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"Don't STOP! Beleeeeeevin!! Hold on to that feeeeilllliiannnnngannnang!..."
GLEE, watch out--we've got some competition coming your way!
Who wants to go to a karaoke bar to hear a room full of weird strangers belligerently sing off-key, when you can go to the Rosen Music Studio and listen to your friends butcher a song instead?!
After a night out at a smokey Korean bbq place (Manna) just a couple blocks away last weekend, we decided to keep the night going by enjoying some off-key entertainment, and Rosen was the place that definitely made the night!
Rosen Music Studio is a gem of a cultural experience (Koreatown Karaoke) that you have to try at least ONCE if you want to call yourself a Los Angelean (yup, i think i may have just made that word up): reasonably priced drinks ($7 for 20 oz beer, $14 for a Carafe of flavored Soju (Fruit-infused Korean liquor), and small private rooms that you can rent by the hour (No, not for THAT, dude....) to belt out your favorite hits!
The private rooms here range somewhere between $30-40/hr for most rooms, and can fit anywhere between 8-40+ people (with dual flat screens on the higher-end).
While the song selection may not have the newest of the new (some were disappointed there wasn't more Lady Gaga in the mix), it has a pretty decent selection of stuff you'd hear on the radio...and a strangely enormously large selection of Korean pop songs (which i guess isn't so strange seeing as how we were in K-Town).
When you first walk in, the hostess will assign you to a private room, complete with cheesy disco light, 2 mics, and 1-2 widescren LCDs (where you can read the lyrics superimposed on top of Korean B-roll music video footage that's usually comically out of context). The service here is EXCELLENT, while many of them don't speak English very well, they are all very friendly and go out of their way with any requests from the party.
Definitely check it out!!!
This was my first time at a place like this. For those not familiar, at Rosen Music Studio you get your own private karaoke room set up with state of the art sound and video for you and your group to sing in, as opposed to being in a public restaurant or bar. So the poorer singers feel only the wrath of humiliation brought on by their friends. The set up reminded me of whorehouses I've seen in the movies, but you sing in the rooms instead of....well I guess you can sing in whorehouse rooms too if that's your thing.
It probably does deserve 4 stars, but I had to take off one for the small selection of songs in English. If you are fluent in Korean and know all the K-Pop songs this place is dreamy.
But that's not to say I didn't have a blast. We were 20 in an upstairs room, and although they didn't offer some of my favorites, they did have fun songs to sing. And who really cares after drinking a few glasses of soju?
They have a full service menu of food and beverage and will come to the room to take orders or you can go to the bar and get it yourself. Some tasty specialty offerings include fried chicken gizzards and jellyfish. The vegetable tempura seems a bargain at $9.99 for a humongous plate. Alcohol isn't too expensive: Five bucks for a beer and $13 for a bottle of soju. Of course they have wine and hard liquor for those in need. Valet parking is only $2.
I got to sing, "You Raise Me Up," "Don't Cha," "If I Ain't Got You," "Don't Speak." I had to leave for before my last selection came up, The Beatles, "I Wanna Hold Your Hand."
If you have free time during the day, they offer happy hour from 2-6 for only $10 and hour.
it only took a couple cocktails down the street at R Bar to convince my friends to run into rosen music studio for a karaoke quickie.
rosen closes at 2am which is a little earlier than other places in k-town. when we dashed in at 1am, the staff was rather accomodating in quickly placing us into a room, gave us a mini tutorial on operating the karaoke machine, and brought our drink orders to us lickety split.
english song selection is limited, but some rousing renditions of the best of spice girls, heart, and meredith brooks later (we were feeling the girl power that night)...
as quickly as we were welcomed, we were removed. our bill was brought to us promptly at the stroke of 2 and we were ushered out like lemmings.
total damage: $20 for four people for one hour in a private booth. $15 for a carafe of fruited sake (yum).
parking situation: quasi valet for $2 in private lot in back.
My friends and I went here after not seeing each other for over 4-7 years! They do ask for your I.D for some reason which I thought was kinda weird (at night). It was $30/hr, good selection of songs to choose from, clean, friendly staff they constantly check on us if we need to order more soju and at the end of the night they gave us fries on the house which tasted pretty good.
After pitchers of Hite and kick-my-ass spicy dak dori tang (whole pieces of chicken, potato, rice cake cylinders smothered in a spiiiiicy sauce), we ambled (figure of speech: these fools drove!) over to Rosen, which is the typical 1-2 for Koreans on a TGIF Friday night.
