Café U & I

For the price, I would recommend trying Café U & I for karaōke (not for food or drink).
Selection: The Korean selection is great. The Japanese song selection is decent. It’s much better than Karaōke Express. I don’t remember the last time the overall English catalog was updated, but it has a good and fun selection. It’s not exactly in step with the Billboard/​Oricon charts, but there are a few English and Japanese songs added on each update. (If what you’re looking for is more recent, a good tip is to look in the very back of the book, where the monthly catalog update pages are located.)
Hours of Operation: One of the greatest advantages of this place is that it is open until 4 AM pretty much everyday, where most karaōke places close at 2AM. If you’re planning to go late at night (after midnight) it might be good to make a reservation, as we have shown up at 2:00 AM after bars close to find that there is no availability for the rest of the night.
Drink: Speaking of bars, if you want to drink, don’t expect to have much of a selection here. Drink first, Café U & I after. Sometimes the staff will bring in free snacks, which is awesome.
Room: Average. The sound isn’t as well insulated as other places and the décor could use some help. The machine isn’t brand new, but it works well and there’s good speakers and lights. Some mics aren’t that great, though, so test them out when you get into the room. The light up tamborines don’t really work, but that doesn’t really mean much to me.

I like to come here when I’m already in the complex because of Shilla, and when other places are too busy. The nice part about this place is that it is almost NEVER busy, so even on Friday nights, it is a good default place. Unlike some people, I’ve never had my car towed, so can’t speak to that, and I guess it’s all relative whether you think $ 30/​hour for a 6-​person room is expensive. Compared to NYC, that’s a steal, but yes, you can find cheaper places in Annandale. Even so, if you stay a good long while (3 hours or so), the owner will usually also give you some free time or toss in some free food or a discount. And… I’ve definitely had beer served here before, so I don’t know about people being told the establishment doesn’t serve alcohol.
Sound quality is a bit lacking here (mics don’t pick up your voice so well — they seem old), and the walls aren’t as well sound-​proofed as I’d like, but they do the job.
As far as song selection goes, I don’t understand when people complain about there not being a good English selection. If you’re in Annandale, you have to expect the establishments to cater to Korean patrons. That being said, the songbooks are not updated as frequently as the machines are, so if you search for songs/​artists, you will frequently find them when you can’t find them in the books.
And, I’ve never done this before, but I’m cutting and pasting my how-​to guide for working the remote controls from Dain Café to here, b/​c they (as in nearly all karaōke places) use the same controls.
To input songs:
Type in the number and press the big rectangular yellow button («reserve») underneath the blue button. The yellow button has the notepad looking icon on it. If you are successful, the song’s number should appear at the top of the screen, indicating it is on deck. To cancel a song, when it comes on the screen, hit the red button underneath the numbers. If for some reason the music stops, hit the blue button («start») above the reserve button to move on to the next song.
For other commands, starting from the upper left corner of the control box:
1. To raise or lower the pitch of the song, hit the two square yellow buttons (with the up and down arrows) on the top two rows, far left.
2. To speed up or slow down the tempo of the song, move one button over to the right from the pitch buttons.
3. To adjust the melody (not sure how this differs from pitch), move one button over to the right.
4. To adjust the echo from the mic, hit the two round yellow buttons, one over to the right of the melody buttons.
5. To adjust the volume of the mics, move one button over to the right of the echo buttons.
6. To adjust the volume of the music, move one button over to the right of the mic volume button.
7. To skip the bridge of each song and shave off a few minutes (b/​c remember, you’re paying by the hour!), hit the white rectangular button to the immediate right of the music volume button (right underneath that black line on the top row).
8. For applause, hit the rectangular gray button immediately below the music volume buttons (4^th column from the left).
9. To turn off the scoring system (in case you’re getting terrible scores or you just want to save time), hit the 2^nd rectangular gray button in the third column from the left.
Eventually, I will translate the search buttons, but I’m tired right now.

