Encore Karaoke Lounge

The fat black guy running karaōke on Friday is a worthless pig. We waited 3 hours and our song never played, finally we asked and he stated «I don’t care, you’re at the bottom». Go to the mint or silver cloud. I warned you.

WOW did we have fun at this bar! We had some friends in town from Melbourne, Australia and they told us they wanted to Karaōke. We had a couple of choices, but this place seemed like it would best fit our needs. It was Friday night and we arrived around 10PM. We easily found a table to park ourselves and begin searching through the huge books with almost everything you could think of singing. Everyone was so friendly there, within 20 minutes not only did we make new friends, they bought us drinks and we started singing together. What I loved most about this place is that people chose the best karaōke songs, so the whole bar would erupt in song and dance. Very rarely did people do the self-​indulgent ballads that bore the crap out of you. I really appreciate that, being a karaōke connoisseur. The KJ was nice enough, you needed to tip to get your song played but hey it’s SF and this place is expensive. The bar prices were reasonable and the facilities clean. I would wholeheartedly recommend this place for a night of karaōke!

After a random day in SF I stumbled upon this place while searching for Karaōke Bars. A group of us went at about 5PM which was right when the karaōke started. The bartender Chris was great, he interacted with us and was cracking jokes. Lee was the KJ and he was pretty fun as well. There was not very many singers so I got to go up a bunch of times but even with the place not being super busy the staff made it a good time for me and my friends. The only downside would be I think the books… That’s kinda old school and they have a lot of older songs, not all the new stuff as the books were printed in 2009. I would like to see a updated book. Lee was great and didn’t mind me asking him what newer songs they had. Overall I would definitely be back to this place!

This place rocks literally best karaōke in town affordable drinks awesome staff fun folks in the building loved it .can’t wait to come back again

My sister and I stumbled into this bar by chance. We were looking for our next diversion and just happened to spot a Karaōke bar. Onward!
This was so much fun. We love dive bars — we prefer them over fancy ones. This was a pretty quiet crowd, but we were thoroughly entertained by the singers (not us). We were drinking beer, and we thought the prices were good for the area.
I am not a huge Karaōke lounge visitor, but I would go back. Kim and I agreed this was our favorite night in the city.

Honestly the best place to get your karaōke groove on! Great bartenders, dj’s and family/​community style feeling! You register your song of choice and wait for your name to be called to the stage! Fun times!

It was my sister’s first time going to karaōke so we decided to über after attending a concert down at The Fillmore. I’m so glad we Unilocaled and found this little spot. Tons of musical choices, great stage and microphones, hype crowd. The bartenders were funny, Stacy and Mattie, they made our night! I’d recommend this for the super social and not shy karaōke singers; someone boo’d my sis in the crowd. Not cool! But the DJ had her back saying «this is a non judgment zone!» I loved that. She wasn’t singing loud enough to be heard over the crowd. I redeemed us, belting Alanis Morisette’s ‘You Oughta Know’ and was graciously hand kissed by Mattie at the bar! Sweet! We shall be returning in the near future.

Had a great time here. Though I can’t remember singing the second song — darn you happy hour (s). I was told I sang pretty well! Such a nice bunch of people.

I believe I must have killed his dog or his firstborn. In his mind at least. But after this evening, I might not go there ever again. The staff seems to have forgotten how to treat me like a human being.

Such a fun karaōke spot! Great people, bartenders, and everyone sings a long! I love this place!

It is so unfortunate that the KJ here completely ruins what could be a great place. If they replaced him with a fun, upbeat personality, this would be the best Karaōke bar in the city.

Over priced shitty beer
They seem to have cleaned up a bit
Karaōke guy never called up my friends after being there for 2 hours… Even after tipping him
(It wasnt busy when we arrived)
Silver clouds is a better choice
Never again.

If I could leave 0 stars I would. I use to come here often and it USE to be really cool. Tonight however, I got here around 10pm, tipped the dj (or kj) $ 5 off the batt for my first song, which came up in about 30 mins or so after submitting. My friend got here 10 mins after me… it’s been 2.5 hours since she submitted her song. we have talked to the dj twice and «your up next» came out of his fucking mouth 3 times. Clearly not. Cherry on top is I submitted a song 2 hours ago and a girl who just fucking walked in the bar sang the song. Excuse my language but get your fucking shit together and FIRE that kj.
Update: I’m still freaking heated… you ruined a Friday night with a friend I don’t get to see often. I hate this place.

This placed rocks! Super fun crowd and George the bar tender is the best!
FYI
There’s no elevator and there are two flights of stairs to get upstairs to the lounge. I’m pretty sure there are stairs to get into the bathroom too once in the lounge.

