I used to go here with my family every weekend and decided to come back and check it out again. Since then and now, the prices are great and just as they state on the menu. For the month of June, they have a promotion for 10% off per additional person up to 6 people. *Only for specific hours. The system takes a little bit to navigate, so here is some tricks! If you don't see a song/artist available, the youtube function has a lot that you may be looking for. If you want to skip the song, click the stop button. The stop button doesn't pause the queue. FYI there is a $2/person fee if you bring outside drinks. It was quite busy on a weekend morning, as most rooms were taken. read more

Gamba Karaoke - Large Partyroom - Karaoke Near Me - Cupertino, California

Been going to this place occasionally for many years and despite the humble look of it, I still enjoy it every time I visit the area and even if the prices went up (especially after the pandemic) -- it's still quite reasonable compared to other modern/updated places that may look cooler but lack in good service or overall experience based on how they run it. If you're ok with singing karaoke with loved ones for fun without caring about how a place looks and having a more casual "hole in the wall" experience where it's almost as if you're singing in your own living room, this is where it's at! Of course it would be nice if the owner had better couches or better soundproofed rooms but for the price point, this is what you'll get. And if you prefer something more upscale or updated with a bar or a bunch of food options and throw posh-ish parties etc, then obvi this won't be the place for you; you can go to Pure Karaoke or other places like it if you prefer that younger vibe. Otherwise, I think this is still a pretty solid place no matter what. read more

Very aged, a bit dingy, but super cheap and does the job! The rates are insane. $1 an hour if you're there from 7 AM - 9 AM is diabolical. I'm sure there's night shift people who need to belt it out after a stressful shift or maybe someone who needs that to start their day, but the rates go up as the day goes on. They're open until 1 AM on weekdays and 2 AM on weekends. Probably one of the very few bay area businesses that stay open into the mornight. I'm not a karaoke person so I was there more to just vibe and hang out. But if you're a J pop or Anisong fan, you're set! They got all of the classics here and it's definitely recommended to go right after Fanime if you have the post con blues. We had songs form Evangelion, FLOW, Tales of, Fate series, FMA, and much more. Great bang for your buck! read more

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This is an interesting spot. No disco lights, no alcohol, no YouTube, BUT an enjoyable and memorable experience. Probably ideal for Japanese music fans who just want to sing! We got the DAM karaoke system and found pretty much every Japanese song we wanted. However, the search interface was a bit challenging due to our limited Japanese literacy. The lady at the front was super helpful with showing us how to use the tablet and helping us find songs, and we figured it out eventually. Maybe we could have had an easier time and still found our desired songs if we had asked for the English system, but hunting around the hiragana keyboard was half the fun. It was also cool to see how wide the song selection was for each artist we searched. The ambiance feels like you are singing in someone's living room. There's no disco lights or decor, just some couch seats, the TV, and a little table. The barebones aesthetic made it feel relaxed and intimate. The place also seems family friendly, as there were kids practicing piano and other instruments in a different room. We stayed 2.5 hours and were charged for exactly that (no rounding up to another hour, no hidden service fees). Overall, it was a good experience, and I think we'll return but shoot for either the $1/hour/person (7-9am) or $4.99/hour/person (9-11am) slots! read more

Gamba Karaoke - Song search interface (DAM) - Karaoke Near Me - Cupertino, California

Hidden gem, great prices, good sound system, interesting facility, ran by a Japanese family. A friend of mine told me that this place also serves as storage for the restaurant next door, gochi, and starts to make sense on why there's so much random boxes on the side. Not the most upscale place, but I think it adds to the charm. read more

Gamba Karaoke - Karaoke Near Me - Cupertino, California

None of the disco ball LED lighting that the other places have matter at the end of the day. Good service, song selection, and clean rooms are what karaoke places should be judged on. Arigato gozaimasu! read more

$270 for 6 for 2.5 hours! Interior reminds me of some Silent Hill type map but otherwise fun, lots of weird furniture, couches look spooky and the interior was musty. Karaoke machines were okay, lots to pick from but didn't have it all. Systems slightly archaic, but good deal singing from 7-9am for a dollar. Will do next time. read more

