Boiler Room

Located right in Portland’s club scene, I have spent some great nights here with friends. The karaōke is tons of fun. It can get busy on the weekends. They have pool tables too. I recommend it.

Great place to karaōke! I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the place. I tried the fries and they were delicious.

This place was rather legit. Went downtown on a Saturday night and it was pretty much full up. Everyone was chill singing karaōke and being drunk, but fun drunk not belligerent drunk.
Drinks are fair price for being downtown and from what I’ve read they have cheap beer and outdoor seating which is nice. While drinking at a picnic table outside me and my fiancé half the pleasure of watching a mid twenties girl twerk while we drank. Classy. We definitely plan on going back. Nice Portland spot to stop off at if you’re in the area a lot of other establishments within the same few blocks.
Only downfall not so much for men but for women… Dat bathroom line doe; litz like a line of nine and the smallest bathrooms ever.

Women don’t take your purses here. Everyone, don’t take your coats off. Bouncers are running some type of scheme at this place. Grabbing them then acting like they don’t know what happened to them. Only after a scene is created will they go to the back and look and somehow find what was stolen from you.
Saw it happen multiple times to different people.
Curious if management is also into this scheme.
Whole place is shady!

The stars are for the bartenders that are completely not appreciated here and are some of the friendliest and good-​natured folks around. The karaōke experience really depends on who shows up — usually its typical awesome Portland folk, some great singers, funny singers and some not, but usually great people you’d want to get to know. Unfortunately on this night, some obnoxious Nike buttholes were in attendance. One higher up appearing idiot in particular — balding with I’m so smart square glasses dressed all in black, who was of course, too cool to sing, was actually booing other people that were brave enough to get up there. When I asked him what he did for a living (after seeing him act the critic) he tried to convince me he worked for a record label. Really??? Actually felt sorry for the other employees who clearly worked for this tool and had to kiss his … while they were there.
The more drinks I had, the more I really had to restrain myself from punching this tool in the face. But not a reflection on Boiler Room. Love their KJs and their staff. Always so awesome to talk to — their tolerance for too cool for themselves Nike dicks is crazy impressive.

Karaōke and $ 2 PBRs! Nothing not to like about that! Everyone singing along to all the songs, which is what you want.
Young, young crowd and about 5 bachelorette parties occurring at once. «Future Mrs. So-​and-​so» sashes and penis paraphernalia everywhere! No stage, and a long wait to sing. I bet this place is great on an off night…

From the first time I stepped foot through their doors two years ago, I knew the Boiler Room would be my new home away from home. The entire staff is friendly and really good at their jobs, even on the weekend when they are slammed. They have happy hour everyday until 10pm and on Thursdays $ 1 PBRs until midnight. The karaōke selection is huge and if they do not have what you are looking for in the books, the KJ will look and see if they can get it online. The karaōke can have long waits Thursday-​Saturday due to the amount of people that are there, so if you are looking to sing all night you may want to come on different days. They also have comedy open mic on Monday nights. This is the first place I recommend people to try when they come to Portland because I have never had a bad time here. I may have came for the karaōke but I stay because of the awesome people!

I haven’t gone out forever and going to boiler room was possibly the worst idea I’ve ever had. This is mainly because of the entitled, unfriendly, condescending bartender that I had, RYAN. He was absolutely horrible. The blaring karaōke music didn’t make it any better lets just say. Get it together or get out of my city!

Management came to speak with me after seeing this review and were very accommodating and understanding. They explicitly wanted to make sure I felt safe continuing to attend the Boiler Room and introduced me to staff members I could talk to if these things were to happen again.
This is a woman owned business and they made it clear they took matters of women’s experiences in their bars very seriously. Their willingness to ensure our comfort and safety, was unexpected, surprising and relieving. This is not a reaction I expect from most establishments.
This reaction and the sincerity of it makes me believe that this place can be trusted. The crowd can still be rowdy but I know I can at least expect a good response.

A very friendly crowd when I went there. It’s a fun place where everyone gets in on the action of dancing while doing karaōke. All the times I’ve been there it has been a good time. Definatley will be back.

Boiler room. The place where I killed it absolutely with «what sound does the lamb make?» joke. 5 stars.

A-​OK. Maybe next time, I’ll be smitten, but for my first time, I’m happy to report that this place is pretty cool. A young crowd — I suspect I was one of the oldest people there on a Friday night. It gets crowded. really crowded. It takes a long while before your song comes up — like an hour and a half long. And if you sing a song that others know they will be singing along — every last one of them. Drinks are not too pricy, but they will charge you for call brand if you don’t specify well. Met some nice people here — a combination… men women gay straight young and not as young. Its pretty cool — I will go again maybe when its not so crowded. Don’t forget your id like I did and have to drive downtown again the next day.

Well… it’s a bar. And it’s got karaōke. But goodness sake, this is for the under 25 crowd for just about anything.
It gets SO CROWDED. And the karaōke, it’s basically a circle-​jerk of friends of the singer. The KJ was fun, but, the songs come up in a weird order that ain’t in line for those who showed up first.
Bartenders are good, prompt, but fall under the doofy OLCC rules. The ones that that say no doubles, BUT, you can order like 3 shots per person. I blame the bar for that because it’s so wildly inconsistent that it’s not just the OLCC about that shenanigans.
So I’d…maybe be back. That’s that.

