Jaguar Karaoke

I’ve been here twice so far, once on a Friday evening and once on a Saturday evening. It’s generally not that busy so you’d probably be able to get a room even if you don’t make a reservation in advance. You’re allowed to bring food in if you want. Some of their karaōke systems are in Korean. They have several books of songs, mostly English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, as well as a smaller selection of songs in other languages. I had a pretty good time here, but if you’re interested in singing with a big selection of Japanese songs on Joysound machines, I would recommend going to Gamba Karaōke in Cupertino instead. They don’t have a whole ton of Japanese animé or Vocaloid songs at Jaguar.

They were able to accommodate a large crowd at the last minute. We were put in a large room couch was rippedand patched, got extremely hot quickly, and there was hair on the table. He moved us to the very large room no door but much better. Almost like a club atmosphere. We had great pricing and they are pretty much laid back. would go again.

The karaōke attendant was very rude to my group when we were trying to pay the bill. We had a group of 12 and stayed for 2 hours and 11 minutes. She ended up charging us for 14 people. We were also promised a rate of 20% off for coming in before 8 pm, which we did, but she did not take that into account for our bill. But when we asked for her to review the bill for these two errors, she was very passive aggressive and was just plain rude. We ended up paying a little more than our initial rate, but only so we wouldn’t infuriate her more. I would not recommend going here again if this karaōke attendant was on duty.

Had a great time!
I wish they had more English songs but overall was a great experience.

Best Karaōke in the East Bay Area.
Also, Cheapest Karaōke in the East Bay Area.

My friends and I decided to check this place out Friday evening — it was great!!! We had to wait a little bit for a room so I definitely recommend that you call ahead of time to reserve one. The room was cute, but a little outdated. They had a couple books of karaōke songs to choose from. My only complaint is that the controls on everything weren’t in English, but we figured it out! The owner is very sweet and helpful. It’d be awesome if they had some water and snacks for sale too for those parched throats! We paid 50 $ for two hours for the bigger room which isn’t bad considering we split that between 10 people. All in all, we had an epic time! We’ll definitely be back!

Pros:
–reasonable pricing ($ 50 for 2 hours with 5 people total)
–close to campus; so convenient
–not too busy
–some extremely current songs: we basically sang English songs from after 2012 the whole time
–the equipment functioned perfectly
Cons:
–interface not very modern: manually punching numbers from songbook vs. machine where users can select song from screen
— mostly Japanese and Korean selection
–it would be nice if the music videos were the actual music videos
Overall, I would definitely come here again!

Take note for anyone looking for a great place for karaōke if your into just private karaōke this is a place for a party of people if your are looking for open karaōke maybe Pandora is best place or do some research. The mics you have to speak loud in order to get the right quality. There song book for songs are outdated they’re website is not filled with a lot of info. So good luck if u want info there Faq explains something but not very much.

This place is a nice place to get together with friends, rent a room for an hour or two, and sing your hearts out! They have a wide array of songs available, and the rooms are pretty nice — maybe a little small. The rates are reasonable as well.

Jaguar Karaōke is a fun karaōke place near campus (two blocks away), but it definitely has room for improvement. It has rooms of different sizes to accommodate parties of all sizes, but each room only has two mikes. Why should only two people get to have fun at a time? The song list is also outdated, with the most recent songs from about five years ago. The price is fair and affordable for college students, and that is probably the most attractive quality of Jaguar Karaōke, but with little improvements I think it can be much better. I’d definitely come back again with friends!

I did NOT get wireless mics.
They’re pretty chill.
Had a good time, had a good selection of songs.
The room was mildy dirty, though.
What I liked: They had a little map of the buttons so non-​korean speaking people can know how to skip, save and cancel songs.
I asked the guy in Korean which ones they were because I don’t know Korean enough to know what «save» and «cancel» and «octave change» is in Korean and he was very helpful.

My girlfriend and I were looking to through a small get together for my friend going back to his home country in a few days. And she suggested Karaōke. Normally I’m not a Karaōke place but, honestly you can’t go wrong here. They had a really nice variety of songs ranging from rap to Indy depending on your style. Honestly it’s a really cool place just to chill have fun and pretend to be Little Wayne for a few minutes

This place has a lot going for it — among the biggest being proximity to campus. Just a few upgrades and it could be so much better, though.
The actual karaōke system:
Pros: you can switch between regular lyrics, and lyrics w/​sheet music for those who are used to reading that. Wireless mics = no tripping and things knocked over. Decent selection of English songs. Bring-​your-​own-​whatever policy is nice.
Cons: No background vocals for most songs, difficult to navigate controls that were all in Korean. One of our mics was a bit static-​y. But the biggest con was that finding a certain song was tough! Yes they have books organized by artist/​song title, but the newer songs from the past few years were listed on separate pages based on the year it hit the charts.
Service: friendly.
Facilities/​décor: a bit worn and dated in some places — could use a makeover, but it wasn’t…terrible. We had one of the largest rooms, and it could have used some new couches. In passing by, looked like some of the smaller rooms looked better. AC wasn’t really cutting it for our large room.

