Sakura Karaoke Bar

This place is very interesting. We went on a Wednesday night so it was pretty empty. When we walked in, we were greeted and immediately brought to a room. If you are a karaōke noob, make sure to ask because this style of karaōke was very new to me. Usually, in a korean-​style karaōke room, there is a remote type of device where you input the songs you want. But here, there is a screen attached to the wall where you do everything. This was pretty inconvenient because we had to constantly stay by the screen rather than holding a remote and sitting on the couch to pick our songs. It was also difficult to maneuver through the screen. When we tried to type a song, the system was really slow. But we still had a great time here! The service was great and very prompt! If you’re in the Chinatown area, it’s a great option for karaōke!
(P.S. 1Hour=$ 35)

Here for after dinner company outting for a group of 8 – 10 people.
The kareoke machine was very slow, and with many technical problems. Microphones volume and battery were not working upon our arrival and were adjusted during our time.
The service was great, they were very responsive and the cool tea cup button in all private rooms prompting service request. Drinks and, food were good. Fairly priced.
Music selection and room was okay. Needed a larger room but not alot of options to upgrade, only 1 VIP room that was reserved. All others rooms are small to small medium.

It was actually a lot better than I had expected! This place private karaōke rooms as well as a lounge are with a DJ. The DJs on Friday were actually really good. The private karaōke room was spacious and the music selection was extensive. Crowd is quite diverse and tends to be younger. The price for private karaōke room and drinks was pretty reasonable. I would definitely go back to sing.

Many Chinese new songs, and the biggest room is good for party! I have been there for couple times, used rooms and the public place also, both are good, and the cocktails are not bad.

Exactly how every drunken adventure should end. The song selection has serious depth – even if they have random shots from «Arrow» playing in the background of «Thunder Road» by Bruce. Food’s great too. Cool design that allows for large groups to not need to scatter. Also, the lights are on point.

The environment here is pretty swanky and nice, with nice little VIP-​style lounge sections with mostly-​comfortable seating. The staff is small (no this isn’t a jab at their heritage) but they’re very friendly and accommodating.
I also like that they have both a public karaōke as well as private rooms, although every time I’ve visited it has been during the week and we were literally the only people there besides the staff.
The potstickers, edamame and wings are pretty tasty.
Many of the songs that AREN’T in Chinese are up-​to-​date, modern pop with the actual videos playing along. It’s interesting that you can also have the song play the original if you’re worried about singing off key or if you «don’t remember how it goes,» it’s really helpful. The sound is pretty decent, as well.
So why three stars??? (In fact, I would have given two stars, but the staff is actually very nice and polite, so I didn’t want to be too much of a nag with a 2-​star).
The main reason is that they actually have a $ 15 minimum purchase per person. This was never mentioned to us the first time I visited, since I think almost everyone in our party ordered food and drink. But the second time they mentioned it several times. Luckily, they were very nice and didn’t really FORCE us to buy more, but they made it clear that next time (which there probably won’t be one, in my case) they have to stand firm in their «policy.»
The song selection is limited and doesn’t seem to have any karaōke classics. It’s ALL pop songs. And there is no KJ (karaōke DJ), the song rotation should be «first-​come-​first-​serve» but it’s really up to whoever’s tooling around with the system. And it IS Chinatown karaōke, so sometimes you might get a mis-​interpreted lyric up on the screen.
The drinks and food are rather expensive, especially for the portion sizes. It’s roughly $ 8 – 12 for appetizers; while they’re delicious, it just seems to be a bit much to not have an actual meal.
I don’t drink alcohol, but I do enjoy their mixed juice. I think I threw them off guard when I asked for something sweet but non-​alcoholic and had to instruct them to mix cranberry, orange and pineapple juice for a virgin mocktail.
Again, the biggest problem with this place is that minimum purchase. I don’t drink alcohol and if I just want to sing when I’m not in the mood to eat or spend $ 15 on appetizers, I shouldn’t be subjected to a minimum order; especially when the place is DEAD, other people in my party are spending money and I’m tipping almost as much as my drink costs ($ 3 for a juice).
For those of you who need to get that liquid courage before singing, or who are actually out to drink AND sing, this place is a great destination, and I would recommend it.
For you die-​hard karaōke crawlers who just want to sing (like me) and nurse your drink, probably not the place to go.