There’s just no reason to cram THAT many people in to this space and expect a conducive atmosphere for either of the two things you came there to do. Singing and drinking. Even if you tip the DJ expect to wait infinity to sing. They don’t do doubles but you can order 6 drinks at once. WTF. WHY? Standing room only. Bathroom wait lines. Overly eager bouncers. They make up for the crowd noise by turning up the volume to 17. My ears are still ringing and I have no idea what anyone said to me the entire night.

This rating is dependent on if you get your turn on the karaōke mic.
The Boiler Room packs it in for karaōke in Old Town. I was able to get my song in by going at 8:30, specifically attaching my tip of more than $ 1 to my song choice along with a big note that it was my birthday. Someone else put their request in mere seconds after me (along with similar pot sweetners) and wasn’t called up until almost an hour later (he left 5 minutes before they called him up). If the karaōke list was maintained better, it would make for an even better experience. Getting there early is still your best weapon. By the time we got there, BR had a decent size crowd milling about to get their songs in. However, If you want guaranteed mic time, there are other places that charge you by the hour or don’t have nearly the rocking atmosphere.
The atmosphere is electric. If you suck (I do), the crowd is still super into it. If you are good, then they cheer you on like an American Idol. The long singer queue downer is made up for it by the enthusiastic crowd… and it is crowded. Like crowded at 9:30PM crowded. I assume this is where Old Town pregames because I have been to other bars/​clubs in the area at 9:30pm on a Friday and they are ghost towns. Speaking of pregaming, HH wells were $ 3. it used to be $ 2. C’mon, man.
The Boiler room is a fun karaōke dance party. If you are lucky enough to get on the mic, then raise the roof, then proceed to tear it down and you will feel like a rock star for 3 and a half minutes.

Fact: Any time that the KJ starts off the evening with a soulful rendition of the Family Matters theme-​song, you know that you’re in for a treat.
It was my first time to this karaōke bar, and I can definitely see the appeal. It’s more just like a fun bar that happens to have a karaōke set-​up in the corner. It’s pretty low-​pressure with no elevated stage, and only 2 of the many TVs show the lyrics (with the rest last night showing ABC Family. Nothing like drinking to Jumangi and Matilda, amiright?) Sure it’s fun to be the singer, but with less of a spotlight on the actual performer, everybody gets in on the action by singing and dancing along. I approve.
The bar has a small and not particularly worthy beer list. I mean, it’s still Portland so there are a few local brews, but in my short amount of time in PDX I’ve grown to expect more from even the diviest of establishments. This is a domestic beers and vodka sodas type of place, which really isn’t how I like to drink. But, it seemed to work for the crowd because they were really packing them in!
The major bummer of my night is that even though I was there for probably 2 hours, my name was never called and I never got to sing. Now Portland will never know the pleasure of hearing me perform George Michael’s «Faith», and that’s just bad for everybody involved. I submitted at the same time as the rest of my party and THEY all got to sing, and plenty of people were up there 2 – 3 times. Disappointing to say the least. And yes, I tipped. I know how it goes. Turns out that even greasing the wheels didn’t work this time around.
I have to test out the rest of the Portland karaōke scene, but I can see myself returning to Boiler Room. I really like the setting and I’m going to go on faith that my omission was a fluke. It seems like a decent spot for when you just gotta sing.

Fun for dancing, pool, and singing but the crowd can get a bit annoying after a few hours. It’s an okay place if you don’t really have anywhere else to go but this area is packed with places. Out of all the cheesy places, I actually prefer Barrel Room because they have the outdoors and you can get some «air».

MathFest was held in Portland this year, and what goes better with math than karaōke?
If you check out my credit card bill, it has Boiler Room listed three times in ⁸⁄₂₀₁₄ (and once in 2012). But don’t let that fool you. MathFest represented 4 nights in a row; I just didn’t order anything one night.
There are too many things I love about this place:
1) The blond bartender was so good at her job! She was so attentive and efficient. Despite how busy it was, she remembered my name and my order – every time.
2) The manager and the door guy gave us a break on the cover that they charge on the weekends. The door guy also remembered my name the next night.
3) Most of the crowd dances to nearly every song so it’s like being in a club, but you get to dance to songs from different genres and you get to avoid the usual club-​types.
4) Every song that we thought of was available.
5) and so on.

There is no better place to go out when everyone is down for Karaōke. Some nights it is a little wait to sing but you will always get a song in before closing. I personally had the pleasure of closing the bar with Piano Man which will forever be a memory of mine so maybe I am a bit partial to this place. Good mash up of songs. Good place to go hang out with friends drink cheap beer and sing your heart out.

Oh my god
Becky, look at her butt
It is so big
As the night wears on, and the alcohol consumption has reached its tipping point, my friends just want to sing some karaōke. While Voicebox has its charms, it’s way more fun to sing along to some of your favorite tunes while drunken strangers groove to your musical stylings.
This place can get pretty packed on a weekend night, and there is a small cover. They make a decent drink, typically strong, and the bartenders are actually nice. Don’t come here if you plan on doing a lot of talking, it’s loud. One of the guys cleaning up abandoned drinks near me spilled a bit on my dress and I got a free beer out of it, which was more than he needed to do and I was very appreciative.
We’ll be back whenever my girls just wanna have fu-​un.