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1 hour = $1 / person (10am - 2pm) every day, until 12/31/2009
Happy hour, 2pm-8pm, 1 hour = $2.99 ($4.99 for weekends) per person
Mon-Thu. 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 a.m.
Fri-Sat. 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 a.m.
Sun. 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 a.m.
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I've been to many karaoke studios around the Bay Area and I love Gamba the most.
My standards for karaoke studios are pretty high because I've been to real Japanese karaoke studios and they are so awesome. Gamba gets pretty close to a real Japanese karaoke studio. The staff is really nice and the selection is amazing! The Japanese rooms now has a little handheld touchscreen remote, just like a real Japanese karaoke studio! I'm not sure how the English rooms are cuz I've never been in one, but wow, I love Gamba. The rooms are spacious, the music selection is huge, and with the daily specials, it's very affordable!
I like to sing both English and Chinese songs. The song selection overall at Gamba is very balanced. Some places I've been to have more of one than the other. They also stay pretty current with American songs.
The sound system and the rooms aren't exactly fancy, but everything works and things are kept simple. In comparison to other karaoke bars, Gamba has very affordable prices as well.
Came here with a few old colleagues of mine, as they were in the mood to do some karaoke. I don't do a whole lotta' karaoke, but this was a pretty FUN experience. This place has a lot of new english songs which was pretty cool... They had a ton of popular classics as well.
Can't really compare to other spots, as I haven't been to many. Just know that it was pretty affordable (something like $16 per hour for a room). My colleagues sang English, Chinese, and Japanese songs, so they had to switch into 2 different systems which seemed pretty seamless. Just look up the song, punch it into the keypad, and it will queue up onthe screen. Wireless mics, and a sound system you can control background vocals, volume of music vs vocals, etc.
I can relate to some of the other reviews which talk about the walls being kind of thin... You can definitely hear the other rooms if they decide to turn it up and wail...
All-in-all a pretty fun spot!
I went there with Jenny C. and a couple other friends and had a real blast.
If you grew up in Asia, Gamba might be a bit of a disappointment. Don't get me wrong. It is still a very good place just doesn't compare to karaoke places in Asia is all.
The rooms are nicely decorated with a homey cozy atmosphere. There were plenty of seating for the 6 people room we got (bean bags, sofa and stool). Their English song selection is huge. I was pretty amazed with all the new English songs they have. The Chinese song selection is less impressive. They have a good selection of older songs but not many current ones.
The only reason stopping this place from getting a 5 star review is their equipment. The karaoke system is a bit out-dated and rather primitive. The song system is not that nice. It was rather hard to hear the music. Also some of the rooms seem to have sound proofing issue. We were able to hear the performance of our next door neighbor loud and clear. As some point we were even singing along with them.
Alcohol are not allowed in this place. They do serve drinks and snacks and you can also bring in your own drinks.
Last time I was there they were advertising this $1/person early bird special from 10am-2pm (Any day) and happy hour $5/person (weekend) $3/person(weekdays) from 2pm-8pm. Seems like a pretty good deal. I might come here again soon.
Gamba actually has a HUGE selection of music, if you grab the proper books. Anything from T-Pain's ridiculous "I"m on a Boat" to The Smith's "There is a light that never goes out" to Black Kids' "I"m not gonna teach your boyfriend how to dance with you' (although this was listed under another artist). And lots of NIN. The music accommodated both Yann Y's super indie tastes and the more mainstream tastes of the rest of us.
Soon, we were rapping, warbling, chanting ("He's going the distance. He's going for speed"), taunting ("I wanna f*** you like an animal"). Good times.
The videos were weird as usual, with random scantily clad white women prancing about. I didn't like how you couldn't get singing in the background for some songs...and also how you can't adjust the tempo or pitch.
It came out that night to about $6/hour/person for the 5 of us. If you go in the morning you can possibly pay only $1/hour, but who does that?
When I first visited Gamba, I was somewhat taken aback by the outdated audio and video systems. I've been spoiled by giant LCD screens, computer based song searches, and kick-ass sound systems. Gamba doesn't have any of these.
But as I returned on a few more occasions, each time with adjusted expectations, this place grows on you. Their rate is cheap. Their staff is friendly. And their song selection is more than decent. If they still have that $1/hr special (for really early in the day), I wouldn't mind just coming here and have a few private sessions, and sing the songs that I've always wanted to sing and never did because I knew I would slaughter them.