Rosen is all right. It's not as spanking new as Palm Tree or Bobos. Nor supplied with the duo of flat-screens so that you can sing while spinning like a rockstar and facing your cheering audience. Nonetheless, the place is clean and the rooms are quite roomy with a comfy, winding sofa against the wall. Good song selection, I found my go-to's.
Service is good. Complimentary fruit plate arrived before the beer and whiskey. They moved up their last call from 3 to 2am. On a positive note, they rush to your room so fast, eager to serve, when you hit the service button, that you can probably let them know what you need in between chorus refrains.
I went here for a birthday celebration and had an amazing time. In the past, I've only been to a few karaoke places and none of them had the dual flat screen action, large spacious rooms, and the kind of selection of music that this place had. Maybe I just don't get out to karoake that much.
The beers were priced right (with a 20 oz Hite beer for $7.50) and the food was... karaoke priced. Although, the best deal in there is the vegetable tempura for $10. That plate is enough food for three people. The other items seemed really good, but they were just too expensive for me.
As others have noted, it's not as shiny or fancy or whatever as some other newer (see: trendy) places, but it is clean, the service is great, the food was tasty, and the equipment is top notch. The only drawback for me was that there is no lock on the men's room... not sure about the ladies. And it wasn't easy to position your foot to jam the door to keep others from entering while sitting down. There is a lot of, "Oh sorry... I thought that... yeah... I'll wait outside."
They have a happy hour special: 4 people for $15 during the hours of 11am-4pm. Other rates apply for more people. I think there was 8 people for $35.
5 stars for the extremely large room and 2 plasmas for our karaoke. Another star for looking the other way when we smuggled in alcohol in Gatorade bottles. 1 more star for allowing the 15 of us to make tons of noise and not utter a word about it.
Minus 4 stars for your shockingly small selection of songs.
The size of these rooms were beyond large. I don't know how much it costs to rent these things (again alcohol wreaking havoc on my brain cells), but it was well worth it.
Get. more. songs. in. Engrish!
Lots of white people go here. so I like to go and pretend to sing so I can hit on the girls.
Just kidding. Maybe?
No. They just renovated put in flat screens. They could probably buy another few pages of english songs but oh well, guess you have to sing copacabana twice.
And they are smart, they make you pay as you go so when all your friends start trickling out you aren't stuck with the entire tab. You white people are funny. Try to skate out on the bill everytime.
Aside from the laser beam light destroying my eyes every now and then, Rosen is a great place for karaoke, drinking and for sleeping (I have seen Jhi C. sleep here many times.) They have a pretty good selection of Japanese songs that I try to sing but never can, but that's my own problem for being a horrible singer. Occasionally, the songs don't quite match the original, but who cares because everyone that sings here is already drunk anyways. There's a good selection of finger foods to go with your Korean beer, soju or mixed drink from the bar in the front.
The small private rooms are nice (well not so private because each room has a window that people can look in as they pass by), but the 2 large rooms for groups in the back are even better. A friend of mine had a birthday in one of the rooms while another birthday was going on in the other room. 3 guys walked in, drank, talked to people for about an hour after realizing they were at the wrong party.
From the outside, this karaoke bar looks small and a bit dingy, but looks can be deceiving. As I walked in, I was kindly greeted by a few Rosen employees and immediately escorted to one of the many rooms. Inside, it was pretty spacious and definitely not dirty. I guess we picked a good night to go because it wasn't too busy which is always nice.
The best part of the night was being able to sing-a-long to oldies as well as newbies! Going from Nsync's "Bye bye bye" to Lil Wayne's "Lollipop" was sheer entertainment and I enjoyed every bit of it. As far as alcohol, they served a sweet and fruity tokyo tea, but be careful... this one is a creeper! I also heard their soju was delish but I didn't get a chance to try it. Maybe next time.
Since we were a group of 4, our rates by the end of the night came out to about $33 per person which is pricey only because everything adds up. I guess it was about $4-$5 per hr including drinks and appetizers (yummy calamari btw!). But I can't complain. It was worth it and the service was great. If any of you decide to go here, you'll have fun whether you're in a small group or a large group. It ain't no American Idol but it can get crazy!
Dear Rosen Employees,
I thank you for putting up with all my drunken debauchery the past several years. There are many a nights I was there stumbling around, asking for bottle after bottle of soju, sitting outside on the curb chatting up the parking valet, and/or passed out on the couch.
