08/31/08

Shady Management

by artny27

We've been a few times and generally have a good time but the last few times, the manager insist we take an empty room knowing damn well that one of the speakers were not working. He spoke in Japanese to his staff and told them that we wouldn't know the difference. Fortunately, after double majoring in Japanese, I heard everything. I would avoid this place for there are far better places in Manhattan where the management are not as nasty toward non-japaneses.

• Pros: Descent pricing by the hour
• Cons: Shady management and bad service

07/15/08

Extremely rude and nasty.

by focuspuller

I don't know where to begin. The place is well located and the rooms are ok. But the staff are truly horrible! My wife put together a birthday party for me in one of the rooms. Even though she booked 3 hours days in advance we were told that room was needed after two hours. I didn't have a problem with that. But we had a large party and spent a lot of money on food and drink. After we left the room we went to the bar. While ordering yet more drinks my wife was eating a cup cake that she had brought with her for the party. The female bartender yelled (and I mean yelled) at her telling to stop eating it or leave. I was in shock. But that wasn't the only time they were rude. They just aren't nice. They try and rush the orders and even after you spend lot of money they're still nasty. The whole thing left a bad taste to the point that I wanted to write about it here. The word is that The mid-town Japas (I think it's called Japas 27) is much better. I will try that but as for this place, I'm never coming back. I hope you all do the same.

• Pros: good location
• Cons: rude and very nasty bartenders

06/25/08

Best karoake

by DIVA6817

This place is good but Japas 38 is better..the rooms are awesome the staff is super nice and the song selection is the really extensive.

My friends and I are karoake junkies so we def know where the best places are.

05/19/08

Great for a birthday celebration!

by candy1281

A friend and I planned to have another friend's birthday here last Saturday and I am so glad we did! There were 11 of us and they gave us the huge room in the back and brought us 2 trays of sushi and fried foods! It wasn't the best food, but it was a lot better than what I expected! The group, as always, was running late and our waiter waited to serve us alcohol until the rest of the group showed which was nice because our time didn't start until everyone arrived. We were lucky there wasn't a party immediately after ours. Anyways, we never had an empty glass. It was so much fun, we ended up staying an extra hour! We would've stayed longer if the room wasn't reserved for another party! So for 3 hours for all we could eat, drink, and sing, we paid $55pp including tax and tip! Great deal if you ask me and we will be back!

• Pros: Unlimited drinks, great prices
• Cons: Not the best song selection, but you can always find something!

04/21/08

Fun karaoke joint- specially for groups

by greattimes99

A few of my friends at work thought this would be a great spot to go to for my birthday. We all went, bought an insane amount of saki and sung it out. The song selections seem to be the basic stuff you have heard on the radio, or better yet, something that all your friends could recall. This worked well in my group because we all sang out loud to each others songs!

It's a pretty tight space, but it was great that we got there early on a Friday night and took over the entire sitting area by the window. It was about 12-14 of us there. I think its great if you go with a bunch of people you know, but I could see it being kind of corny if you go alone...

The food was pretty yummy, no complaints there. And I think the prices are fair.

• Pros: 1.50 per song, Fair prices for food/drink
• Cons: Small space, Don't go if you're looking for a karaoke stage

04/13/08

bad kareoke bar, worse service.

by eyespy666

I've been to a lot of bars in the city, and more then a few kareoke bars, and I have to say honestly, this is one of the worst ever. The song selection is terrible. Then the service. Where do I begin? Horribly rube. A male bartender actually tried to start a fight with me. The management is only concerned with one thing, getting the customers in and out. Unfortunately, they let you smell it.

This is your worst nightmare of a kareoke bar (or at least mine), avoid at all costs.

• Pros: none
• Cons: bad song selection. horrible service

08/17/07

GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!

by okigirl

I've been to Japas 55 a few times and each time I go there, I'm always disappointed! The staff is rude (except 2 of the young ladies at the bar), the song selection is bad, and due to some nyc ordinance, they can't turn the music up so it's muffled and very very low! Also, they go by groups in order to sing, so you will have to wait at least an hour before you can sing, and if you come with a large group, forget about it! It will take an eternity to get your song in unless your whole group sings songs together. It's not a fun place -- if you want to stay uptown, go to Japas 38 instead or go down to Karaoke 17--they know how to treat customers, and especially Karaoke 17, they have a more up to date song list and a wide variety of artists.

Happy Karaoke-ing!

• Pros: They have a restaurant-style food menu
• Cons: Bad service, poor song selection, long wait times, poor ambience

Editorial Review by Marcella Veneziale

by Contributor

Catch a glimpse of the upright Midtown crowd as they loosen up with Japanese beers like Sapporo and karaoke crooning.

03/02/04

HEAR ME SING!

by danster123

I am not the Karaoke sort of person but I loved this place. My co-workers and I took our clients from Arizona here and they loved it! We reserved a private room and sang all night. The food was ok but the fun more than made up for it.

• Pros: Fun, Karaoke

02/06/04

55 has gone downhill... go to 38 instead

by zouah

I have gone to Japa's 55 many many times. The first few times a couple of years ago were awesome! But then it went downhill. The service isn't all that great, they get pissed if you're not drinking enough, even though you are paying a dollar a song to sing. After a few visits, you've pretty much sung all the songs you want to sing. They really need to expand their English song choices. The 38th st location is so much better. (They don't even have it listed on Citysearch) The service is better, more organized, and the place is 100 times bigger.

• Pros: Location
• Cons: , Size, Service