Reserved a large room a week ahead for a group of 11 through the phone for my birthday. The staff was very efficient and friendly. We enjoyed the nice sound system and updated songs as well as the private bathroom! Great place to chill with your friends in Chinatown!!! :)

I went here for my friend’s birthday party, it was my first time visit but this place surprised me. It had amazing sound effect and great snacks, and the servers were friendly and patient. Also, I was lucky to see their boss, a really nice young man. He send wine to my friend to celebrate her birthday. We had a great time that night, can’t wait to come again!

Sakura is my favorite karaōke bar in Chinatown. Lowkey and has the most updated songs out of the rest of them.

Only been here once and sang in the lounge. The lounge area is a lounge/​club set-​up, pretty neat. The décor is trendy and crowd is diverse. This place has the most diverse crowd i’ve ever come across at a Chinese KTV spot. The polar opposite of Pop KTV. Good selection of English songs and quality sound system.
For lounge area, each person is required to spend a min of $ 15. You can easily spend that with a couple dishes and shots. Will still come out cheaper than a room esp if you have a small group. The crowd is down to earth and will cheer you on and dance to your singing. If you’re really self-​conscious, there’s a full bar to ease your way on stage.
Warning: drinks are extremely weak and the shot glasses are deceiving. Each shot is equivalent to half a shot elsewhere. We got shots of Black Label whiskey — $ 7/​shot. On the flip side, drinking at this place will make your tolerance seem really impressive, b/​c you’ll be able to take double of what you normally can handle. :)

Underground and quite dark. The layout of this karaōke place compared to others I’ve been to before is a bit different. Only 2 or 3 private rooms (luckily our group of 10 got a room. With a reservation) and the rest of the place are couches with public karaōke singing. A stage where people take turns.
It’s cool inside and has a nice atmosphere. Not a fan of the prices and the scarcity of private rooms, but overall I had a good time. One time I had to go to the men’s bathroom because a group of girls were parading around and puking in the women’s. One of the staff was nice enough to let us go into the men’s bathroom (single/​private bathrooms).
I suggest making a reservation before stopping in if you want a private room.

We came here for my husband’s birthday. I called a few weeks ago to book a private room but they somehow screwed up our reservation. It was supposed to be form 9 to 11 but they made it for 10 to 12. After speaking with the manager, he told us they woulnd’t be able to change it but they did give us a complimentary round of drinks. Our group had a good time. Some of the songs have the original music videos but a lot of the songs have the most bizarre videos of what look like somebody’s European vacation in the 90s. Anyways, we still had a good time and the lychee martinis were tasty. However, I had 4 of these drinks, and I don’t have that high of a tolerance and I was not even drunk so I am thinking they are maybe slightly weak. Which is strange considering the whole thing is supposed to be a blend of different liquors. The point though is we had a fun time and would come back in the future. I have not been to other karaōke bars in Chinatown so I am not sure how this place compares to the others and that’s why it gets 3 stars.

I came here pretty drunk from in-​house drinking. It was okay. I was the only one singing, everyone was just standing around casually drinking. They were looking at me like I was a freak. Oh well, I didn’t care because I was buzzing. The drinks were ok; it didn’t matter what they tasted like at that point.

Love this place Great time with friends always Karaōke all night with drinks in your face. We won’t stop the party until world peace. LOL

Dumb place. Drinks are way too expensive, and they sorta talk to you at the door to make sure you are going to buy enough to warrant them letting you in. Then the Karaōke is pretty bad, meaning there are original vocals in most of the tracks, so you are singing along with the original artist, not singing by yourself, they have really cheesy karaōke versions of a lot of songs that don’t sound much like the original, the microphones are turned really low so you can’t really hear yourself, and the stage is like 6 inches off the ground and tiny. For a place that is all about karaōke, it’s priorities seem to be overpriced drinks and dumb lasers. Try the Blackhawk VFW Hall if you are looking for awesome Karaōke, not this place.

We came here for my fiancé’s birthday. We had a large group (over 15 people) and rented a room for two hours. This turned out to be less than $ 10 a person, so we were all happy.
The drinks were pretty affordable; beer buckets were $ 30, individual beers around $ 5. I will say we pre-​partied quite heavily so I don’t think it mattered to us. Our room even had a private bathroom in it.
While I did enjoy the private room, I will say that when we were finished, we went into the main room. There were maybe 4 people there, and apparently the song list was 25 songs long… which seems pretty stupid for anyone else who comes in. We ended up leaving before any of our songs came on to eat. The place should probably arrange the songs so the trio of singers didn’t get to hog the mic for an hour.