I like Karaoke in Asia. Wait, we're not in Asia. In that case, Gamba is a decent place for Karaoke. Don't get caught up with the wide selection of songs because there are a lottttt. They're not all in one binder, so you have to search and search and search. For us it went something like:
1) Look for songs in a binder
2) OH THIS SONG! Punch in song code.
3) Continue searching. OH THEY HAVE THIS SONG!
4) Punch in song code.
5) Oh my turn to sing? Okay.
6) Search for more songs.
I felt like I was searching for songs the entire time. Next time, I'm just gonna stick with one source and look through just that. Because there were so many song selections, people ended up canceling songs midway since we were short on time.
It was clean. The staff was friendly. They don't have a large selection of snacks and drinks. You get what you pay for. The end.
Pros: largest variety of Engrish songs that I have ever seen categorized by song or artist, clean, close to home in Cupertino, open until 2a (but what karaoke place isn't)? They even had "You Belong with Me" by Taylor Swift, which isn't even out yet on album!
Cons: No videos with most songs (but they have them for Disney songs), Korean songs are only by artist (sometimes I do not know the artist! grr), expensive and no alcohol.
Would come back with all Engrish singers. But not Korean ones.
Wow! I didn't realize there were actually these karaoke places around here!
This is a little place on the corner of a little plaza right next to Gochi's (which btw is awesome) You can reserve different sized rooms depending on the number of people you would have. On the day we went, we squeezed about 15+ people into a 10 person room... that's how close we are. Whether you liked it or not. XD We actually just didn't expect such a turnout.
It's nifty cuz they have not only good classics/oldies, but they have an updated binder with new releases you still hear on the radio! Plus, they have binders for Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Spanish, and Philipino songs, from the top of my head. They serve soft drinks and snacks as well, but no alcohol or outside food allowed.
I've been to karaoke bars before, and it's a little unnerving to get up and sing your heart out in front of strangers, so having your own little room surrounded by friends just as goofy as you are is great! We ended up paying about $20 per person for about 4 hours which isn't half bad!
So come down and take your radio/shower singing self and have a ball!
This is one of the best karaoke places ever! Super affordable - I've never paid more than $10 for 3 hours worth of karaoke. Granted, I come here with maybe 10 other people so we get our moneys worth ya know? I also like that it's the private room style karaoke.
The only minus is the (moderately) difficult karaoke system. It's the older style so it takes some effort to learn - a definite minus when you're buzzed up the wazoo. I've erased entire queues here before because the system lags and it's easy to press "clear all" by accident.
I've never had a problem getting a decent room in here, and I usually come with a pretty diverse group. Nor do I remember ever having to take my shoes off as another yelper mentioned but maybe that's for certain rooms? Also, there's no alcohol allowed but I have *heard* some people sneak some in and if you're not too blatant about it or rowdy they turn a blind eye... this is all hearsay of course. So don't quote me on it.
I always end up coming here a little bit inebriated but that's what makes karaoke more fun. Service is nice, the place is clean and they don't yell at you for being a loud drunk. And did I mention it's CHEAP?
This place looks like someone's living room with the homemade karaoke system. The microphones didn't work well and the sound system didn't sound very good. But it was close by to the restaurant we had dinner at (Gombei) so we decided to stop in and battle it out karaoke style.
They give you the song books which are pretty disorganized and it's hard to find songs that you know to sing. The A/C was also broken... turned out to be a sauna in our room.
It was still fun but there are many other places that have better song selections and sound systems.
Their service are good but their room is bad.
Last time I went they didn't give me the room that showed in the picture. Or... their better room only for Japanese people and American people? They won't give those room to people in other races?
They don't have much choice on Chinese songs. the vocal and sounds outcome are bad, I can't hear what I am singing; the tv screen is super small.
Also, their room is super hot.
Last time I went is with 7 more friends, we have to go after 2 hours because we can't breath in the room.
There is no aircon.....only a fan...terrible hot and no oxygen.
I suggest you to go only if you are Japanese.
If you are Chinese, you can go only if you want to sing old song in your dad's age.
For Chinese who want better karaoke and looking for good reviews, I suggest the karaoke in Sunset (San Francisco).
I went again recently (well, last month) to find out that, as far as their Joysound setups are concerned, they update like every two months or so.