Had a birthday get together here on Saturday night. Had a blast. ** Large parties: Book ahead & call to confirm (went in on a Monday to check the place out/​made a reservation, then called to confirm on Friday and they didn’t have it written down. Luckily they made some adjustments and were able to accommodate us for Saturday)*** The large room accommodated 12 + food and drink comfortably (love that you get to bring your own in) Great song selection (my group only knows English) & controls were easy to use. Hilarious random videos in the background. Guy working there was really friendly and helpful. He lowered the volume upon request and showed us how everything worked. Booked the room for 3 hours but ended up staying 4. Nice being in our own room, because people who are usually too shy to sing actually participated. Everybody had fun. Can’t wait to do it again!!!

I’ve been looking for a good karaōke spot for ages. Who knew I would be happiest with a place right under my nose? Jaguar’s location is perfect for college kids — right across from the Asian Ghetto food court on Durant! We came here around 11:30pm on a Saturday night and didn’t even have to wait for a room, which was a pleasant surprise. They had a great selection of songs, so all the «classics» we looked for (Bohemian Rhapsody, I Want It That Way, A Whole New World) were there… as well as some of the more recent songs by Lady Gaga, Maroon 5, etc.
Like many Asian karaōke places, prepare for the contrast of a Metallica song with extremely Asian videos, e.g. Korean girls in floppy hats strolling along the beach. If you’re interested in the Asian songs, they have a separate book for them.
Charging is by the hour, but it’s prorated so if you go into the next hour, they don’t charge you another entire hour. I’m a little jaded when it comes to karaōke places, so this was a nice surprise as well.
**NOTE** Jaguar does not sell alcohol. Pregame somewhere else before you start karaōke-​ing!

Huge selection of songs, tacky music videos, and a rowdy group of friends? Then you’re in for a good time at Jaguar.
I’ve gone to a few karaōke bars before, so this one has all the standard amenities. Two microphones, cheap strobe lights, and about 8 available karaōke rooms. I came on a Friday night, and about 4 rooms were occupied.
Song selection is really impressive. We jammed out to The Lonely Island’s I’m On a Boat, to a little bit of Eminem’s Lose Yourself, to Disney’s A Whole New World. They have a bunch of oldies and definitely all the recent hits as well. And if you’re interested, they also have a whole other book filled with Korean music.
Also, they don’t sell alcohol so don’t expect to be ordering drinks here!

What happens when you get a huge group of (mostly) Asian friends together? Karaōke of course!
It was quite easy to call ahead the day before to reserve a large room for my party of 9. Since everyone was on winter break, the venue was fairly empty and we were only 1 of 2 parties this past Saturday night. This works out since the rooms aren’t exactly sound-​proof and we could sing as loud as we wanted to. «My heart will go ooooooonnnnn!»
MUSIC SELECTION was fairly diverse. There are separate books for English and Asian songs. For the English ones, they have the 90s hits (Backstreet Boys, N’Sync, Britney) and the classics (Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, etc.). And they even had a fair selection of more recent Top 40 hits, from Lady Gaga to LMFAO.
Staff was helpful in explaining how to use the remote control and fix the volume settings for us. The mic and sound system were so-​so, but we all had a great time anyways.
Perks:
+ You can bring in outside food and drinks (not sure about alcohol)
+ Flexible with reservations; we arrived 20 mins early and they still accommodated us
+ Website listed $ 45/​hr for a large room but they only charged $ 40/​hr. And they also technically charge per MINUTE, so you can be more lenient about when to leave.
Things to note:
— They don’t have a liquor license or bar. I suggest going to Kip’s, Henry’s, or Thalassa beforehand if you want to grab drinks with friends
— They have no official music videos. Be prepared to sing to random clips of Korean dramas and wildlife nature videos
Overall, this was a fun activity for a large group of people near campus. I would definitely come back again.