I thank you for putting up with my loud singing and rappin'. You must be so sick of hearing the tambourine being waved in the air by a madwoman. You always have a knack at making sure my friends and I party til 4 in the moooor-nin', and I always come out $40 broker. But hey, as William Hung said, "I have no regrets at all."
I will be back soon. It's just been too long.
After my boy D-Block's birthday KBBQ carnage @ Road To Seoul, we went here. Unfortunately for my companions, I was a little bit on the slightly drunk side and didn't care what song I sang. Even though I DID NOT have a mic in my hand, I was heard. Ha.
We were able to get a huge room for the birthday boy. It seemed like a nice place, but it wasn't fun walking up to the room because of my state. Heh.
I sang along with songs from boy bands, to old classics. I was too busy trying to stay alert (too much Soju). I do remember them serving up a snack tray that had ginger, nuts, and other dried fruits.
It wasn't a bad place, I wouldn't mind coming back when I'm sober and hopefully belt out some songs with my friends.
Post Umami debauchery.
Typical Noraebang style of karaoke. I actually prefer the rooms because you're with people you know and comfortable with. I've been to a place where there's "public" karaoke and that's just no fun because who the heck wants to sing and make a fool of themselves in front of strangers? At least if you're going to make a fool of yourself, keep it to the privacy of your friends.
Anywho, the staff seemed pretty nice and didn't at all seem like dicks at any time. The system was pretty easy to use, despite being in Korean. Pretty much all we had to do was punch in the song code and press a blue button which we assumed meant "Enter". There was also a button right below that with a taped on piece of paper that said "reserve", meaning we could put in the songs we wanted next in the middle of the current song. The room was alright, but at least it wasn't hot or smelled. That's always a plus, especially when you're "trapped" inside a room for a couple of hours, building up the room temperature and possibly adding to the overall "aroma" of the room. And they were clean, as well as the place as a whole.
Rate was $30/hr, which I guess isn't too bad. We were there for 2 hours, so with the beers and soju that we got, it came out to like under $20 per person I believe. I'll take that.
They have valet parking but if you're lucky, you might be able to find a parking spot on the street.
Went here last weekend and had a great time. Wasn't the newest, most sparkly place I've ever been to in my life, but they had a good selection of songs (although I would like to know how you can have "A Whole New World" and not "Life is a Highway"...I'm just sayin'). Sampled a calamari niblet and it was a little fishy, although really this is a karaoke joint, not a place to be a food snob. Cocktails were about $10 and and they were not skimping on the booze in those things. There's cheap valet right behind the place, although there was plenty of street parking when I was there. And really, who doesn't love fancy red and green lasers bouncing around? I have never felt more (or less) like Jennifer Lopez.
"I'm bringing sexyback (yeah)
Them other boys don't know how to act (yeah)
I think it's special what's behind your back (yeah)"
Gaam gets at least 1 star for having my boyfriend's song (that would be Justin Timberlake once he's done wasting time with Biel) available for me to butcher on my birthday. For my birthday we rented out one of the larger rooms at Rosen (they have 2 large rooms) so my friends and I could deafen each other. It was a blast! We were given 2 microphones, tattered song books and a flat screen TV. The staff was great and they kept us good and hopped up on Hite and Chamisul.
I am not Korean, if you couldn't tell by my photo. So, I enlisted my Korean friend's help in making the reservations and I'm glad I did. Just by sheer fact of her Koreanness, they offered her a discount...until her Korean started to falter and they realized she might not be authentic enough. Either way the price ended up being pretty decent (she'd called around to other karaoke places to compare). For 12 people, 2 hour room rental and lots of alcohol, the total was only $220.
My favorite thing about Rosen is the random assortment of videos that accompany the songs: A happy Korean couple skipping through wildflowers during "Nookie"; a tense and tear-filled goodbye scene at a train station during "Mr. Brightside." The best was what appeared to be an animated Korean hip-hop work-out video to "U Can't Touch This." They also score your performance after each song, which seems totally arbitrary, because I scored 90% and above several times and I know I wouldn't make it through round 1 of American Idol.
Their song book could use better organization - I would have liked to be able to search by artists. When you've had ## shots of soju and a few soju cocktails, it's not that easy to recall song titles. There were a few songs that I wanted to "sing", but couldn't find. However, for the most part there was a large selection of English songs available.
I recommend Rosen if you're looking for a fun night out with friends. I also recommend bringing along at least one Korean for street cred and possible money savings.
