Galchae Karaoke

Finally tried this place out today!
I’m a regular at plus kareoke but I really didn’t wanna go there today so we decided to come here.
It’s definitely not the most modern, high tech kareoke place out there but I liked it. Song bank was fine, and they gave us bottled water and a ton of popcorn for free.
Most importantly, they gave us a lot of service! We started at 6:45 and were in there till 8:30ish, so almost 40 minutes of service.
Tldr; this place is better than plus except the location.
Will be coming back.

Unilocal hasn’t been nice to me so I’ll summarize this amazing place!
Service:
— owned my a cute elderly couple, with young part-​timers who speak fluent English
— free popcorn and water (unlike other places that charge you $ 2.50 for a glass of water or otherwise charge you and extra 20% of your bill if you drink your own)
— the owners of the place are nice, they let my group of friends and I sing for free while we waited for the rest of them to come (which was like 10 minutes, but still)
— when it wasn’t busy, they offered to give us free time
Karaōke:
— old-​fashioned, cozy (basically what you see in the photos + clean washrooms)
— timer
— karaōke machine with a remote control, you add songs by inserting the appropriate song codes into the remote, codes are found in large binders
— scoring system, that scores your singing after each song
— songs available in Japanese, Korean, English, Chinese and Vietnamese
Pricing:
— for a post-​secondary student, I found the pricing to be reasonable $ 12 for 2 hours + extra time (but I left when they offered since it was 1 am) with a group of 5 – 6
Overall:
I love this place so much! Willing to come back here anytime. Has the best service compared to other places that I have been too.
Note: Bring Cash, they ask you to pay first.

This place was so awesome! It’s in the weirdest location, surrounded by auto body shops and other industrial type businesses. They stay open super late (3am-​4am some nights). However, they don’t serve alcohol if you’re looking to have drinks and sing. They give you water and free popcorn, though!
It’s owned by the cutest old Asian couple. They’re all set up like it’s their home. Their dog hangs out there, too. I’m not sure how many private rooms there were, but they were decent sized and varied for different groups. Good selection of old and new English songs. Had a great experience. Would definitely go back.

This is a very small Asian influenced karaōke bar– not a traditional American group-​style karaōke in a large room. It was single rooms for smaller groups

This was my first experience at this type of private room Karaōke lounge. We went here in the late afternoon and there were very few others there at that time. I went with a 9 year old who loves to sing, and she was very happy with their selection of up to date and older songs. The entrance requires you to be buzzed in, which I found strange — but hey I’m not familiar with this neighborhood so maybe it’s necessary?
The young man working was helpful and kind. We were served one water and one popcorn, and as I wasn’t singing we were charged the youth rate of $ 20 per hour. I asked about the 40% off special before 7 pm but apparently they no longer offer that.
The entire place was dimly lit, our room was no exception. There was a larger older couch, a coffee table, a fan and an older TV with the associated karaōke remote control. With a quick briefing from the staff member we were easily able to figure out how to work the remote. I’m a clean freak so the older couch and darkness were a little less than desirable for me, but I survived and the nine year old loved it.
There is a button on the remote that says «change video» be careful with this one — it changes the back ground video of the karaōke songs — and one was very risqué and not appropriate for kids… just press the button again to change videos.
Overall our experience was good, and we would probably try it again.

Good karaōke place. Very nice owner, he gave us extra time and more free popcorn and water. It was a fair price at $ 25 for 1 – 4 people. There are good selections of Vietnamese, korean, japanese, Filipino, chinese and English songs. Clean and fun! Definitely recommended.

Not bad, it has a pretty good English song list and it’s very cheap compared to karaōke places downtown. No liquor license though, which is probably a problem for most people (although I myself don’t care). It’s a bit out of the way by public transit, about a 10 minute walk from the Royal Oak skytrain.

When singing in the shower or car dancing isn’t enough for you, Galchae will accept you and your friends with open arms. They’ll even shower you with popcorn and bottled water (not literally though)
Place is cheaper than most places DT Vancouver. I think there was 6 of us, and for an hour we paid around $ 30. You pay before you go into the room. They don’t do split payments, so either bring cash or have one person pay and pay them back. I’ve been here a few times before, and they’ve even given us free time when it wasn’t busy!
Great selection of songs, new and old. They seem to update their list regularly.

Nice private rooms, free popcorn and good selection in songs. I’ve had good times here.

