Fillmore Karaoke

Fun place, lot’s of song variety. Good price too, I’ll definitely be back.

Where do I start, this place is awesome. The best in the bay by far. They are the nicest & friendliness group of staff I’ve ever had the pleasure to come across. This place has the latest state of the art technology touch screen easy to navigate system. The price is reasonable and they even have a happy hour. The front desk guy Cowly, I hope I’m saying that right was very helpful. He showed us how to find, search, play and use the touch screen and stayed to make sure we got it, he was not rushing us. When we finally left our session the lady at the front desk was equally pleasant. This was my first time here but it will not be my last, can’t wait to go back. My family suggest we go once a month. I’m never attending another spot. Very clean and modern with leather sofa seating. You can also bring your own food as long as you clean after yourself. All the latest jams are in there. Different languages if you prefer. I just have to say please give this place a chance first and you will not be disappointed. Lol, I think it sing better here also, something about the walls, make everybody voice sound professional.

I knew the place could be better, and it finally felt my thoughts!
Prior, this place would’ve been about (4) stars, but with their recently-​implemented touch-​screen interface as well as updates, let’s just throw another star on there!
You want One Republic?, just a few taps on the screen! You want to switch over to Canto-​Pop?, a quick return to the main menu and switchover to Chinese characters, boom! You want some Hotline Bling?, just type it in!
The songs have been updated, and there’s a LOT less of those super cheesey euro videos with random scenes and people wearing 80s outfits. These are legit songs with legit background instruments and legit keys!
The rooms are clean, but I do recall smelling a bit of that heavy air as soon as I open the front door. But hey, happy hour pricing (½ off) means I won’t mind if they weighted down the air some more.
In the East Bay, if you want private Karaōke places, the venues aren’t that plentiful, but ain’t no thang, cuz Fillmore’s here to save the day.

I didn’t realize I already Unilocal’ed this place. Well it deserves an update and a fifth star now. The rooms are the cleanest I’ve seen at a karaōke joint. I am not the biggest fan of the touchpoint screens but I suppose that is because I am an old school girl who prefers perusing through an actual book and punching the selection through an ancient remote.
The prices are good though — $ 32/​hour for the seven of us. And if you manage to make it here during the day, HH goes until 9PM. 50% off! If I lived in Oakland, I would totally be here all the time after work, haha.

I’m have to ck that, place out sounds, great, i, love singing and can, knock it out the park on point you name it I sing it and I like, your review so I’m ck it out and come eat and sing

No one answers the phone, we have been waiting for 35 minutes from 3:00.
I know this is a good karaōke, but they are not opening on time, this is unacceptable.

I don’t know if they’re officially BYOB but it sure seems like it. The main downside to Fillmore Karaōke is that there’s no song book, you have to find all the songs through menu surfing which is kind of a pain.

I don’t normally write a review but the service is so bad that I would not recommend anyone waste their money. I called in to make a reservation for 2 rooms and the man advised me that I can’t have more then 15 people in each room. So I I asked if I could reserve 2 rooms for 15 people. He the tells me I can’t have more then 13 people in the room, so I say, that fine, I’ll make sure not to invite more. Then he says to call back next week. I say I don’t understand. He replies I have too many people. I repeated I would meet your requirements. They said no and asked me to call next week. I stated that I don’t understand why and the man hung up on me. Terrible service.

I’m specifically a fan of
a) Happy hour prices
b) figuring out how to use the remote control.
If you can’t figure out the remote control, you’re lost. At best, the happy hour prices will allow you to sing the few «top hits» and you’ll be done within the hour and save your wallet the expected sting of overstaying.
Buuuut, if you figure out the remote control, a whole new world of possibilities is opened to you!
Here are some remote control tips for English speakers!
1) Familiarize yourself with the remote control — the first 5 minutes scrolling helps!
— You can now scroll by Artist Name (default = Male, click «A» to scroll through Female /​Band)
— You can also scroll by Song Name
— Top hits aren’t too bad!
I guess that’s the only tip I can give you.
The parking is pretty easy, the rooms are always available, and if you live in Oakland, it’s a nice location between Jaguar in Berkeley and that one place in Hayward. Every time I walk down the stairs here, it feels like a sketchy Korean place (complete with the cigarette smell and all), but it makes me laugh.
I enjoy coming here, and now that I know how to use the remote control, it’s surprising how ample the selection is! (Korean too)
There’s no book, there’s no tambourine, and there’s no disco lights. I’d suggest maybe having a list of songs that you want to sing before coming.
Happy hour ends at 9pm!