I felt the need to review this place only because of one thing (and i'm NOT going to sugar coat it) - our room smelled like poop...I think our room vent was connected to their bathrooms and/or the LA Sewage System. By the way, that is room #24 for your reference.
I don't ever go karaoking in K-Town, let alone go there, so I feel ill-equipped for comparison/review, but I had an overall fun experience at this place (except for inconvenience of above said smell).
It seems like a big, popular place, parking is easy (you just do valet in the back for about $2), and staff is helpful and nice. I was a bit disappointed they didn't have yogurt soju, but they sell carafes of flavored soju like strawberry, peach, melon, etc for $17.50 (good for like 10-12 shots). And according to the bar guy, yogurt soju gives you headaches....so....fine.
Music selection was as good as a decent karaoke place gets, and our room had two screens in there for optimal visual while singing. Anyway, would go back again, just not to that room.
omg i so forgot!
i was thinking of what places i have not reviewed that significantly stand out and Rosen came to mind. I had soooo much fun here. Came here to celebrate bday with my family of friends from work, right after work. we had a blast. they put you in a room, big tvs and all as you would in a karaoke spot and big booklet of songs, we were here for 5 hours singing loudly, eating messy fried food taking photos and just being goofballs while drinking apple souju. it would help if they had a translation for the remote in english, that would help big time! Hmm if i could change something it'd be better food, but hey, can't ask for too much as it is built for just fun on the mic. go rosen!
i'd definitely come back as cheesy as it sounds LOL
We were trying to get in a quick 2-hour karaoke session and boy did we ever! We went during the day on Saturday and it was empty! The rates were really cheap, 2 hours was $30. We didn't get any food, but I'm sure it would have been pretty good. We did get lemon soju. It was $17.99, which was a little expensive, but tasted really good.
Anyway, onto the karaoke. The room was really clean. The books were in a binder that you easy to look at and had a nice book cover. The equipment was what looked to be pretty standard with the classic saran wrap over the buttons. We were also given covers for the mics so that we didn't get/spread germs.
Sing/scream/yell/croon as loud or soft as you want. There's no limits here. Had a great time. If I'm ever down there again and happen to be looking for karaoke, I'll go back here.
Parking during the day is available in the back. At night, I'm sure it' a pain. Street parking with meters as well.
Who knew these places really existed?!?!?!
I swear I thought I was in an odd asian dramady sitcom or movie, but an experience it was none the less... Only in K-Town!!!
Private rooms for each party, with two mics and a giant remote to pick your songs. And quite a selection may I add!! "My Humps" to "Endless Love" and even Linkin Park, the Strokes, and Bon Jovi to Beyonce, *NSYNC, and Babyface!!!
Perfect place for the shy ones to come out of their shells and power out Kelly Clarkson's "Since you've been gone"; a group effort of Journey's "Don't stop believin'"; a true performers belt out ballad even Mariah Carey would be proud to hear; and of course the token 50Cent stuck in Jim Carrey's body performance!
Good people+ lemony good soju + karaoke= super good times!!!
My friends and I went during a "happy hour" so to speak, 2 pm -6 pm and the rooms are half off during those times. $10/hr for a small room, $15/hr for a medium sized room and $20/hr for a large room. After 6 pm I think the prices double, so this really is a good deal if you don't mind karaoke in the middle of the day. The guy was even nice enough to come 5 mins before 6 to let us know that the prices would go up if we stayed. He really didn't have to do that, so we were all appreciative of that.
My biggest complaint about this place though is the climate control in these rooms. Our room was not only freezing cold, but the freezing cold air was also pumping in the cigarette smoke coming from the other rooms. That is not cool. The arrangements on the songs as well as accompanying videos were a little weird, but I could overlook those if the room had not been filled with freezing cold smoky air.
Lemon Soju, private rooms, open til the crack of dawn and a million selections of songs to sing along to sober or drunk.....it can't get any better than Rosen. If you want a place where you can belt out a Journey song or dance to "My Humps" then this is the place to be.
Thank you Rosen for a good time and for accommodating me and friends til 3am in the morning.
Parking is a little strange---valet only but they give you back your keys. Uh, then shouldn't that be called "self-parking"? I guess it doesn't matter cuz you forget about that when you start throwing back the delicious Soju.
Definitely a great place to hang out with friends to sing your hearts out and have a good time!