Maybe it's bias as this was the first place I ever did karaoke at, but I LOVE Gamba. This is perfect for weeb types who wanna sing and anyone who wants to cover a song solo with just music in the background. I have been to one other karaoke place before and I absolutely hated the way it was just a private room with a tablet hooked up to a screen to look songs up on YouTube to sing to. No, that's basic. It's whatever. I absolutely did not enjoy that experience. THIS? This is Gamba. You're in a little place that's cozy and yeah, a bit stuffy, but you have a room for you and your group to chill in and sing. It's so casual, it's no frills, it's just it's own vibe. They have JoySound and DAM machines for Japanese songs, with the option to look up songs in other languages as well via the Japanese tablets, so you can get a lot of variety. It's not difficult to use a translation app to find the button to switch things to English in this case. (I say this as someone doesn't know Japanese.) Again, maybe because this is my main experience with karaoke, do not come here looking to have some liquid courage before you sing your heart out in front of strangers. Come here to sing loudly into a microphone with an echo effect with a respectable level of privacy while chilling on a couch that doesn't look like it's that comfy but is somehow extremely comfy and just chatting with friends. It's fun! read more

If you time your entry, this can be the cheapest daytime karaoke option. For the people who want a party-like environment, I will say this may not be the place of choice. However, for the traditionalist singing-oriented karaoke fanatic like me, this place fills a niche in which you can have an intimate karaoke experience without any of the tambourines, flashing lights, or dim rooms. I am here only to sing my heart out in a room with a sound system and adjustable volume. 7-9 am on the weekend it's 1 dollar per person per hour, and from 9-11 am it's 5 dollars, all charged by the time you spend there, so no kind of "scam" where you have to pay for an extra hour if you're 5 minutes into the next hour. For the karaoke enthusiasts who are interested in cheap weekend karaoke, if you don't have any reservations about belting into the early morning and afternoon, this is a great place! Note: there is no YouTube TV here, so you are limited to the options presented by the karaoke system, but luckily there is still pitch adjustment. read more

Sorry we were here for about 20 mins and left, it was cheap but did not past the vibe check for an outing for a karaoke night. Just a heads ups, there are going to be rooms in used, for some private music lessons. read more

This was our first time going to a karaoke venue with separate rooms. The front desk and inside could use a bit more organization because we almost thought we were walking into an abandoned office. We were greeted by the front desk employee, and he was very friendly, and he helped us get set up with our room. It almost looks like this place used to be. A therapy, dental, or some type of social services office. Either way, we had a good time once we got to the room and sang our hearts away! We hope the owners can update the rooms. It would be great if we had a disco ball and some blue or colored lights in the room. This place has so much more potential for Instagram moments. FYI. The rooms are not sound proof, so other guests can probably hear you as they walk by, and there are windows in the room. Also, there can be a lot of feedback if you're sitting too close together using two mics and/or too close to the speakers. read more

Gamba Karaoke - Karaoke Room, smaller room - Karaoke Near Me - Cupertino, California

Gamba has been a go-to South Bay karaoke spot for years. They combine an extensive song selection (including for us who like to sing songs from the 70s, 80s and 90s) with adequate (if dated) technology and fairly clean rooms. Compared to some other karaoke places, the vibe is lower key -- they don't sell alcohol, for example. The prices for prime time karaoke have increased substantially post-pandemic but if you go during the day, it's a steal. read more

My kids love too sing. There's no better place to take them than Gamba Karaoke. Since my kids are too young for late night karaoke, we went during the morning, during off peak hours which was super cheap. They have good selection of Japanese and American songs. They have serveral rooms. The room is nothing to rave about, furniture is outdated. Which was fine. It was a affordable activity. They do sell snacks or bring your own snack. read more

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This place is alright. It's basically just an old office building with junk lying around but kind of in an endearing way. The karaoke machines and TV are super old (possibly from the 90s) and so is the iPad they give you. The iPad for picking songs wasn't responding half the time. However they do have somewhat recent songs on these machines. Anyway, we did end up having a great time for 2 hrs. The benefit of this place is that it's open most of the day, so we came in at 4-6 pm since we had something else planned later that day. The price for 6 people at this time for 2 hrs was $130, which is not bad. Next time though, we'll pick a better spot. There was also no food (which was fine with us), but they have a few cheap bottled/canned drinks in case you're thirsty. read more

This is a basic Karaoke bar and was SO much fun. They just focus on karaoke and there's not much else to do. They sell candy and that's it for food. The machines were a little hard to use and were slow but there was a really good song selection. The staff was super friendly. Thank goodness for the fan on the hot day. I am a fan (no pun intended) of Gamba. read more

Great place to get authentic Japanese karaoke with Joysound and DAM systems! Can't wait to come back!