My name is Brandi. I’m 28 years old, and I am addicted to karaōke.
Yes, my friends, the karaōke bug has bitten me real good. I think I am finally starting to face my stage fright… or I just stopped caring about what other people think. The older I get, the more I lose my inhibitions (especially with a few drinks in me).
My friends Rosanne P. and Richard A. accompanied me to Fillmore Karaōke last Friday night, and it was a really great time! It’s a little weird that this place doesn’t sell booze, but just make sure you get properly sauced before you go.
We were full of vegan Chinese from Nature Veg and greyhounds, beers, and shots from The Golden Bull, so we were feeling ready to gooo!
First impression? It seems a little creepy, since it’s located in the basement. The poster of all of the K-​pop (or J-​pop?) stars made us laugh. The guy running the desk seemed a little quirky, but we went on with our adventure.
A counter attendant showed us to our room and explained how to work the machine. It was a little confusing at first, but we eventually got the hang of it. There are about eight different languages you can sing in, but we stuck to English.
I sang a little TLC, Rosie did some Lady Gaga and Aerosmith, and Rich rocked some Sean Paul, and on and on it went. There were lots of pop goodies for us to pick from, although their music selection does seem a bit limited. It took us a while to choose which songs we wanted to pick. I hope that one day they can have a touch screen or a search option, just to speed up the picking process.
We sang and danced and rocked the mic for over 2 hours! Including a couple of non-​alcoholic drinks to quench our thirst, it added up to about $ 58.
I was surprised at how busy it got! We saw that most of the rooms were occupied when we left at around 11pm. I guess kids in Oakland really like to karaōke, too.
It gets really hot in those tiny rooms, so bring a fan and dress in layers that you can strip off as the night goes on. I don’t know if they allow or encourage food and alcohol brought in, but I’m fairly certain they wouldn’t mind. Eat, drink, and sing your little hearts out!

Been here many times to fulfill my guilty pleasure. It has THE best selections of songs, and is easy to navigate the system once you get used to it. I have never waited for a room and the sound system is on point. only thing is the mics aren’t wireless and may sometimes be funky. The artist screen selection is also a bit hard to read. Other than that it is one of the hidden gems of karaōke in the bay area

I’ve been coming here for years and they have great happy hour prices. The longest I can stay here before losing my voice is probably 2 hours and it’s usually under $ 20 whether I come here with 2 other people or more. The mics aren’t cordless unfortunately, but you can search songs on the screen with the remote. They update their songs pretty often and have a good selection of new songs and oldies. They don’t mind if you bring drinks, so I like to go to Chatime first and then come here hehe.
The entrance is only a door so you can easily walk past it, just make sure you know what you’re looking for. Parking depends on the time and day, I usually come here after 6 and if I’m not lucky, I have to park around the corner. If you’re not used to Oakland, I would suggest carpooling and going here with someone else. It’s in a pretty sketchy neighborhood, especially when the sun is down. I haven’t encountered anything bad yet *knocks on wood*, but just be on the lookout.

Great stereo system. Songs are very updated. Great price. Friendly staff. Love this place

Can’t beat the price: Happy hour is 50% off.
3−9pm.
Pros: they don’t make you buy drinks
You can bring your own snacks and drinks
Good English song selection
Cons: bathroom tends to be a bit grimy

Location wise is easy to find and bartable– you get off at 12^th street Oakland.
Pretty inexpensive price listings. $ 40 for 2 hours and for 5 people (during happy hour which is before 9pm).
Karaōke machine can be confusing to operate at first. You either scroll by artists or songs. They don’t have a book of song codes for customers.
Music wasn’t the best quality. Difficult to find current music. But they do have the best hits.
Being your own food and drinks.
Overall a good place to chill under a tight budget.