I was chillin’ with my homies and we decided that it would be awesome to go with the Tuesday Karaōke special at Galchae Karaōke. From the outside, this place looked super sketchy, and the inside was super dark, kind of like a lazer tag arena. However, the owner was extremely nice and welcoming. The special included 3 – 4 people at $ 25 per hour. It came to around $ 6.25 each. Not bad. The karaōke room seemed very small and intimate, but that wasn’t a problem at all. It made the experience better and more fun. I liked how they had a wide range of song selections, which included the most recent hits, as well as the classics, and even foreign Tagalog songs. The remote for the karaōke machine was a little bit confusing though, as all the keys were in Korean. The owner very patiently came in and explained to us how to use it. He also came in and gave us some free popcorn and water (the popcorn was stale, but it was still a nice gesture). Even though we paid for only one hour, surprisingly, we were given an extra 20 minutes. We had a great time here at Galchae and would definitely come back in the future!

Galchae Karoake is amazing!
Not only do they have great service with free popcorn and water, but the song bank was very updated! And like Jenna B. said, if you go before 7PM, it’s 40% off!
Although the remote was in Korean, I went with Korean friends so it was alright. But if you and your friends can’t speak Korean, I’m sure the employees would definitely help you.
Not to mention, right across from Galchae is a really good Korean restaurant called Hanwoori. My friends and I always go there before karaoking.
Galchae is totally worth it!

Yeah It was fun!!! ;)
I liked the service. The Korean man was so nice and funny he explained how to use the remote control I think no less than 10 times.
He gave us free popcorn, which was sweet from him ^^.
I will definitely go again some time, but is SO FAR from Vancouver…

Kinda scary from the outside but this place is pretty great.
Came here one night after dinner with co-​workers. Way cheaper than most places downtown. Good song selection. Nice people. They kept trying to give us free time, which was weird, but gladly accepted until we were all sung out.
Will definitely be going back again.

Came here for the 1^st time on Saturday. I have only been to a couple other karoake venues prior to this. My 1^st impressions were that this place definitely looked much less updated in terms of furniture and décor than other places I had been to. The couches in the rooms looked older than me (I am in my 20s).
Language:
This place is owned by a Korean family whose parents speak no English at all. In the beginning my friends and I were given a control pad with Korean written all over it so we had no idea how to navigate it (my friends and I are all Chinese). We spent the 1^st 40 minutes trying to figure out how the control pad worked. We complained and they finally gave us an English touch pad and by request they gave us an hour free to make up for the 40 minutes we wasted. That was very generous of them to honor that.
Music:
1. My biggest gripe is that every single song we chose whether old or recent did not have the option for you to sing along with the singer in the background. Having said that, you really had to know the song well or else you would’ve completely drawn a blank because all you had was the melody to follow.
2. Another huge gripe was that many of the songs were only about a minute long. So you would sing the first verse followed by the chorus then the song ended before it got to the rest of the song.
3. Also there was no way to review the list of songs you had picked. You only get to see how many songs were inserted.
Volume control:
The music was blaring really loud. There was no option on their control pad to change the volume and changing the volume on the TV did not work. I asked the owner to help me. It took him a good 10 minutes to figure out where the volume controls were. WTF?! The volume controls were on the receiver which was actually locked and covered by a board and screws. Again Wtf?! Why is there no remote for customers to change the volume themselves!!!
Service:
Their service was okay. The employees got frustrated because we had a hard time figuring out the control pad for reserving songs (it was our 1^st time there ever). Despite all the issues, they did give us extra time for time we missed figuring the controls out and plus an additional 25 minutes afterwards.
Also they normally charge 3 ppl for $ 25 per hour but we had a 4^th person and they gave it to us for $ 25 anyway. :D
All in all though, would not go back.

Friendly service! We really enjoyed our time singing together as family. Thanks to them, we had a really great time! Thanks to the owner of this place to help us have more fun! Really good music sound and there’s also strobe lights as well. The seating is very comfortable plus water and popcorn are free. I think I lost my voice from singing so many songs and plus lots of dancing. It’s our first time here too plus their restroom is clean. They only serve Korean snacks, so no American style chips. Their karaōke list is organized plus there’s one for English words and Korean words. Their ceiling is very entertaining like, it’s like spaceship and the galaxy. Plus their door is colorful glass. The floor is wooden, easy to slide and have lots of fun dancing. 2 microphones and they have entertaining Korean music videos as backgrounds from the TV. I recommend to check this place out if you love karaōke! It’s around $ 35 per hour. And they accept American cash, but not American debit card since it turns to American credit card, so it doesn’t work that way. Debit card and cash only (:

I ‘ve been coming here for more than 2 years and never got disappointed about the place.
The owner is very friendly and we always get popcorn refilled and bottled water as well as extra singing time. The last time we sang for 3 hours straight and got almost 1 hour more for free.
Lots of new English and Vietnamese songs updated (since i am Vietnamese). Definitely wont go anywhere else for Karaōke but here.

I love karaōke, and damn does this place deliver. Before 7 they have 40% of their regular prices.
They have a great song selection and gave us free popcorn and water. They don’t allow outside food or drink (just so you know). They gave us lots of extra time more than I’ve gotten at any other karaōke place! Get a bunch of friends and share a room singing your favorite songs in english, korean, chinese, japanese, and I think they even have a few philipino songs. Sing the day away! It’s a lot of fun!