On top of that, I discovered that you could bring in your own (non-alcoholic) drinks. There's a surcharge for this to the tune of $2 per party member. And, as far as I could tell, that's *not* per bottle.
Now I can definitely say they've earned my full five stars!
(4.5 stars; rounded up, because they deserve it.)
Go before 8 on a non-holiday weekday; it's only $3…
Read more »
Great memories here at this place! I prefer this than the more korean one called Arirang on El Camino a few miles away. Gamba is more japanese based but has songs from all asian cultures.
Not all rooms are equal tho. The party room in my opinion doesn't have as nice equipment as the smaller rooms. And not surprisingly, the machines that require you to know a ltitle japanese to operate is a magnitude better than the ones that are not. This place is pretty much the only place you should go in the south bay for your karoke needs. Darn you Gamba for having a monopoly!
first time karaokeing in the bay area...they got some really new songs! i think the song selection is as good as it gets...not a karaoke-nut but i enjoy it once in a while. the room we had was nice a cozy and they gave us 4 wireless mics (i dunno if anybody nowadays would have wired mics...but not an expert on karaoke places).
not too expensive either, went on saturday night from 10:30ish to close (2am) and turned out to be $22 per person (there were 6 of us)...i enjoyed it alot! wouldn't mind going back for another karaoke outing in the future...
$1/hour per person! You can't beat that! That's the early bird special from 10am - 2pm.
Came here in a party of 4. We sang for two hours. Loads of fun!
The room is clean, but the decor is nothing spectacular. I am not sure how reliable are the photos that you see here. But nonetheless it's very clean. Also, there isn't any cigarette smoke/smell! The TVs were rather small for a karaoke place? Ya.. they were pretty small =P
There is a vast selection of song choice. However, it's still not as complete as I've wanted. Many new songs from 2009 are missing. The karaoke songs lack cheesy music videos that you would usually find at a karaoke place. The mics clip if you sing too loud.
My friends and I had a lot of fun! We only spent $8 total for 4 ppl for singing 2 hours. We would definitely come again, because it's SO CHEAP!
I LOVE THIS PLACE! Finally a place with Thai songs for my friends and I to sing =D. Even in SoCal with a huge Thai community there is no place that has so many UP-TO-DATE Thai songs as this place. The song books are well-organized, with lists sorted alphabetically by artist name and song title. You punch the song numbers in using this simple yet efficient keypad. The sound system is pretty good, and the couches are comfortable! Overall the experience is very enjoyable.
They also have tons of English, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Chinese songs as well. The staff are extremely friendly and helpful, and it's not even that expensive. In fact right now until September they're having an early bird special where if you go from 10AM-2PM it's only $1/hour. What's a better deal than that?
I've made many great memories with my friends here and I'm planning on taking my family this weekend for some bonding time. It's definitely a very good place to go if you want clean private rooms to let loose and sing your heart out =).
From the outside, this place looks pretty run-down, and the rooms are actually kinda small. No alcohol allowed and this is strictly enforced (I saw a few of the employees passing by the rooms and looking inside the windows to check up on their customers).
I was kinda disappointed with the song selection since I started flipping through the "New Songs 2009" book and hardly recognized any. They had a good amount of oldies though and those always seem to be more fun to sing anyway. Prices were okay. There were 7 of us and we were there for 2 hours. It was about $70 if I recall.
I guess if I'm really in the mood for some karaoke with a group of friends, we could come back here.
My goodness, I can't believe I've never been here until now. I was introduced by my Celine Dion-loving friend and we came here in the afternoon and scored the SWEET, SWEET deal for the happy hour: $3/person/hour. LOVE.
Happily, the have some of the newer releases on deck and the rooms are simple and clean, nothing too fancy and probably more reminiscent of your average Asian family's living room as opposed to a darkened nightclub/bar setting. Great place to hang out and belt out.
Thankfully, private rooms to help maintain your dignity if you sing as poorly as I do.
I love this place and feel fortunate to even know of it. I discovered it by accident when I took a wrong turn on Homestead and noticed the small Gamba Karaoke sign from the street. I was really stunned that such a obscure and specialized business exists at all, much less in a quiet residential neighbourhood!
