- Restaurants |
- Nightlife |
- Shopping |
- Coffee & Tea |
- All
Galchae Karaoke
- Smoking:
- Yes
2 reviews for Galchae Karaoke
2 reviews in English
-
Review from Johnson C.
Vancouver, BC
12/14/2009
Galchae (or Gal Chae) is the regular karaoke spot for my group of friends. We are not 'karaoke stars' by any stretch of the imagination but we come here everytime we want to go butcher some songs.
The place may be a bit intimidating from the outside with the neon and having to be buzzed in - but if you hear muffled wailing from the outside, you're in the right place.
If you're not familiar with Asian karaokes, this is not a karaoke bar setup with one system where you get to sing/annoy other strangers in the bar. The place has about 10-12 room of various sizes for groups to rent, so you can sing out your Idol urges in relative privacy. I think their biggest room can fit about 20 people.
It starts at $25/hr for up to 3 people and additional $5/hr per person in your group (prepay in advance - they accept debit). So this place is pretty cheap compared to other karaoke joints and it's even cheaper if you come before 6PM (I think the base price drops to $15/hr). Also, it's open until the wee hours of the morning.
With every room, you get freebie bottled waters and popcorn and/or chips. As I'm not sure if sure this place is licensed, I believe other BEvERages are available and this place is smoker-friendly.
Despite the ratty looking interior, they run a slick operation. First off, this place has a huge English song collection (along with Korean, Chinese and Vietnamese songs) - all the classic songs you expect to find at any karaoke place (which require actual singing ability) but they add about 20-30 songs every month. Many of them are recent hits (i.e. Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas, etc.) or stuff you never expect to find at a karaoke (Eminem, Flo Rida, Linkin Park, etc.). All the songs are listed in their frequently updated song list by artist or by title.
All rooms have good sound systems, fancy light setups and wonderfully cheesy blacklight spaced-themed ceilings. The most impressive part is the karaoke machines themselves - punch in your song code in the remote control that looks like a laptop and your songs come up instantly (no laserdiscs involved here!). You can queue up to about 15 songs, enter a song for instant playback, change the video mode (check out the cheesy Euro soft porn for a laugh), skip songs, view the most popular tracks, change pitch/tempo/volume - my friends and I have been coming here for years and we are still learning all the features (of course, none of us being able to read the Korean menus may have a part too).
The best part is the random machine scoring they give you after each song. Obviously nerfed to stroke patron's ego (me getting 100? HAH!) but seriously hilarious to see my butchering of 'Bohemian Rhasophy' get higher rated by the machine than a pitch-perfect rendition of 'How Do I Live' by a trained vocalist.
If the place isn't busy and there's no one waiting for your room, they will add free-time beyond what you paid for - great to finish off those last few songs in queue (please tip if you stay for a long time). My group once paid for a 2 hour session and ended up staying closer to 4 hours after they keep adding time. We sang until our throats were sore and the old Korean proprietor told us to stay and keep going.
The owner, an old Korean man and his wife, speak very little English - but are warm. The younger staff come in to the rooms frequently to clear off empties and refill popcorn - however, it seems to be always in the middle of your wailing to some embarassly sappy song.
Overall, probably the best place to karaoke in the GVRD with huge (and growing) collection of English songs. Prices are cheap, tons of freebies, and nice owners that seem to genuinely want to see their patrons have a good time. I was originally going to give Galchae 4 stars, but reading my review over it deserves a full 5 stars.Listed in: A Compendium of Fine…, "You're the best! Around!"
-
Review from Nam N.
Vancouver, BC
2/1/2011
Not a bad karaoke place, some of my friends prefer coming here than heading downtown. Its setup with private rooms here and they only have beer or water. Its not the cleanest place either, a lot of people here on weekends get pretty wasted. Its pretty fun here only because they will open into the wee hours of the morning and everyone doesn't want to go home.
The karaoke system here is okay, English song selection isn't great but its sufficient, they have songs here other places don't and vice versa. I don't think the sound system is as good as some other places though, sometimes the mic is really off or gets feedback.
PRICE: Cheaper than other karaoke places.
SERVICE: Really friendly owners. Very accommodating considering the clientele they have to deal with.
SUGGEST: Come here with people who've been here before. Karaoke's always fun with friends.