We came here around 10pm on a Friday night. I was rather impressed with the setup of the place and the song selections. They had Taylor Swift's Love Story, Bleeding Love, Single Ladies, and all the recently released songs on their machines. Very impressive! I've been to another karaoke place, and this one tops it big time. We had a pretty big private room, and servers came in constanly to check on us to clean up the drinks or ask for more orders.
The price was also very good. There had to be at least 20 of us there, sang/drank for 3+ hours, and I think it only cost about $30/person.
If my girlies come out to the area, we are definitely gonna go here...
*As a side note, I thought it was hilarious that they put videos in the background of the songs that had nothing to do with the songs we sang =P...
Another quality karaoke bar... run of the mill Korean Karaoke bar on the outskirts of K-town. The place is huge with tons of rooms and it's great for big groups. The cost isn't too bad... for a small room on a Friday or Saturday night, it's about $15-20 an hour.
Tip 1 - you need to enter through the parking lot entrance... there's no street entrance
Tip 2 - if you want newer English songs, you'll find them in the last section of the song book (they're randomly placed, grouped together, in the last section)
On a recent Friday evening, I was inspired to potentially change careers. No, not to be a karoke singer - that wouldn't be fun for anyone (though I sing with such passion! A for effort!)
But to be a Korean Karoke video producer? Now that seems like a lucrative gig. All one has to do is film people in random situations and then put them together to music. Singing "Under the Sea?" Show people putting out a fire! Singing "Sweet Caroline"? Put a nun together with a desperate-looking guy who's writing her letters about puppies!
Honestly, the videos were more entertaining than the singing.
We had a lot of fun at Rosen. We went for a friend's birthday party, and he rented out a HUGE room - probably 40-50 people fit there comfortably. The drinks were relatively strong, though I didn't buy any, so I can't attest to their priciness. (Nor can I attest to the room rates). My only reason for docking a star is that the room was absolutely FREEZING to the point I was shivering, even with my coat on, even with 50 people around me, and even with the heat from the videos to warm me. The scoring is arbitrary - the one girl who could actually sing (aka, have a voice decent enough to audition for American Idol) consistently got the worst scores. I got a 98% on "Step by Step" by the New Kids. A shining moment for me.
My friends and I decided to have our first annual Korean Karaoke Showdown last night. We appointed our token Korean speaking friend to make reservations for the group. We got to Rosen and began the fiasco that is karaoke. The Hite and Soju were flowing and the "Bohemian Rhapsody" was rockin' hard. We enjoyed our 2 1/2 hour stint and decided to call it a night after a group rendition of "My Girl" with a whopping score of 100%! We were on cloud 9 because we had such a great time. We even decided to make this a monthly to-do.
But then it was all dampened by the super shadiness of Rosen. I'm not sure if it's the supposed economic downfall, or if they were just shady jerks, but they decided to DOUBLE the room rate that they quoted to us TWICE over the phone. There was no misunderstanding when we booked the reservations because we had our reliable Korean translator.
Needless to say we were pissed. We ended up just paying the damn thing, but skipped on the tip which we totally would have given in the first place.
Karaoke is a joyful occasion that is meant to bring drunk people together in non-perfect harmonies. Not a place to rip potential repeat customers that love the free flow of alcohol.
Bad form Rosen. Bad form.
I wanted to put one star for the experience, but I added the 2nd for the sake of the holidays.
Goggle Gobble
Just held a bachelor/ette party here, and learned the following:
If you buy a certain amount of alcohol, you get a free hour. From what I could tell, it's A LOT of alcohol. For our room, this task was headed by two guys, who bought at least 30 shots and some beers. Maybe it was 40 shots.
There's an upstairs with two larger rooms. There isn't an elevator and the stairs are very steep; if you have someone who can't handle stairs, make sure to note that when you reserve a room. The upstairs does have its own little one-person restroom.
The books have different songs in them. If there's a song you really think Rosen ought to have and you can't find it in the book you're looking in, check another.
Rosen does not care if you bring a cake.
The downstairs women's restroom has a red glitter sink...the bowl of which is SHAPED LIKE A HEART!!!
OHMYGOD I HAD SUCH A GREAT TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'd only done karaoke once in my life, at a bar, and I'd…
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This place is hilarious! They have the most random selection of songs (English and Korean) and the English karaoke songs are *NOT* the original version but a Korean Karaoke-fied (complete with synth) version of the track. Every song comes with its own music video comprised of random Asian couple sorting through the metropolis (he's in love with her, she's a good two shoes and he gets into several physical altercations with greasy meat head - all the while trying to chase down the love of his young and undeveloped life).