Let’s just say if I could give it Negative 5 stars I would.
The service is TERRIBLE, the waitress makes herself very comfortable in the room, one of my friend knew her, but no one else in the room did. I was treating everyone else, but she def made herself comfortable around my bf and our alcohol, even sing a song…
The food and drinks r over priced. The song system is not as good as the other places around Chinatown. And when I asked for green tea the waitress kept on telling me to order something else because it’s better, but idk mb it’s just me, but I personally prefer to try it for myself. And honestly you can’t go wrong ever with green tea…
Do yourselves a favor and go to Other karaōke places in Chinatown for better sound system and better service!

My friend had a good experience when she went here in September 2013, so we decided to choose Sakura again. 3 of us came in on a Wednesday night, there were very few people in the open area. We were informed that it would be $ 15 per person minimum in drinks to sing/​sit in the open area (if no drinks were ordered, we were still obligated to pay the fee). When we asked for a room, we were told both the small rooms were «booked for the entire night» (even though it was a Wednesday night before 9pm and they are open to 2am? hmmm). We were told only the large room was open so we decided to book that for $ 50/​hr. However, after asking for 3 glasses of water and being informed they did not give glasses of water for free, we discovered an 18% gratuity automatically included on our bill (even though we didn’t order anything!) They explained this as part of their normal business operations.
The song selection was pretty good, but using the system is not very intuitive (searching for songs, typing in Chinese characters, etc). The large room was nice, too.
Unfortunately, the dubious business practice really made this a poor experience.

This place is like a second home to me. It’s laid back, chill and a great place to meet up with friends and enjoy a good night of karaōke. Whether you’re an avid or closet karaōke singer your bound to have a good time. They have private room for parties and tables for large groups.
The crowd is diverse, but mainly Asians. Drinks prices are reasonable and it’s generally not busy unless its Friday or Saturday.
Definitely a great place to check out whether you’re pre gaming or planning on staying.

I can flex my no-​talent-​ass-​clown vocals here all night long!
I’m half Filipino… when I came out I was given a Birth Certificate and a Magic Sing Karaōke Machine.
Here’s the skinny:
I Saw The Sign
Brass Monkey
Knockin On Heavens Door
Should I Stay Or Should I Go
Here’s the fat:
I was «Walking down the street sippin’ on gin ‘n juice» when «I saw the sign, and it opened up my eyes…» Late one evening a small group of us decided to check this place out. It’s in the «basement» I guess you can call it of a multi-​use building (residential/​commercial), down a set of stairs and there you are. It was a Sunday night, place was slow so we got awesome service. Next few times I went was Friday’s and Saturday’s still great service then too. Sakura has really comfortable booths and tables too but, they’re just a bit too low (just personal opinion).
«We got the bottle — you got the cup, Come on everybody let’s get ffffff… Brass Monkey — that funky monkey…» They’ve got a sweet selection of brews here, Tsingtao, Sapporo and the typical domestics too. They’ve also got Sake and Shochu if you care for either of them. Sad thing is that the last few times I’ve been there the Shochu wasn’t available. Sake bottles (6 – 8 shots) is $ 10 last time I was here a few weeks ago.
There’s a good sized private room in the back, if I remember it’s called the «Cloud Room» and it Feels like I’m knock-​knock-​knockin’ on heaven’s door… The room is small but, has a huge projection Screen for everyone… gotta see those words right? There is a couch that runs all the way around the room on 3 of the 4 sides. It’s severely comfortable and there’s some low-​pro tables you can pull closer and use to set your drinks.
«Should I stay or should I go now? If I go there will be trouble, and if I stay it will be double» that’s what we ask each time we’re here… no one wants to leave… it’s a seriously good time and the drinks are pretty damn reasonable for Chicago. The staff is super friendly and will take the time to check on you, or if they’re busy at the bar the bartender will acknowledge the fact you’re waiting and not just «ignore you» like some places I’ve been to. The customers that come in are a lot of fun too — probably because it’s a Karaōke Crowd… we all just get along I think. It’s mostly a well dressed and groomed crowd, no hooligans to speak of basically.
Oh! I almost forgot, not a huge fan of some of the food though…
But, the Edamame is ON POINT
I like coming here, like it a lot actually. Now if I can just get that crappy singing voice of mine to work with me… maybe there wouldn’t be so much fake clapping…
SYOY