Japas 38
“We partook in the Party Package B ($35/person for 2 hours of unlimited karaoke, beers, sake, and a feast of appetizers and sushi).”
“I did manage to do a somewhat muddled (by me) rendition of Juanes' "La Camisa Negra" with Jando.”
“They don't have the newest songs, but we wanted to sing 80s, 90s and early 00s tunes anyway!”
Japas 38
Takes Reservations: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Good For Dancing: Yes
Happy Hour: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
Rate and write a review Cancel reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I know I won't be back to Japas. I've been to four different Karaoke places now, and Japas is the worst of the four. We reserved a room for last night, which was handled well. I had some trouble getting in contact to confirm my reservation, but the process is simple and easy. We arrived early and were brought to our room early, too, which was nice. We didn't start the Karaoke until fifteen minutes later than our reservation, but they took that into account at the end of the night. I had made a reservation for 10, and three of our people unfortunately didn't show. We were still charged $10 each for them, which was pretty annoying.
The first thing I saw after we entered our room was the two large sushi platters left for us. The second thing I saw was a roach. Not a great start. The controller, while in Japanese, was easy enough to use, though they do not use technology to their advantage, and the entire song selection comes from books and not from the controller itself. A few times before we started our own karaoke, we heard random noises from the other rooms come through our speakers. Odd.
The song selection is not very good, with the most recent songs being from a couple of years ago. An oddly wide variety of songs by System of a Down, but only two songs each from Will Smith and Ludacris, and no Ignition Remix! Heresy.
We paid for an extra hour, but when we got the check things got expensive. The $35 package for 7, plus the $10 no-show fee (dumb) plus the $15/person extra hour (very steep) plus tax and included tip and it wound up costing us ~$69/person. Crazy.
Other places come with more for much less. Or better yet, come with less for MUCH less, with add-ons available. The sushi plate had just cucumber rolls, almost-california-rolls, and some unidentifiable tuna-maybe roll that was gross. The plate of hot food was much better, with chicken teriyaki, veggie- and beef-pot-stickers, edamame, and (delicious) rice balls. Not worth the expense though.
Thankfully I was with my family, and we have a good time no matter where we are, but I'd rather go to any other karaoke place than Japas 38.
Did I mention we encountered THREE cockroaches in our room???
Awesome place in the city to enjoy karaoke,choose from a significant selection of drinks and appetizers in a private room with a group of folks you want to be around for a night.
If you are going solo, definitely to stop at the bar and also have a great time with other folks. Very friendly oriented environment. Well staffed and great services.
Came here with a group of friends for a late night sing off. We were taken downstairs to a small (really small in my opinion) private room with a cafeteria table and wraparound booth seating. We ended up moving two extra chairs out since they took up any extra room you wanted for standing. I had a decent time, but there were a few things I wish were different. First, the room set up was awful and it got sweltering hot. No one wants to sit down and sing so every single person I was with had to "oh excuse me" push through to get up when their turn came. Second, the drinks (which you have a minimum you're required to purchase) were awful. They tasted like rubbing alcohol and were pricey. Third, the music selection was a little outdated. I mean, you expect at least some current selections when you go to these places. I will say though, we were pretty much late in the night to partying when we showed up so we stayed for a few hours and rocked out. I'm not sure if I would come here again, especially when sober to start my night.
Terrible customer service. My work team came here on a Thursday night at 1am after looking at their website and seeing that it was open until 3am (we had just finished our project at 12am and were ready to drink heavily). We arrived and they told us they were closing at 2am. We told them that we had seen on their website that they were open until 3am to which we were told that they close whenever if there isn't enough business. Well here we are a group of 12 people ready to give you business until you close and they still decide to close at 2am. Ok. We rented out a room for karaoke. We were put in a small room for our party size and asked for the bigger one next door that was empty. We were told that we could not be put in that room, when we asked why, we were told it was more space for them to clean. Pure laziness. The whole time we felt as if we were being pushed out and we were ready to put down lots of $$ for a good evening. Their loss. I will not return or recommend.
Came here with a few friends on saturday night. They don't have the newest songs, but we wanted to sing 80s, 90s and early 00s tunes anyway! Staff is attentive. Rooms are huge — just make sure you book in advance. Without the alcohol package, its $10/person/hour. Will come back soon!
If you're in the mood for Karaoke in the public bar area and have lots of friends and you happen to be uptown, give this place a try. Though they have private Karaoke rooms, for a person like myself who prefers singing in the public bar area, it is more than adequate with an excellent sound system similar to BINY, very comfortable table seating and no minimums drinks to sing, just $2 per song in which they give you a card for song number (yes the prehistoric but tried and true book numbering system) and name of song and the wonderful bar tender/waitress (shorter Japanese lady) will happily input your song.
In terms of drinks, if the waitress and you have a good repertoire, she will be generous on the alcohol portion, but if not, then you may feel that it's watered down so beer is a safe choice. But if it's not happy hour you are paying a high premium for drinks.
Please read other yelp reviews about the room and food specials which seem awesome!
The have pretty good price for drinks n food as in midtown.
They have full food menu, can even enjoy your dinner while others' singing. Well, if they really can sing…lol Or order a song and sing yourself if you are in the mood.
They also have few private rooms, good for group people to keep your private party, really good price n deal.
Very limited list of songs, and it's quite difficult to work their strange remote that has about a gazillion buttons. Also, the rooms have a very odd layout. Gagopa is definitely the better option if you're in the area and in the mood for karaoke.