and lights are flashing everywhere.
And then you get a headache from the repetitive light motions.
And you realize the reason why the books are huge is this: there are 5 – 10 versions of the same song, and some versions aren’t karaōke; they’re just music videos with the voices that you can’t even take out.
They have a lot of songs, but none of the popular songs that we wanted.
My suggestions:
1. Properly organize the Chinese book by Artist, not Title. By the time I found the songs I wanted, we were leaving already.
2. Have a «New Songs» list, much like the one at Duet.
3. Get some new songs.
4. Get rid of your extraneous selections, i.e. useless videos with no words and voices you can’t take out.
5. Offer food. Hello?
Also, $ 8/​hr/​person is not worth it for this. I’m going back to Duet for the marathon.