The Best Karaoke Bars in New York City

There are two kinds of karaoke, and knowing which one you want will save your night. The first is private-room karaoke, where you and eight friends rent a soundproof box, order a pitcher of soju and take turns ruining Whitney. The second is public-stage karaoke, where you sign up, wait your turn and sing to a room full of strangers who will, if you commit, cheer for you like family.

New York does both better than anywhere in America. Koreatown alone has dozens of room-rental spots stacked floors above 32nd Street. Downtown, the public stages range from a Chinatown dive with $1 songs to a Chelsea lounge where a live pianist follows your key changes. Our picks cover the full range, and every one was checked against official sites, listings and 2025 to 2026 coverage. We dropped anywhere we could not confirm is still open.

A few rules for public stages: tip the host, cheer for everyone, pick songs people know, and never do a nine-minute song. For private rooms, book ahead on weekends and ask about happy-hour room rates.

Public stages: sing for strangers

Winnie's

Chinatown · 58 E Broadway · $

The karaoke dive against which all others are measured. Winnie's lost its original Bayard Street home in 2015, came back on East Broadway four years later, and kept everything that mattered: vinyl booths, graffiti-covered tables, a little stage in the back and songs for about $1 each. Cocktails start around $10, and the crowd is a glorious mix of Chinatown regulars, birthday parties and people who wandered up the stairs by accident. For the rest of the neighborhood, see our Chinatown guide.

Go for: a late-night power ballad in front of a crowd that is already on your side. Know before you go: open noon to 4am daily; the signup list gets long after midnight.

Sid Gold's Request Room

Chelsea · 165 W 26th St · $$

A retro piano lounge where a live pianist accompanies you, which changes everything. You are not singing over a backing track, you are singing with a musician who will slow down when you panic and build when you land the chorus. The crowd skews theater kid, and the energy is closer to a cabaret than a bar. Monday nights lean Broadway.

Go for: a showtune on a Monday or a Celine Dion moment on a Friday. Know before you go: there is usually a two-drink minimum, and weekends fill up, so reserve.

Baby Grand

Flatiron · 29 W 17th St · $$

A public stage with songs at $2 each plus three private rooms, so a group can do both. Small rooms start at about $50 an hour, with bigger rooms for up to 16. Wednesday nights bring live band karaoke, which is the best night to go. A second, two-stage location runs at 187 Orchard St on the Lower East Side.

Go for: Wednesday live band karaoke. Know before you go: the public stage is the fun part; book a room only if your group is shy.

Planet Rose

East Village · 219 Avenue A · $

Red walls, zebra-print couches and wireless mics in a family-owned Alphabet City bar that has been running karaoke for more than 20 years. It opens at 4pm daily and there is a 2-for-1 happy hour. It is divey in the best way, and the crowd is mostly neighborhood people with strong opinions about Fleetwood Mac.

Go for: a weeknight session when the queue is short. Know before you go: it is small; big groups should go early.

Montero Bar & Grill

Brooklyn Heights · 73 Atlantic Ave · $

A 1939 longshoreman bar that runs karaoke Thursday to Saturday, with drinks in plastic cups and a house rule against jumping. The room is covered in maritime clutter and the crowd is a mix of old Brooklyn and whoever just finished dinner on Atlantic. It is one of the best dive bars in the city too; see our dive bar guide.

Go for: a Friday night classic rock singalong. Know before you go: it is tiny, and the list fills by 11.

Private rooms: sing for your friends

Sing Sing Karaoke

East Village · 9 St Marks Pl · $

A St Marks fixture since 2005, with private rooms priced per person and a discount before 8pm. It is not fancy, which is part of the charm: you get a room, a remote, a big songbook and a door that closes. It runs until 4am on weeknights, and it is one of the few private-room spots downtown that will not wreck a student budget.

Go for: an early-evening session at the discounted rate. Know before you go: it has been cash-first; bring bills just in case.

Karaoke Boho

Lower East Side · 152 Orchard St · $

Seventeen private rooms holding 3 to 45 people in a basement with festive lighting. Happy hour runs from opening to 9pm with cheap shots, beer and cocktails, and room rates drop to about $6 per person per hour until 8pm. You can bring your own bottle for unlimited singing with a reservation, and open-bar packages top out around $80 a person for two hours.

Go for: a birthday on the Lower East Side. Know before you go: reserve for BYOB and weekend rooms. Our Lower East Side guide covers dinner nearby.