Gamba Karaoke is a Japanese-style "karaoke parlour" which are ubiquitous in Japan, uncommon in the U.S., and IMO in general getting more scarce around the world (as the karaoke craze of the 90s is dying down and better "home" karaoke machines become available). I used to frequent Gamba's competitor in downtown Sunnyvale which shutdown despite being popular, and thought this type of business had gone the way of the dodo. Yes, I'm aware of the other "karaoke" places in the Korean enclave on the El Camino, but those are more like "hostess bars" and/or public karaoke lounges. Did anybody see that movie "Lost in Translation" with Bill Murray and Scarlett Johannsen? Gamba is very much like that place that they went to in Tokyo late at night.
The best selling feature of Gamba karaoke is that they offer the rental of a private room..... a PRIVATE room... so you don't have to embarrass yourself in front of a crowd of drunken strangers. It allows one to practice, try out songs, and really let loose one's inhibitions, alone or with a small group of people. It's surprisingly fun (if you've never done it)! One can live out one's American Idol fantasy, or try some song that one is not quite sure the "public" is ready for, or even show off if you are a good singer.
The selection of songs in multiple languages is outstanding, and they seem to constantly update their songbooks with new songs and latest releases. I've had almost no trouble finding any song that I can think of, even going back to the 1930s. The sound system is state of the art and is very forgiving... in that you can change meter, pitch, increase echo, increase or decrease the volume of the music or your vocals. It can pretty much make anyone sound good with enough tweeking. The lyrics appear in the appropriate language on the screen and change colour at the moment that you are supposed to sing it. One can get the hang of it after a song or two.
Gamba also serves a small selection of delicious Japanese snacks and beverages, including my favourite soft drink in the world "Calpico" (which is as popular as Coke in Japan). When you feel like a snack to add to your tab, just get on the convenient phone in each room and order it. Note: it's customary to leave a small tip for their service if they did a good job. I don't consider it a drawback, but some people are disappointed to learn that they do not have an alcohol license and they do not serve alcoholic beverages. Nor are alcoholic beverages permitted to be brought in.
The rooms are comfortable, kept clean, and there is a good "family" atmosphere (as opposed to "sleazy"). Like I would bring my Mother and her friends to Gamba after dinner when we're looking for something entertaining to do.
I consider Gamba Karaoke a very fun, memorable, wholesome, cost effective (good value) way to delightfully spend an hour or two with friends, entertaining each other. It's a great place to close out a wonderful evening out on the town... show up at midnight and sing your heart out!
This place is great! Its clean, friendly, and cheapp. Nothing better than this. You get your own room as usual and they have a hugee song selection. They even come in different languages, not that it benefits me, but it may for you!
You pay based on the hour, but it really affordable and entertaining if you have nothing to do on the weekend.
mm.. i GUESS i will give this place 4 stars. there are only 3 reasons for this:
1. its next door to gochi and gochi is awesome.
2. they have a great song selection that spans many genres and languages and they update with new songs and song request.
3. its never crowded. ive never had to wait to get a room.
unfortunately, its kind of ghetto and old in the rooms. dont believe the current pictures posted; one, maybe 2 of the rooms look like that. they used to have a pretty good big party room with couches, bean bags and "dance floor" area but i think its 2 rooms now.. the room for larger parties now is like a freakin pizza hut (though i lurve pizza hut). uncomfy booth chairs line the walls on each side, and on the other side of the tables are long, rickety, poorly upholstered benches.
however, the owners are really nice and they really, really do have a good song selection.
I came here for the first time this weekend. It's super cheap! A group of 13 were there for about 2 hours. Other places that I go to charge by the person and by time and I normally expect to pay about $20. Our total netted out to just $5.25 a person. Can I say major deal??? They also have great deals during the day and have a sign saying 8,000 new songs have been added (Japanese, Chinese, and Thai, I think). I was happy to see that their English song list was also updated to include hits as of January 2009.
However, I was a little disappointed with some of the selection. I like to sing to either music videos or live concert versions. For a lot of the English songs, it was just words on a blue screen (Maroon 5 Sunday Morning is not an unknown song either!) or one of those cheesy videos of some 90's styled chick prancing in a forest (never understood why they choose to use videos like that). Also, the TV was pretty small, maybe 27" and the sound system was weak.
I'd definitely consider coming back here again cause it's so cheap and for the song selection.