I went there last night with 2 of my friends a guy I was meeting for the first time on a date I will admit the place seemed really run down the room looked really old and tight even though it did fit 4 comfortably the system was in Chinese making it hard for us to understand how to work it at first but the staff there where very nice and answered all our questions and dealt with all our concerns apologizing for everything and offering us more time they brought in popcorn non stop for all of us (im on a diet) but i couldn’t help it, It was hard to understand when we were done because no one came in and told us our time was up we had to figure it out by fiddling around with it a few times to realize that we where done and stepped out they offered us more time due to the glitches we had at the beginning but my date had to run off cause he had to get some where but they were extremely respectful and polite to us over all i would say we really enjoyed ourselves and I think I would definitely go back again

Not a bad karaōke place, some of my friends prefer coming here than heading downtown. Its setup with private rooms here and they only have beer or water. Its not the cleanest place either, a lot of people here on weekends get pretty wasted. Its pretty fun here only because they will open into the wee hours of the morning and everyone doesn’t want to go home.
The karaōke system here is okay, English song selection isn’t great but its sufficient, they have songs here other places don’t and vice versa. I don’t think the sound system is as good as some other places though, sometimes the mic is really off or gets feedback.
PRICE: Cheaper than other karaōke places.
SERVICE: Really friendly owners. Very accommodating considering the clientele they have to deal with.
SUGGEST: Come here with people who’ve been here before. Karaōke’s always fun with friends.

Galchae (or Gal Chae) is the regular karaōke spot for my group of friends. We are not ‘karaōke stars’ by any stretch of the imagination but we come here everytime we want to go butcher some songs.
The place may be a bit intimidating from the outside with the neon and having to be buzzed in — but if you hear muffled wailing from the outside, you’re in the right place.
If you’re not familiar with Asian karaokes, this is not a karaōke bar setup with one system where you get to sing/​annoy other strangers in the bar. The place has about 10 – 12 room of various sizes for groups to rent, so you can sing out your Idol urges in relative privacy. I think their biggest room can fit about 20 people.
It starts at $ 25/​hr for up to 3 people and additional $ 5/​hr per person in your group (prepay in advance — they accept debit). So this place is pretty cheap compared to other karaōke joints and it’s even cheaper if you come before 6PM (I think the base price drops to $ 15/​hr). Also, it’s open until the wee hours of the morning.
With every room, you get freebie bottled waters and popcorn and/​or chips. As I’m not sure if sure this place is licensed, I believe other BEvERages are available and this place is smoker-​friendly.
Despite the ratty looking interior, they run a slick operation. First off, this place has a huge English song collection (along with Korean, Chinese and Vietnamese songs) — all the classic songs you expect to find at any karaōke place (which require actual singing ability) but they add about 20 – 30 songs every month. Many of them are recent hits (i.e. Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas, etc.) or stuff you never expect to find at a karaōke (Eminem, Flo Rida, Linkin Park, etc.). All the songs are listed in their frequently updated song list by artist or by title.
All rooms have good sound systems, fancy light setups and wonderfully cheesy blacklight spaced-​themed ceilings. The most impressive part is the karaōke machines themselves — punch in your song code in the remote control that looks like a laptop and your songs come up instantly (no laserdiscs involved here!). You can queue up to about 15 songs, enter a song for instant playback, change the video mode (check out the cheesy Euro soft porn for a laugh), skip songs, view the most popular tracks, change pitch/​tempo/​volume — my friends and I have been coming here for years and we are still learning all the features (of course, none of us being able to read the Korean menus may have a part too).
The best part is the random machine scoring they give you after each song. Obviously nerfed to stroke patron’s ego (me getting 100? HAH!) but seriously hilarious to see my butchering of ‘Bohemian Rhasophy’ get higher rated by the machine than a pitch-​perfect rendition of ‘How Do I Live’ by a trained vocalist.
If the place isn’t busy and there’s no one waiting for your room, they will add free-​time beyond what you paid for — great to finish off those last few songs in queue (please tip if you stay for a long time). My group once paid for a 2 hour session and ended up staying closer to 4 hours after they keep adding time. We sang until our throats were sore and the old Korean proprietor told us to stay and keep going.
The owner, an old Korean man and his wife, speak very little English — but are warm. The younger staff come in to the rooms frequently to clear off empties and refill popcorn — however, it seems to be always in the middle of your wailing to some embarassly sappy song.
Overall, probably the best place to karaōke in the GVRD with huge (and growing) collection of English songs. Prices are cheap, tons of freebies, and nice owners that seem to genuinely want to see their patrons have a good time. I was originally going to give Galchae 4 stars, but reading my review over it deserves a full 5 stars.