Unless this place is really new, or people don’t really Unilocal out karaōke places, but I found this underground gem with two friends on a Friday night and was amazed how the speakers are clear and loud, the lights entertaining. The rooms are intimate and personable. Prices were fair, and the service was friendly.
If I ever need to sing a pop wonder or even a current song, I’ll go here.
R+E :)

Private karaōke rooms in Berkeley! Under new management from the people who ran it around ’10-’11.
Drawbacks: currently set up way more for Korean pop than American songs– the song book for English songs is waaaay small compared to the Korean stuff, and it’s missing a lot of standby tunes. Should be easy to fix.
No food or alcohol, and doesn’t seem to have a BYO policy.
No air conditioning in the room we had, though the cashier did bring us free waters and said they were trying to fix it.
Still, a good time — private rooms, nice staff, and good equipment!

TL;DR: Jaguar Karaōke in Berkeley was an excellent experience well worth the time and money that we put into it.
If you’ve been to a noraebang before, especially a Kumyeong or something of that popularity, this place will not impress. However, it is right by the campus, relatively clean (I didn’t check the bathroom though), and good fun. It was a blast bringing my friends, especially since most of them had never been to a noraebang or anything like it.
The karaōke is actually slightly hidden. Although is has a sign with what is currently Zensen Sushi, it is actually accessed via a tiny door to the left of the entrance to Zensen after you go down the stairs. Inside you will see their front desk, popular (Korean) song list, and their open «stage room» with tables and public karaōke for relatively cheap. (There was noone there when I arrived at 8PM, but it was a Monday night before Cal classes have begun so I can’t say much for how popular it is.)
When you are led into the room, the lights are turned on so you can get situated. Make sure to turn the lights off when you actually begin singing, because there are strobe lights that make the karaōke experience! We got a medium room (the one right near the front desk actually); inside there are what seem to be light-​colored pleather couches and a comfortable bench all surrounding a center table for song books and things. The walls are covered in relatively cheesy looking wallpaper, and the rooms do not seem to be quite soundproof. However, the setup is quite comfortable, and you generally don’t have much overlap of another room’s music if you’re singing something in your own room, even if your own singing is soft, since the karaōke tracks are relatively loud. The microphones don’t have microphone covers unfortunately, and the connections at the bottoms of the microphones feel a bit delicate, but you don’t tend to notice that much when singing. The lyrics on the karaōke machine are also sometimes off and the timing can off as well. I’m assuming you know most of the lyrics to your favorite songs and can just make them up if you don’t!
The room is built to echo slightly even without the microphones, so it’s very easy to pick group songs and just have everyone join in, with or without group microphone singing. The remote is in english (press the numbers and hit the button for queueing, hit start if you cancelled a song or if you haven’t started to singing to start the song list queue, pause if you need to take a moment, etc.) There is also key bending for those of us who want to sing our favorite songs but can’t hit the notes and don’t want ears to bleed. (It’s in the top left of the remote.)
They have a decent selection of English songs. Not all of them are new, but they have stuff like P! nk, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Queen, Bön Jovi, Lady Gaga, and more that are standard to any karaōke with english. They also have a list of the few recently added songs; since they only seem to have opened in June and only have a «new/​popular» song list for August, I’m not sure how often they update. Most noraebangs update monthly from whomever they get their songs from, so we’ll see how their songbooks look at the end of the school year. I pray they are the type of noraebang that updates their paper songbooks, because I hate having to look through the onscreen catalog when someone is trying to sing; it makes me feel like a douche, especially since there is only one screen.
For those of you who like foreign language songs, as a noraebang they OBVIOUSLY have a whole songbook of Korean. Their English-​only songbook is much smaller, but listed by artist rather than by name. They also have a «foreign language» songbook. This contains English, Japanese, and several other languages like Spanish, Vietnamese, and more. (No French though…) These are listed alphabetically in the alphabet of said language, of course. I’m sure most of you can guess that the foreign language songs have the lyrics and most titles in the songbooks in those foreign languages though; if you can’t read it, make sure to bring someone who can or a phone that has signal so you can look it up online!
I’m personally a big J-​pop and Japanese music fan, and they had a pretty decent selection of J-​pop and animé music, though I have seen better. I do applaud them for their decent selection of popular Vocaloid music as well, thought their lack of «Kokoro» sung by Rin and «World is Mine» sung by Miku is quite the oversight.
Happy Hour is from 6−9pm, while the place is open from 6pm-​2am. The man working at the front desk was kind enough to give us happy hour pricing all the way until midnight since we arrived around 8, which for the medium room makes (if I remember) $ 28 an hour. My friend also bought a soda for $ 1 from the cooler, which is pretty decent. Good experience, definitely recommend!