Although amusing experience, I would not be heading back, nor would I recommend going there to any hardcore karaoke fans.
Ahhhh K-Town. I never roll to this hood until Yelp. Now I'm discovering all these weird things like real korean bbq, real korean people, korean valet, korean liquor, and most recently korean karaoke.
Rosen is all kinds of hip yo. Toss your keys to the valet. Pimp strut in and get directed to a very clean room with a good size flat screen tvs.
The joint closes at 4 am but last call is at 3. We know cuz we tried to order liquor and the boy says, "you can order but on the condition that it would be completely gone in 10 minutes.." (L O L)
Anyway. Back to me. I was sad cuz some of my songs didn't come up yo! WTF. Damn machines! Why can't they work properly! I want to sing Little Mermaid!
Wait. Unless....you guys kept deleting my selections! cuz no one else had problem with their songs.
That's fucked up yo.
:*(
Rosen is absolutely my favorite place in the world. Open 'til 4am and relatively cheap when you split the bill amongst a few friends. Giant Hite beers are something like $4 and go a long way toward a good time.
Rosen has a decent selection of english songs, but this is really the only area they could stand some improvement. Top notch equipment that seems to be consistently upgraded every time I make it out.
Their garlic fries and calamari are delicious and essential for 2am karaoke fests.
some of my best memories have been at rosen. they have plenty of parking and a decent english language selection. they also have a full-bar for those lushes in your party that insist on getting faded before they sing. (lame)
they also have korean food. good stuff. a big plate of dukboki is yummy goodness. what's even better is they have really large rooms and don't give you ktown attitude like you need to look like you drive a benz, wear a ysl handbag, and speak perfect korean.
there ain't no colorlines when it comes to greenbacks people.
4 stars
This is my preferred spot to sing whenever I have the urge to sound like a dying duck trying to belt his last quack.
The songs are separated by language in a thick book. They have Chinese, Japanese, Indian Chief, Korean, and English songs. For the people who are looking for more recent songs, there are a small portion of songs listed on the last few pages of the books, mixed in with recent songs from other countries.
If you're having problems using the remote, I suggest you learn how to read Korean characters. If you don't have the patience to learn another language just for the sake of sounding as Hung as William, simply enter the song number you want and hit the large yellow button to reserve the song. If the song doesn't appear on the screen, hit the blue button to start. The pink button cancels the song so use that button when you erroneously entered a wrong song or if your friend is butchering a good song. Be aware that if you think you're saving your eardrums by "accidentally" canceling your friend's song, your friend may insist on singing the song from note one, thus prolonging the tortuous cacophony.
You can order food (about $12 per plate) and alcohol (the Lemon Soochu for $12.95 is pretty weak but can get you messed up if you drink a lot of it quickly). Last call for alcohol is 2:00 pm and they are usually pretty strict about enforcing this policy.
Not too many people know about this but there are two large rooms available upstairs. One can hold about twenty people and the other can hold closer to 30. There is also a small bathroom located upstairs as well. The guys bathroom downstairs still has a busted door lock since the first time I frequented this place in 2003 so if its number two for you, be ready to share your poo.
Fun, loved the images chosen for the songs.
I thought there was a decent selection of songs in English, however random they seemed to be.
SO many Non-hanGOoks come here...
its so weird... cuz i always thought of noe rae bang as one of those places you go with FOBS?...
my friends and i cant really sing.. (okay.. okay..) its really ME who cant sing... but yeah... i LOVE~ dancing and singing! hahah especially wen your drunk.. i came here not too long ago.. after clubbing... its bigger... and nicer than the other nrbs that i would normally go to... even with the HUGE rooms.. and better sound systems.. i still like kkae kko ri~~~
so yeah... NO LIKEY for me...
this place SERIOUSLY is a BUZZ KILL!!
:)
Noraebang: small to medium-sized private room containing karaoke equipment for a group of friends to rent in timed increments; literally means "song (norae) room (bang)" in Korean
Those who know me know I will cut a bitch to karaoke. I consider karaoke a blood sport and I consider myself a winner and all-around jock in this SPORT OF BLOOD. So when offered the opportunity to go with a group of friends to Koreatown LA to sing karaoke, well, I jumped at the idea. And by jumped I mean I squealed like a little girl and flailed my moobs wildly until they hit a small child. Tit for tat, bitches!