Fillmore might be considered the Oaklander’s Waffle House of Karaōke, perfect when you don’t want to drive too far or spend too much money to fill the void. As one reviewer mentioned, it really is what you make it. I personally feel that Karaōke is best with a bit of seediness and grittiness, so a bit of smoke residue and dinginess is fine with me. The basement environment is nice, as it provides intimacy and that feel of secrecy… those people on the street walking by have no idea that you are down below trying out your guilty pleasures. The sound system was just fine with a little tweaking (reverb knob was a nice touch), though the interface takes a bit of getting used to as far as finding your songs. It is all done on screen with no book, so I would suggest taking a list of songs along to make the most of your time. Happy Hour price is only $ 10/​hour.
Specific navigation that worked best to search by song:
Searching by Language (English), then the letter the song starts with, then scroll, scroll, scroll until you find your gold.

3.5 stars
I never knew I could karaōke for 1.5 hours and lose my voice. This could very well happen to you if you know every song your friends sing and you try to sing louder than the music.
Moving on, this place isn’t very intuitive even though all the instructions were in English. With the lack of song books, you have to browse collectively as a group to agree on a song on their electronic screen in the corner which makes things difficult when everyone wants to select a song. In addition, the volume was up way too high and was diffcult/​confusing to turn down.
I did like that the room was big, spacious and very modern. There was plenty of room to get up and dance if you wanted to. Also, they did have pretty updated songs as well as old school ones. Once we figure out how to use the machine, I’m pretty sure we will be coming back for more good fun!

One of my favorite karaōke places.
It doesn’t have wireless mic, no touch screen monitor, soundproof was not the best (yes sometimes you can hear next room «screaming»), restroom was not the cleanest — but hey, I’m just there to sing!
Honestly, it has the cheapest happy hour compare to any other karaōke places. It has a huge and updated selection of chinese songs! I’m satisfied every time I go there!
PS. you can bring your own non-​alcoholic drinks and food.

This was the first and only karaōke place I’ve ever been to. I’m not sure what people look for but here’s some things I’ve noticed.
–Clean
–Small rooms were pretty small, I enjoyed the coziness!
–A LOT of American songs, sort of a good thing I guess
–The remote we got was pretty worn out but useable
–I very much like they they sold Vitasoy drinks
–Happy hour is $ 9 for the first hour, nice!
I really wish they had more Japanese and Korean songs, doesn’t have to be up-​to-​date just update it with more!

Thanks to Unilocal — the organizer of our party of 7 picked this place.
We were excited to try it out since all of us live in Oakland/​Berkeley and had no desire to drive into the city to sing.
Note: bring your own food and drinks.
Their happy hour pricing (before 9p) is amazing.
See below for regular and hhr prices by the hour.
Small room — up to 4 people $ 18 /​$ 9
Medium room — up to 8 people $ 30 /​$ 15
Large room — up to 15 people $ 42 /​$ 21
Sound — could be better. Volume turned up way too high. With no ear plugs, I could only take 2 hours in the room.
Is there volume control on the remote control?
Music selection — my friend was disappointed there was no Billie Holliday but she was cheered at the Amy Winehouse selection. Definitely the selection was not as extensive as I am accustomed to in karaōke in J-​town. Also, I disliked the «video game» like console. I prefer to look through books and program a number corresponding to the song.
Couches in the room seemed clean — no sticky residue or visible stains.
It gets warm in there with 7 bodies, especially when one is gyrating to the music so best to wear layers to peel off.
Parking — easy after 6p.
Most of the group stayed past 9p b/​c they were having such a good time.
Bathroom — no hand soap. Was cleaner than I expected. Bathroom tissue running low and it was only 8p. Definitely could use an upgrade in decorations. Looks very industrial.
I would return again — with earplugs. It was fun and inexpensive.