In honor of "limang daan" (Tagalog), "quinientos" (Spanish), "nam tram" (Vietnamese), "lima ratus" (Indonesian), number five hundred I choose Gamba Karaoke. Why? Cause I like to sing--and I'm a self-admitted nerd!
Warning, slight random religious trivia coming ... In honor of the holidays, a group of my friends from church decided to celebrate Gaudete Sunday (or in our case Saturday)--the third Sunday of Advent when the pink candle is lit, and well, we rejoice that Christmas is almost here, and what a perfect way to be with friends to gather after a meal, exchange some gifts and sing for two hours!
I made reservations for us a few days in advance for our group of twelve. When we got in, we were ushered into room number 2 which had two couches, and a bench with cushions on it, the sound system, hardware for karaoke, and when we were settled in, our microphones and controls for the machines were brought-in, and we were off.
Through the evening, we sang some classic Jon Bon Jovi songs, a few show tunes, 80s classics, Jill Scott, Jason Mraz, and gamut of others. It was pure entertainment for everyone!
Of note is that they do not serve alcohol, but do serve some Asian canned teas and the like. There is a sign that says you CAN bring in outside drinks and the like; which is definitely nice.
The best part of the evening was when we packed up and closed out our tab. For two hours in a private room, it came to a grand total of, drum roll please, $70 for the two hours. That's right, you read it right. To entertain a group of late twenty and early thirty-somethings, it was under $6 a head. Freaking cheap if you ask me cause I had a damn good time!
Definitely worth a try if you have a group of singers that want to get together for some good times.
Now, to find that perfect karaoke song, er, songs, for next time!
Only complaint is that the ventilation in the room is a little poor, so it would be nice if they purchased something to circulate the air, or something, cause it was kinda dank after a little bit!
Good to go to for singing and hanging out. The rooms seemed small and plain. The sound system could be better and was disappointed that no actual music videos or concert videos played according to the songs we chose; it usually showed blank blue screens or images that have NOTHING related to the actual songs.
At least the womens bathroom was clean though!
Don't think I would plan on coming back here again.
i personally am so not used to japanese karaoke rooms but really only used to korean noraebang. this japanese room karaoke place really provides a different feel than the korean noraebang places that i'm used to. the rooms are very "well.lit" and _clean_. they have you remove your shoes before entering the rooms. i enjoy how they provide more microphones than most places i go. our room had four _wireless_ microphones. i pointed out to my friends that it was different that we had _wireless_ mics but a _wired_ remote.
the karaoke systems are different here. they use a lot of cd+g. many of the songs don't have videos. however, you might like that or might not. you see, with many korean noraebang, you get some weird background videos. at koraen noraebang; some of the old korean songs have videos of women from the early 1990s working out in gyms, and many of the english songs have these cheesy australian actors performing some overdramatic soap opera. a couple of times, friends have brought me to taiwanese noraebang, where the videos are the actual music videos from the recording artists, and the music are the actual instrumental tracks from the popular recordings. those are cool; but i can't sing chinese songs. anyway, _here_, for most songs, you just have a blue screen with words that light up as the music progresses. it feels a little like viewing a powerpoint presentation at work. also, having the lights on so bright makes you feel a little less like a pop star, nahwhaddahmshayin'? i suppose they want to make it clear that they are _not_ one of those sleazy karaoke places that are just fronts for prostitution. that's good.
anyway, it's a good, clean place. i like that they _do_ have korean songs even though it's a japanese place; and my friends pointed out that their english song selection is _very_ up.to.date. i still couldn't find some of the latest pop songs like... we went on 2009.09.19, and i couldn't find jay sean's "down," which was like the #1 hit on wild 94.9 a few weeks before that. i like that song, so i was a little disappointed. i guess i would need autotune, though, huh?
i was thoroughly impressed by the sign that announced their early bird special: $1 per hour per person from 1000a to 200p. crazy, huh?
i _feel_ like the price is higher than at most of the korean noraebang that i go to; but the service was polite.
I love love love to sing and karaoke. And luckily it's right next to Gochi, so I can often convince my friends to go karaoke right after a satisfying dinner next door. They have a pretty good selection of english and japanese songs. And they update their english song list often, so you won't be stuck singing songs from the 90's.
I do have to warn you that the rooms are pretty bare bone, stale, and not always air conditioned. The karaoke software is whacky, so it takes some time to figure out how to use it. I've accidentally cleared my queue many times, or added the same song 10 times because of the strange system. But once you get past the learning curve, you've got all you need to sing, have fun, and keep coming back for more.