If you have not had the pure auditory pleasure of hearing me sing karaoke, then you are missing out. My knock-em-out artists of choice are System of a Down and Lil Jon but I also like to keep it real with some Snoop Dogg, Linkin Park, and maybe, just maybe, Petula Clark. This is when I'm alone and life is making me lonely. Rosen had just the songs for that.
So we order up a bunch of food (mmmmm, korean fried chicken....), some OB (Oriental Beer), hella bottles of Hite (Korean Beer), and HELLA bottles of lemon soju, which actually came served in a used bottle of Patron. CLASSY!
One thing I noticed about Korean karaoke is that GOD DAMN KOREANS ARE HELLA EMO AND DRAMATIC! Effing serious, yo! Like, I will parlay the situation back to you as best I can, but the background videos behind the lyrics might some of the most depressing images I've ever heard in my entire life. So here goes.
I stand up on stage, and by stage I mean just the floor, but it's my fucking fantasy bitches, bitches, and in my fantasy I am a KARAOKE GOD:
Me: Turn around.... Every now and then I get a little bit lonely and you're never comin round
TV: [Shows a Korean man (I'm just gonna call him Euge cause that's funny) kissing his baby son AJ]
Turn around... Every now and then I get a little bit tired of listening to the sound of my tears
[Euge hugging his baby momma Cindy who is drunk]
Turn around... Every now and then I get a little bit nervous that the best of all the years has gone by
[Oh crap, Euge's going to war and leaving behind his life]
Turn around... Every now and then I get a little bit terrified and then I see the look in your eyes
[Euge fights for battle; Euge's BFF Hen loses an arm]
Turn around, Bright Eyes
[Hen dies in battle, Euge is crying]
Every now and then I fall apart...
[Euge tries to kill himself, fails]
Turn around, bright eyes...
[Sergeant Lou.eazy finds out Euge has been attempting suicide, Euge is dishonorably discharged from the army]
Every now and then I fall apart!
[Euge returns home to his baby momma and son]
And I need you now TONIGHT.
[Baby momma crunk Cindy finds out Euge has been dishonorably discharged]
And I need you more than EVER.
[Baby Momma crunk Cindy dumps Euge, takes son AJ, throws Euge into the street! Oh Snap! We want prenup!]
And if you'll only hold me tight...
[Euge sleeps on the street, Bum named Grace pees on him]
We'll be holding on forever...
[Euge wipes Grace's pee off my stomach, must destroy shirt, spends rest of song shirtless]
And we'll only be making it right...
[Shirtless Euge gets pants stolen from him by purple shirt wearing white devil named JT]
Cause we'll never be wrong...
[Handsome kind gentleman named Salty meets Euge, turns out Salty's cousin went to high school with Euge, start smoking cigarattes together in patented Asian crouch]
Together we can take it to the end of line...
[Time passes, Euge is now a grown old crazy man bum]
Your love is like a shadow on me all the time...
[AJ is now grown! And he is now the whitest person in the world]
I don't know what to do, I'm always in the dark
[White AJ meets his father for the first time]
I'm living in a powder keg and giving off sparks!!!
[AJ takes his father crazy man bum Euge home, has him meet his wife named Berna]
I REALLY NEED YOU TONIGHT
[Euge steals jewelry from Berna who is distracted because she is planning a prom in Oakland]
FOREVER'S GONNA START TONIGHT
[Euge returns to life on the street]
FOREVER'S GONNA START tonight.......
[Euge sells jewelry for soju, ends up drunk, alone, suicidal, and still Korean and short]
Once upon a time I was falling in love, now I'm only falling apart
[Drunk baby momma Cindy reappears in Euge's life]
Nothing I can say
[Except for....]
Total Eclipse of the Heart.....
[Cindy is now a man named Suge and is hung like a horse]
Turn around Bright Eyes...
[Euge and Suge walk off into the sunset together, comforted that their names are only apart by one letter]
UPDATED- 5/26/08
They recently renovated and each room has plasma tvs. My favorite noreabang in Ktown now. Oh, and a special for crown...49.99. SOLID!
--------------------------------
Imagine this...12 Monkeys..the movie with Brad Pitt...testing facility...the scientist walk in...the monkeys start chanting and pounding their heads against the cage...
THAT IS ROSEN! As you walk through the aisle of private rooms....
To your left, a group of young fobby Chinese/Koreans wearing wigs and giving each other lap dances...
To your right, you have a group of African American guys/gals wearing bandannas doing the C-walk...
And did you just walk past a group of people freaking each other to Sir Mix a lot? All while pounding soju from a Patron bottle? really? baby got back? that back?!?!!?!