Came here for the first time yesterday and definitely wouldn’t mind coming back again soon.
Prices are reasonable — $ 30 for an hour for a small room fitting 4 – 6 people. There was no wait even though we came on a Friday night. The rooms are very dim and the chairs aren’t too comfortable, but you’ll probably be dancing around ridiculously the whole night anyways.
The machines are a little hard to navigate if you don’t read/​speak Korean but I was able to figure it out within 20 minutes through trial-​and-​error and the accidental addition of a few weird songs… There’s a HUGE selection of Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, and of course, English songs and the selection is also surprisingly recent — Born This Way by Lady Gaga was on there and that song was just released a few weeks ago! A tip is to directly search for the songs or artists you want because the books have not been updated in a while to include these new releases.
Only complaint is that the rooms are poorly insulated/​soundproofed and you can hear pretty clearly what’s going on next door. But that’s a minimal point because you’ll be singing your heart out for the most part anyways.
Definitely a good time and worth checking out. Il Mee is in the same plaza so you can stuff your face afterwards :)

If ARA is too busy, swing by Café U & I. The rooms kind of suck, it’s kind of expensive (room for 4 – 6 people are $ 30/​hr), but they have karoke machines with the latest songs (I mean, California Gurls was on there). You know that there won’t be a wait if you come here. Right next to Il Mee, so you know that it’s in the heart of Koreatown.
I should really invest in a karaōke machine at home…

Whenever my friends and I are planning to go do some karaōke we always go to Café U&I. The service is great and the rooms are nicely decorated and furnished. They also do specials on certain nights such as half off the regular hourly rate, etc. The always have the latest songs since their upgrades come in daily as soon as songs are released in Korea. So if your ever looking to have fun or try something new, definitely head over to Café U&I. :)

I can’t believe I totally forgot to rate this place! This has been one of the karaōke staples in K-​ville, I mean Annandale for a while. If you go before a certain time, the karaōke is ½ off.
I always thought it was strange how they could make a lot from food service, but they really don’t push it! My feeling is that they want you to eat at Sections Two first before heading over there. I think they might be owned by the same people.
Every time I’ve been here, I’ve been treated extremely well. The staff are very polite. The only thing is that my friends usually complain when they come here because it doesn’t have a very large Chinese collection. I like it because it updates its song list and has the latest Korean and Japanese hits! But then again, the décor is a little better than Café Muse’s.
My pet peeve is parking, so if you go there on a busy night, good luck. Don’t park in the establishments next door. I can almost guarantee you will be ticketed. I don’t think it’s legal, but the tow trucks literally shark this area on busy days.
Bonus star for letting folks write on their Noraebang walls! Bring a sharpie!

Parking on a good day
you’ll be okay.
Compared to Café Muse?
I would definitely pay…
Coming here to sing & play…
The best place to go? I dare not say…
Café U & I…
I must imply…
Some upgrades are due…
Maybe some new songs too.

I can never decide between U & I and Café Muse.
U&I is cheaper and the computer system is at least 5 times faster, meaning less time spent on trying to figure out how to program songs… but it also means programming more songs than you realize you’ve lined up, so you end up staying several «just one more song“s later.
In comparison: CM has more top of the charts songs. U&I has a lot more old school songs. CM also has newer technology, better lighting and bigger space overall. U&I is kept pretty dark for the most part, and has older technology, but that’s what i’m used to.
CM’s drinks are also pretty expensive and U&I employees are faster at meeting your requests. U&I sometimes forgets to charge for drinks, but let’s keep that a secret… However, I should prolly warn you they only serve 4 – 5 different types of beers.
CM always has plenty of parking, and rooms are always available. U&I has a wait sometimes, and parking may seem full, but there’s always a couple spots open.
You can also leave your autograph on the walls of U&I, if that’s what floats your boat.
Usually, it comes down to: Do I feel like rockin out to ‘Enter Sandman’ and some Papa Roach? (U & I) Or would I rather sing along to whatever my radio’s playing? (CM)
And PS — if you’re nervous about belting out in the one octave your voice stays in… don’t sweat it. Everyone that goes in whining and complaining that they’re not gonna have fun… comes out wishing we could stay longer and planning when we’ll be back. It’s