Since my initial review, I've been back quite a few times. Cheap cheap karaoke... every time I come here, I always leave very satisfied of the cost. Karaoke isn't an activity I'd frequent if I need to pay $40+ but the prices I had paid so far ranged from $18-35 TOTAL. Tax, service fees, whatever, all included. What you see is what you pay. No hidden fees. How can you possibly resist that? They also don't charge you the full hour if you sing a quarter of an extra hour. You pay as much as you sing. No rip offs.
They have so many english songs... more so than any other Karaoke places I've been to. 95% of the time I think of a song, I can usually find it here.
As for mandarin songs, they have a fairly large selection as well. It's not computerized like musicland in Milpitas nor as modern or classy and we're still resorted to choosing from massive numbers of ring binders but the selection is there. Oh... and I think the list is ordered by Hanyu Pingying... so start sounding everything else out in English!
They've also updated their entry system so it was a lot easier to use than before and the owner is always friendly and nice.
This would be a great place to host a cheap karaoke party.
Few cons - clearly Older so don't expect any place pretty. New policy - No outside beverages or alcohol or they'll charge $2/person extra so -1 star for all that.
5 stars ++ for service and price beyond. This is absolutely the cheapest place in the south bay you… Read more »
of the many karaoke places i've gone to, this is pretty average.
let's start with the bad stuff:
* not all rooms are created equal. they were nice enough to move us to 'better' rooms, but only one of them was actually pretty good; the sound in the others was probably what you could get from a home system
* the rooms do not have the same songs or system - so you're often learning how to put in songs, or realizing the song you wanted to sing is not available in that room
* if order a soft drink (~$2.50), you get a soda can with a straw in it
* fairly pricey (obviously i did not go during the dollar special), but there were only a few of us and it was quite expensive per head
* although the price was our fault for not realizing how expensive it was - most karaoke places will discount a half-hour or so if you had to move rooms, waited a long time to check out, etc. for the inconvenience
the good stuff:
* not overly crowded
* not the best furniture or anything, but fairly clean - nothing feels sticky
* if you like japanese songs, you'll love this place
* has a decent english collection, with some korean and chinese as well
* very friendly service
will probably only come back during the $1 special.
I finally got to visit this place. I've been told this is one of the very few places in the Bay Area that serves Chinese Songs. And I have to agreed this is the closest you can get when compare to karaoke box in Hong Kong or China. I would have given this place a 5 only if their Chinese song listing is more organized!
There are 2 books for Chinese songs but none of them make any sense!?! Not listed by artist, not list alphabetically (how many words and strokes/character). I spent most of my time searching through them but was only able to find 3, and 1 wasn't recognized by the system when entered!
The 2 songs I entered got deleted by accident but hell no I'm not going to go through the hundreds of pages to find them again! It's not a fun task while you're drunk! It's their lost that they didn't get to hear me sing! arhaha I use to get pay to sing.
Other than that, the room's clean and the sound quality was pretty good. Will I be back? Sure. But next time I'll try to make it here before I got loaded.
Came back today and they have upgraded there system and added alot new songs. They have happy hour specials. Had alot of fun and will be back for sure.
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Julie, Evie, and I came here last night after eating at Gochi. Consider it is right next door. Evie and I have not been here for awhile and was hoping they had some news songs, which they did. We was totally excited! Julie and I sang "Piece of Me" by Britney Spears. I sang American Boy by Estelle, One Step at a Time by Jordin Sparks, and I had to sing Lollipop by Lil Wayne. Julie and Evie got a kick at laughing at me and I am sure the couple that pass by did too. Overall it was a blast and will be back in a few months when they have new songs.
I had so much fun there. The twice I been has been a blasted. I just went last weekend with me and… Read more »
This Karaoke parlor is run by a stressed looking Asian lady. She was nice but was running around the place like a mad woman. I thought she was going to have a nervous break down if we asked her just one more question.
The facility was surprisingly very clean and the floors weren't sticky. The only down side was the way the music was organized. My friends were big on the Chinese songs, they hard time finding music because it wasn't in any order. The Vietnamese songs were a joke. Surprisingly, the English songs were well organized and the selection was good. There were a lot of newer songs that I've been hearing on the radio as of late.