There is nothing more enjoyable for the Slut family than doing some norebang on bday nights. Crown is usually 89 bucks. The garlic fries are AMAZING! Valet is only 1.50. A much better deal and song selection than Orchid.
5 years ago, institutions like this were PACKED with Koreans. On Saturday, I barely saw a Korean. What that means is...if you aren't Korean or haven't tried norebang, GO NOW. It's not an exclusive thing anymore. Everyone is doing it.
Who does karaoke bars anymore? Where else in LA can you act like a bunch of monkeys and get away with it?
Let's get through the basics first. Valet is 4.50, don't try to find street parking, you will fail! The room we got was around $50/hour for around 20 people. Cheap valet, cheap rooms, delightful! The rooms were amazingly clean, and comfortable with a good, loud sound system. The downside to that is everyone outside your room can hear you "sing," but after half a bottle of vodka you don't seem to care for whatever reason. The restroom upstairs was just as clean as the room we were in. Amazing.
The sucky part about this place was it's bar, if you can even call it that. Imagine a college student's kitchen during a house party, but clean. A fridge with a windowed door behind the bartenders housed the beer and mixers. Their selection of liquor consisted of JD, Crown, and Captain Morgan and I didn't check to see if they had any tequila. NO GIN! Minus one star for the "bar."
On to the fun part and it started with 1/4 of a bottle of vodka finished:
There was no parking so we had to valet. We reached the back entrance and saw an older Korean man stumble and laugh while spilling his coffee. "You see, it's not just us," I slurred to my friend. We stepped inside and were asked for our IDs (carded in K-town, odd) and were escorted to the room where our other friends awaited. I noticed on the table a sheet in a plastic sleeve: Patron = $170, Crown = $110. Whatever, we had a bottle of vodka in the trunk of the car. Went downstairs to get a drink, beers were 4.25, my JD rocks was 7. The bartender poured 1.5 jiggers into a rocks glass filled to the top with ice, and, yes, he used a jigger. I was sucking ice like the girl in that Disaronno commercial but sexier and prettier.
3/4 of a bottle later, two quotes will suffice:
"Sir, what are you doing? Sir, what are you doing?" Said to us by one of the employees with a thick, Korean accent.
and
"Well, what do they expect putting wheels on chairs?" Said my friend in a thick, drunk accent.
Chair duels upstairs, friends crashing into each other and onto the floor, you can imagine the commotion downstairs.
Vodka finished:
Dancing to thriller, friend is fucking with one of the speakers hanging from the wall, jumping up and down on the couches, and trying to be as loud as we can with the tamborines like true rockstars.
well,
had to go here for a friends birthday, was sure i'd stay an hour and then make an excuse...suddenly i am singing the songs that came up that nobody claimed...britney spears, george michaels, pantera, judas priest, UB40...
really a fun fun place. i didn't try to sneak in any alcohol but it seemed like it would be easy.
$2.00 valet!!!!
I haven't been to Rosen since HS and that my friends seems like eons ago. Damn I feel mad old. I even remember there being a pool hall called Solid adjacent to this place. You would always find wanna-be gangsta asian boiz and girlz playing hooky and smoking out back. After logging an hour or two at norebang; we would head over to K-town plaza to grub and take sticker pics. LOL..good times~
Judging from the recent reviews, it seems the place isn't as ghetto as it used to be. I give you four stars just for sentimental reasons.
bad song arrangement but HEY
for a karoake it's pretty cool
haha people talk about their memories they have made
and its true...
us koreans and the damn mic
but the parkings gayer than a sack of crap
so we normally park at a friends apartment two blocks away
For the past few years, Rosen has been our stand-by noraebang. The music selection is always decent and hip, prices are reasonable, and all the normal k-town rules apply.
However, our most recent venture to Rosen definitely upped it a few spots in my mind. We had a group of ~12 and spent over 2 hours there. We ordered a hefty number of anju plates, 8ish bottles of baeksoju+lemons, a dozen sodas, and maybe 2 dozen large bottles of hite. The bill: $250.
Now either their math sucked, they hooked us up, or our friend Jung earned her title of ktown queen. In any case, I was drunk, full, and got to sing my ass off so I was a happy camper.
Neighborhood: Koreatown
Category: Karaoke
Neighborhood: Koreatown
Category: Karaoke
Neighborhood: Koreatown
Category: Karaoke
Neighborhood: Koreatown
Category: Karaoke
Los Angeles, CA
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