It’s unfortunate I have to give them one star, they don’t deserve it. They deserve –5. I’m a fan of a good dive bar, I can look past a dirty carpet and questionable bathroom. Most dive bars have an extremely charming staff that more than makes up for cosmetic flaws and funky smells. THIS IS NOT THE CASE AT ENCORE. I have literally never been treated so poorly by an establishment as a whole.
I think I was the first one of our group to pick out my song, I walk up to the booth and there is someone else waiting to turn in their pick. Then someone else comes up after me. As the current song is ending the «KJ» finally comes back to the booth from messing around behind the bar, you can tell he has a seriously bad attitude. He stands there for a second not even wanting to take the slips from us, then he mutters something rude to me about there being a long wait. Looking back on it now, he was probably waiting for a tip that he didn’t deserve. It is my understanding that most KJ’s are paid to do their job, and in all honesty it is a job a monkey could do. Encore needs a better trained monkey.
Someone in our group finally gets to sing, meanwhile it’s going on over an hour since my request. Right before last call, I finally get called up, but for a different song my friend and I put in well after my first request. So, it’s pretty obvious that he is picking songs based on how popular they are. I have never been to a karaōke bar that filters their song requests, or that allows bribes. This is ridiculous.
Once we realized this was a corrupt system we tried to pay off the KJ to get one song on that was extremely important to my friend, and he refused and told her to fuck off over the mic. I didn’t hear any of this happen, bc you can’t hear anything he mumbles into the microphone (apparently he’s too lazy to talk clearly, let alone do his job). My friend informs me we’re leaving and why, and storms out. I go to grab my husband to tell him what happened, and that it was time to go. I still had a basically full drink so I decided to finally give the KJ the tip he actually deserved. Unfortunately there wasn’t any money in it, and he threw the drink at me as I walked away, I had cleared the stage by that point so I’m sure he also doused a handful of innocent bystanders. I’m not justifying my drunken actions, but throwing a drink into a crowd of CUSTOMERS is totally unacceptable behavior for an employee. At this point, my husband throws his beer at him, and he proceeds to follow us out with one of the bus boys to try to fight my husband. The bouncers were more concerned with keeping me away from the fight, than breaking up the grossly unfair fight that was going on. Fortunately the KJ’s laziness resulted in nothing more than a ripped shirt in the scuffle, and we left.
Management did absolutely nothing, but apparently this happens more often then not. They should probably pull their heads out of their butts and hire someone who isn’t going to cost them business.

Fun place but the Karaōke is rigged. The guy place your name in the lineup if you bribe him. That’s not cool! We’ve been waiting for hours to sing and found out the others have been singing multiple times because they bought their turn. Screwed up system!!!

Stopped in the other day after a long hiatus. We were hoping they had a different KJ. Nope same old rude, drip that lacks personality and has attitude that screams out, «I don’t care!»
Too bad because we live in the neighborhood and love Karaōke. We would be there all the time, drinking, spending money, tipping the KJ’s if the place was at all inviting or responsive to customers (sigh).

My boyfriend and I went there on a Monday night and the place is definitely a dive karaōke bar but we certainly didn’t mind b/​c we love to just have fun and sing so we know what to expect. It was almost completely empty, had a real funky smell to it, and the KJ was not very friendly. We were tipping him every time we put in a song because that sign is plastered all over which I think is in poor taste. Especially poor taste when you’re not very friendly, there’s hardly anyone in there and you proceed to tell me I have to put in one song at a time when we hand you a few songs we want to put in at once. Really?!? I could care less how you spread the songs out between my boyfriend and I, the KJ singing who’s getting paid and tipped to be there and the only 1 – 2 other people in that whole bar.
Then the bartender tried taking my boyfriends money off the bar after he just got done paying for shots. It was $ 6 work of shots, he paid with a $ 20, $ 14 in change was on the bar and he tried grabbing it but I caught it out of the corner of my eye and called him out. Either he was being shady or drunk. Not sure which but either way not good at all for a bartender.
Then the KJ was rude to a group of girls and all of a sudden they’re in eachothers faces and one of the girls did make an extremely uncalled for comment to the KJ about his sexuality. This resulted in a fight which was extremely uncomfortable. I did feel bad for the guy but he does act like he’s got some control issues and did have an attitude the entire night. Doesn’t at all justify the comment just saying dude could provide some better customer service.

People have different ideas of what they want in a karaōke place. Some want private rooms and ability to drink with friends while others want to do their best American idol audition in front of drunk strangers. Encore is the definitive version of the latter for aspiring sf vocalists. The place is divey and dirty and smells kind of weird but you are okay with that because you are drunk and singing your butt off.
Encore has the look and feel of a dive bar but with the amazing addition of karaōke on the side. It is located on California street near other bars of Polk and is perfect for a night of barhopping in the city. This is the place to grab a few friends and convince them against their will to give karaōke a shot. What better place to make a fool of yourself in front of others than in a place that is dark with about 20 people screaming their lungs out for you. If you pick the right song you can even get some people to come up and be backup singers or dancers for you. It’s that kind of bar, people are having a good time and don’t care if you are nervous or not you will be at least one person yelling for you.
The bartenders and staff are excellent and they are also great singers. They will take time from serving you heavy heavy heavy pours to go up a sing a couple songs before settling back behind the bar. The song choice is what you would expect with most of the classics available. It doesn’t get to current with not much past 2012 or so but they do add songs to the menu as they go. Your favorites will be there though and that’s all that matters. The sound system is great as you belt your way across the decades and the DJ is supportive and will get you on the list to sing with the proper liquid or monetary persuasion as it should be.
Be forewarned there are a lot of Encore locals which can lead to a couple things. The queue to sing can be quite long so you may have to wait up to an hour to get to sing but hopefully you are in it for the long haul. Also some of them take themselves really seriously and are actually very good so don’t be intimidated when someone gets up and does a perfect rendition of les miserables. They don’t represent the entire crowd.
Encore is just silly drunken singing fun in San Francisco. You feel like you have discovered a place that only you and your friends know about and that’s the best part. No overcrowding like the mint and it’s not as shut off as Pandora or L2. This is the place to go to get your friends up to sing in front of others while secretly recording them for blackmail from your seat. And really isn’t that what karaōke is all about?

Encore is essentially a dive bar with karaōke. I rate this place a 5 for atmosphere (lots of energy, everyone having fun) but a 3 for everything else. Honestly I can’t comment too much on the drinks since we just had several rounds of Fireball shots, but I do know the bartender didn’t know what a SoCo & Coke was. I forgive him, since I’m not sure knowing this is really a positive attribute? T
The rest of the 3-​star rating comes from the horrible state of the bathroom, and the fact that they don’t have any songs from the last decade! I thought of about 5 songs I wanted to sing and none of them were on the list. Sad. So we ended up singing «The Boy is Mine»…poor life decisions.