Gagopa Karaoke

Koreatown · 28 W 32nd St, 3rd floor · $

Classic Koreatown karaoke with multicolored lights and a straightforward price: about $36 an hour for up to four people, or $9 per person per hour for five or more. It opens in the early evening and runs until 4am every night. It is the most reliable late-night room in the neighborhood.

Go for: a 2am session after dinner in Koreatown. Know before you go: prices are plus tax, and weekends get booked.

Space Karaoke Bar & Lounge

Koreatown · 34 W 32nd St, 11th floor · $$$

The splashy end of Koreatown karaoke: soundproofed rooms across a high floor above 32nd Street, bottle service and open-bar packages from about $49 to $79 a person. Two-hour room packages for up to 30 guests start in the high hundreds of dollars. It is built for celebrations that want to feel like a club night.

Go for: a big birthday or bachelorette with a budget. Know before you go: open seven days until 3am or later; book ahead.

Insa

Gowanus · 328 Douglass St · $$

A Korean barbecue restaurant with five themed karaoke rooms, which means you can do dinner and singing without changing buildings. Karaoke runs until 2am on Friday and Saturday, and Wednesday is half-price. The food is good enough that you will be tempted to skip singing, and you should not.

Go for: a Wednesday dinner and half-price karaoke. Know before you go: closed Monday and Tuesday; reserve through OpenTable.

Outer-borough bonus rounds

Sissy McGinty's

Astoria · 25-67 Steinway St · $

A big Astoria pub with karaoke on Friday nights, darts tournaments on Sundays and monthly comedy. It is loud, friendly and cheap, and the karaoke crowd is pure neighborhood.

Go for: Friday karaoke with a pint. Know before you go: it is a sports bar the rest of the week.

The Bronx Beer Hall

Belmont · 2344 Arthur Ave (inside the Arthur Avenue Market) · $

A beer hall inside the Arthur Avenue market with New York-brewed beer on tap, picnic tables and karaoke on Friday nights from 8pm. It is the most charming place on this list to sing Sinatra.

Go for: a Friday night after dinner on Arthur Avenue. Know before you go: it closes earlier than Manhattan spots, around 11pm on Fridays.

How to win karaoke night

Karaoke is not about being a good singer. It is about reading the room. A few rules we stand by:

Pick songs everyone knows. On a public stage, the best song is the one the room will sing along to. Think "Dancing Queen," not a deep cut from an album only you own. Save the ambitious stuff for private rooms, where your friends are contractually obligated to love you.

Mind the length. Anything over five minutes tests a crowd's patience. If the song has a long instrumental break, have a plan (dancing, audience work, a dramatic pause) or pick something else.

Know your range. Most karaoke systems let you change the key. Use it. And at Sid Gold's, you can simply tell the pianist to bring it down a step, which is the single biggest advantage of live accompaniment.

Tip the host. At public-stage bars, the host controls the list. A few dollars early and a friendly word goes a long way on a busy night. Never skip the line by begging; it never works and everyone notices.

Cheer for everyone. The unwritten contract of public karaoke is that the room applauds every singer, especially the nervous ones. Do your part and the room will do the same for you.

Booking a private room

For groups of five or more, private rooms are usually the better value, and they are almost always the better experience for birthdays.

Reserve for Friday and Saturday. Koreatown rooms at Gagopa and Space and the Lower East Side rooms at Karaoke Boho book up on weekends, especially for big groups. Weeknights are usually walk-in friendly.

Go early for the deals. Karaoke Boho drops room rates to about $6 per person per hour before 8pm, Sing Sing discounts rooms before 8pm, and Insa runs half-price karaoke on Wednesdays. An early start saves real money.

Ask about drinks. Some rooms offer open-bar packages, and Karaoke Boho lets you bring your own bottle with a reservation. Space Karaoke runs full bottle service. Know the policy before you arrive with a bag of wine.

Count heads honestly. Many spots charge per person or scale room size by group, and they will check. Show up with the number you booked.

A downtown karaoke crawl

If you want a whole night of it, start around 8pm with a discounted private room at Sing Sing on St Marks Place, where early rates keep the damage low. Walk east to Planet Rose on Avenue A for a round on the open mic and a drink on the zebra couches. Then take a cab down to Chinatown and finish at Winnie's, which runs until 4am and gets better the later it gets. Three rooms, three moods, one very tired voice.

How to use this list

Match the room to the mood. For a first date or a solo night, go public: Winnie's, Sid Gold's or Planet Rose, where the crowd does the work. For a birthday, book a private room at Karaoke Boho or Gagopa and let the group get as bad as it wants. For something in between, Baby Grand lets you start in a room and graduate to the stage.

And if the night ends at 4am with a sore throat, the late-night food guide will point you to soup.