**WARNING! After discussing this with Kevin L, I need to give you some advice (worth about $ 140 USD). DO NOT PARK IN THE LOT BEHIND IL MEE AND U & I on the hill. DO NOT. You will get your car towed by Dominion Towing Company who is in cahoots with the a*holes at the John Marr business center. It is not well posted. If you find yourself in the Super Petz lot or Popeyes — MOVE YER ARSE ASAP! Just make sure you use the spots DIRECTLY in front of Il Mee and U & I. It’s tricky because of the crappy feeder road, but worth it! By the way, it’s $ 125 for their «trouble» and $ 15 for the cab ride**

I’m pretty much in agreement with the other reviewers here. If I spoke Korean, I would probably give this place 3 or 4 stars, since the Korean song catalog seems to be really good and the machine is operated in Korean. But, for English songs, this place is pretty bad. As Devon pointed out, the worst part is that all the English songs are computer generated MIDI files. It’s as cheesy as you can get. Café Muse is a much nicer alternative and it’s only about 1 mile away. I will say, though, that Café U & I does seem to be a little cheaper than Café Muse, so if you are only going for the Korean songs, you might save a little money at Café U & I.

I suppose I like Café U & I more than the last two reviewers, but I go more for the Japanese selection, which isn’t bad. Not great, but not bad.
Considering this is in Annandale, aka Koreatown 1 (Centreville becoming Koreatown 2), it definitely caters more to Koreans as the Korean song selection is ginormous. If you go with someone who can read Korean, it’s better since you can get that person to decifer all the button options for you. I found out you can search by artist and song title, change the pitch or song speed, and all these other crazy options, but would never have known since everything on the controller is in hangul.
The last time I went we were bad and snuck in food and drinks, so the lack of drink service didn’t really bother us. The guy just asked us if we had brought alcohol, and then didn’t care when we said no and left. Hahaha.
One additional gripe is that they allow smoking. I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but even if no one is smoking in any of the rooms, the rooms still smells like smoke and will make you and your clothes smell like an ashtray when you leave.

I agree mostly with the last review, but here is why it only gets 2 stars off the bat. First of all, its karaōke so its going to be fun, so «having a good time singing with your friends» gets no points from me. Honestly, its like going to KFC and being like «5 stars for having chicken on the menu». The fact that I have a good time with my friends means little to a review.
Second, the service is not that great. Every time I’ve come there has been a problem with the sound equipment. They’ve even had to get a drill out and open the stereo to change the internal connections.
Third, the song selection and quality is horrible. The selection is relatively non-​existent, at least in english, and ALL of the songs are midi files. MIDI! If you don’t know what that is, think 1980 video game beeps. Or old school (circa late 90s) ringtones. Its bad.
Lastly, its expensive, and you don’t get any drinks. If you want to buy drinks, it costs a lot extra. Also, everything is in korean, so you can’t operate anything unless you speak and read korean.
On that note, if you do speak and read korean, this place might get another half a star, but I’ll let someone else handle that review.
Will I go again? Probably. Will I try to get someone else to pay? Even more probably.

This place is a lot of fun. It’s set up so that your group can rent a room for karaōke. People who are normally too shy to get up and sing can really let loose in this type of environment. It definitely encourages whole group songs, use of the tambourines provided, and ridiculous dancing that most of us would not be comfortable subjecting an audience to. The entire time is spent singing, or listening to your friends sing, without the need to wait patiently through a third stranger’s heartfelt rendition of «Heart of Gold.»
If the rating was based on the fun-​ness factor alone, I’d give this place a four.
I’m taking away a star because their beverage menu is limited. They offer a handful of bottled beers and some canned soft drinks; that’s about it.
I’m taking away a second star because the selection of songs in English is also limited. Note, there are some interesting choices here that I haven’t seen elsewhere, such as several songs from the Hedwig and the Angry Inch soundtrack.
One last issue is that it takes a little effort to make your own voice come out of the microphones. Initially, the reverberation tends to be cranked way up.up.up…up. When you sing it makes an ecco… ecco…ecco. We were able to resolve the issue, but it took the skills of a trained engineer amongst us.
VERY IMPORTANT TIP: be careful where you park. If you can’t park directly in front of U & I, or the buffet next to it, look carefully for towing signs. Two of my friends got towed last Friday, in a huge, empty, parking lot with one teeny tiny hidden little sign.
Overall, this is a very amusing place, and a great way to round out an evening of delicious Korean food. Again, BE CAREFUL WHERE YOU PARK.