The system is operated by this weird ten key contraption. It took us a while get it. I deleted all the songs from the play list by mistake. ooooops...sorry girls, you'll have to dig through all the books and re enter the info...
Our first visit wasn't too bad. We found some old songs to entertain ourselves with. The second time was really bad. And I'm not just talking about the singing.
The guy had to come in to fix the clock, awkward! (Or maybe he came in to check if someone was dying.)
Then the volume control on the remote wouldn't work and it got so loud that we had to stop the song.
Sound system is horrible and I'm not just blaming it all on that, but I don't remember sounding *that* bad at other places.
Their song selection needs to be updated with fun songs to sing, not like say, Pantera? Or I'll recognize an artist but it'll be like a song that wasn't even released and unheard of.
Needless to say, we left in serious need of some morale boost. Note to self, do not bring coworkers here for team building.
I will give this place an average review because it was my first time really doing this. What is good: lots of English song selections, very surprised to see some recent radio play that even I did not know. Decent sized private rooms that seemed pretty soundproof (or at least there was just so much noise you couldn't really tell). You can bring your own food (yay!) but no alcohol (boo). Went for a friends bday so luckily we were able to do the whole cake and song together. Unfortunately we could only use 3 microphones, one was plugged in and didn't work all the time. Sometimes the lyrics didn't line up with the music, and if only the songs had music video in the background instead of a blue screen with words in white.
I think the worst part of this night was the dude tried to charge us for more than we were there (it didn't help that the clock in our room was TOTALLY off). He attempted to charge us for 3 hours (we left at 11) but we were there for more like 2.5. And he was totally unclear in trying to tell us how much time we had. Booo don't try to rip us off; we're Asian and we want to make sure we got our money's worth too.
Song selection: pretty good if you're there for Asian music
Karaoke software: bad
Ambience: it's a good attempt, but i've seen better places
I've gone to Gamba twice, and the first time the lady who doesn't speak English ushered our group of 6 into the huge room in the front--it had uncomfortable benches, was stuffy, a bit too dark... and most of the English songs didn't have music videos so that wasn't as fun. The second time I went they put us (this time a group of 8) into a smaller, pink room and that was much better. Still, both times it didn't seem very crowded, which is good cuz there's no wait, but doesn't feel very exciting. And I guess I'm used to going to places where they serve food as part of your payment, and this place doesn't do that. We were very thirsty after 2 hours, and one can of soda was just too expensive. :(
Pros:
The Chinese song selection is pretty good here (but they are still a few months behind the latest releases).
The place is simple and clean.
The staff is friendly and nice about letting us take extra song books cuz we had a large group.
The price is super affordable.
Despite previous reviews, the song books (at least the Chinese ones) are ordered alphabetically (as of Apr 09).
The mics are wireless.
Cons:
The sound system was average at best, probably not even that.
The TV is old and small.
The remote didn't work, we had to manually adjust echo, volume, and pitch.
We couldn't figure out how to display the list of songs in the queue, or how to skip to a song (without deleting everything before it).
The beverage selection is somewhat limited compared to most Asian karaoke places.
The English songs don't have real videos.
4.5, best Asian karoake spot in the bay, no alcohol, no mmmm!!!!!!!!!!
I can't agree more with fellow reviewer Jane D that the lady running the place looked unusually stressed. I'm used to going to karaoke places run by little teeny bopper kids who are more laissez-faire so watching a 40+ lady running around and out of breath was kind of....odd.
The music organization wasn't ideal, so that's my main complaint. It is imperative for me to run through my usual song list. When I jsut could not locate my favorite singer, you can hardly imagine my dismay. I nearly went cross eyed examining the small print Chinese characters trying to find A-Mei.
The room was very clean and nothing dingy at all, which was great. We finally got into the groove of it and wrapped it up 3.5 hours later as we basically were the last group of people to leave and close shop. Needless to say, I'd go back again, but it's unfortunate that I forget to jot down the song codes A-Mei's songs! Darn it -- I have go cross eyed again as I hunt down those numbers...
its under new "management"
everything's all the same. except few happy hr offers and what nots.
more info to come!!
heads-up for all you GAMBA lovers.
this place is going to be under new management shortly!…
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Santa Clara, CA
Category: Karaoke
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Category: Lounges
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Category: Korean
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