Karaoke Box - Smithfield

This place is a great start to the night, or end to the night. Came here twice during my visit to London and had a blast both times. The drinks were flowing, the music was off the hook, and the company was even better. The service was prompt.

This would be fun, if you had a group and a planned even. So this is not a type of place you can walk into and put your name on a list and wait and go sing for fun. This is a posh place that is set up with private rooms. So this is the perfect scenario if you don't want to sing karaoke in front a big crowd and only want to hang with your friends.

Personally I'd rather just be a free for all and get to see everyone. In the middle they have a big dance area with a DJ, but when I came in no one was there to dance so it was a drag. The Karaoke rooms were filled and my friends and I hung around for about 30 minutes before we decided to leave. It was a Friday night and there were plenty of other bars in the area that were full of a good time, and we opted to go there instead since we would not be able to get a karaoke room.

Great Friday night spent here. Good music selection, decent drinks. Would definitely return.

If you want to have a good old sing at the top of your lungs, this place will cover your needs. The extras are a little harder to come by. Having booked my room, I wandered down the stairs into the main club, and huddled in on myself as the wind whistled and tumble weed blew by. Yes the place was deserted. I had to wait a while to even find someone to serve me some beers. The bar itself is attractive but on this particular Tuesday night, not overly well stocked as they were out of a couple of things I wanted.

The room for ten that I was in was rather barren and uninspiring. In fairness I am yet to sing in a karaoke room who's interior artistic endeavour has stretched beyond paint and sofas to sit on. On the plus side, the karaoke system was easy to use and the sound quality was great. Our screaming rock vocals didn't seem to bother any of the surrounding patrons once they eventually arrived, although one gent did decide to join us due to are throwing everything we had into each performance.

There is a Japanese inspired food menu which is fine for nibbling, and the beers we ordered were affordable and cold. They serve cocktails which sound nice, and I am told on the weekend the place is pumping with a real club vibe. On this early week visit I was not overally impressed, and it is unlikely I will return for a weekend soiree.

Let me say straight off - I went to Karaoke Box as part of a work night out, and therefore didn't pay my own way. The rooms are expensive to hire (something like £60 per hour at peak times for a mid-sized room) - although if you split that between a group it's actually not that bad.

The rooms are completely sound proofed and furnished with leather-style sofas, large screens for the lyrics, and obviously a song selection touchscreen device and a pair of microphones.

The choice of songs was faultless - there was nothing I tried to add to the playlist that they didn't have in the library. It was also easy to use the system, which isn't always the case!

The staff weren't the most friendly, and there were some incredibly drunk people who had to be escorted out of the bar. But, I guess that's to be expected with a place that's open to late into the wee hours!

Would I pay out of my own pocket to go back here? Maybe not. Would I engineer a work night out so that we ended up here? Definitely!

I didn't know Karaoke is like a thing in London, and that there are actually more than one venue for these things. Unfortunately my first experience in London had been the most terrible experience at any karaoke bar/lounge.

I can't hate on the fact that they don't have original music videos to accompany their large selection of British and American pop music of the last few decade, but blue screen with words highlighted not in sync with the actual music? What makes it even worse is that you have no way of tuning the music. Our music was completely off and there's no way to fix it. 50 quid for a room for an hour or something without food or drinks. Why does anyone come to this place is waaaay beyond me.

Before I knew about the wonders that is the UYE Karaoke a la Tristan J, I decided to try this place with Jane G and Nimz P for a bit of fun, who doesn't love a casual singsong!

We went on a Tuesday, booking in advance just in case. We didn't need to, it was empty. We went in and got our bottled water confiscated for us but a bored bouncer, not a great start. But he said he'd keep it for us to pick up later, always nice. We were shown to our booth (£35 for an hour and seats up to 7 people). I thought it was small for 7 people, but we were 3 and so it was lovely. You could get a 3 person booth for £20 which might be better and is not crazily small.

Good choice of songs (no musical/ show tunes but you can't have everything). Wine started at £20 which is a bit annoying. We only booked an hour but got 90 minutes because it was quiet, always good.

The background for the songs was weird and some of the songs themselves weren't originals. But the sound system was good and you could alter the levels manueally which is a nice touch. The song selector was easy to work, so overall I was satisfied.

Bring on more UYE though!

I came here with some other yelpers for a good sing along. We had a good sing along and a good time. The venue is easy to find. We did pre-book as we were not sure how busy it will be. However it was empty when we went, it was a good thing as we got an extra half hour for free which was great!

On behalf of my very very disappointed boyfriend!

Overly expensive with rude and unhelpful staff. The speakers in the booth were distorting and couldn't handle any bass, making all but the quietly song bearable. If this wasn't enough I felt very unwell and had to leave early. Feeling unwell and being a non-drinker I bought some water from them to take with me but they wouldn't let me leave without it, snatching it from me aggressively despite me saying it was only water. I would definitely not recommend this place!

Being a karaoke-bar-virgin I was really excited to go to Karaoke Box and was completely open to how it would look/feel/be..... We went on a Wednesday night (it being my birthday!) and the main bar area was pretty empty although it was only 8.30ish. We were shown to our 7-man room which was pretty ugly and soul-less. It had a faux-leather brown L-bench, one of which was broken and the seat kept flapping off.

We made use of the drinks button straight away and started off the singing machine. The screen search was easy to use although didn't always find the song straight away, and the letters often didn't correspond to what you pressed. Service and drinks came relatively quickly although they don't leave the menu with you. We didn't try any food.

All in all a good night, you were able to sing you heart out in two hours - we would have liked another hour to be honest. The only criticism is that on certain Wednesdays they have 'Rockaoke' in the main bar area and it is soooo loud that it drowns out your own music. A plus side is that the bar area became a bit more occupied.

Would return, although might try another venue to see if the decor gets any more classy......... A pricey night too - although that could be blamed mainly on that drinks button!