Came here from 10-12 on a Saturday morning and spent only $2/person, which is an amazing deal. They had a reasonably good selection of songs, which you can order from their tablet or using an app on your phone. The furnishing is rather basic and shabby-looking and they don't serve food but you can bring your own food in. They don't serve or allow alcohol, which makes morning an even more appropriate time for karaoke at this place. 3.5 stars read more

Placed on the edge of a small shopping plaza, you'll see a Karaoke sign. For a no frills place like Gamba, this is probably the best way to identify this establishment. It has a decent selections of up-to-date English songs with a fairly wide range of groups attending. The space almost feels like walking into a home with how items seem more like casual appliances vs a commercialized space. It would not blow you away with any top of the line technology but it gets the job done. However, as most of the technology is on the older end you will get some scratchy and outdated sounds when singing. In particular, the background music for every song has this scratchy sound. Almost like it was from an old record player. Additionally, the mics has some syncing issues and could only project sound when singing directly facing the top of the mic. It would have been nicer if you could have the mic a little further away but when you raise the volume of the mic it will start to hiss. Probably equally as important to me as a patron of various karaoke bars is the decor and setting. While I'm usually not particular, this place has no real separation between other groups. The rooms have no tinted or semi-transparent material to add a layer of privacy. I don't like to sing with other people outside of friends watching in and have noticed other patrons watching from outside which is super weird for me. It also doesn't help that the couches here are pretty old and mushy. Overall, it's a decent place with a decent selection of up-to-date songs which really is the driving point. I would really only consider here if you care more about songs than the quality of sound and space. TL;DR nice selection of songs but at the cost of price, quality of mics/sound system and privacy. read more

Every time, I'm in South Bay and my friends want to karaoke, my friends and I end up going here. I have been here on three different occasions, and as much as I want to love Gamba Karaoke, I just can't. The Pros: By far, Gamba Karaoke has one of the best hourly rates in the morning and early afternoon ($1/hr/person from 8AM-2PM) and - according to my friends who live around the area - a decent English song selection. The rooms are also well maintained and spacious. The Cons: I think it would really help if Gamba Karoake upgraded to a touch screen system versus flipping through books based categorized by artist or title to discover that the song I'm looking for is not available. I've also noticed that there are a handful of songs that use the typical scenery background, blue screen, and with lyrics that are incorrect or not synced up correctly. Also, there's no water fountain, so I recommend bringing your own water. If you're looking for your basic, affordable hourly rates with a decent English song selection, Gamba fits the bill (pun intended). read more

Went here on a Friday around 2 PM and it was really empty. We were a group a 3 and probably were the only ones there. PROS: - Staff was really nice (it was just the lady at the front desk) - They update their songs frequently; there were already songs released from May 2019 available - Nice speakers/tv/equipment - There was a fan in the room and it worked pretty well considering it was quite hot out - Super affordable; we were there for ~3 hours and it was less than $20 CONS: - The room is kind of a mood killer; very drab walls/decor. The walls were painted and dull like color and the couches were covered with green covering. Definitely would come back here again! Had a great time read more

For me, I'm always trying to capture that feeling of doing Karaoke in Japan. The rooms, the machines, the friends, etc. Several places come close, but most places aren't as spot-on as Gamba Karaoke. A large group of friends and I came in to do some karaoke. The man behind the counter was very nice and accommodating, showing us how to switch between the machines (some of us wanted to do Japanese karaoke and others wanted to do English karaoke). The machines are all in great condition, and the equipment had very clearly been recently cleaned. The TVs were sufficiently large to be able to read from easily. If you're in the mood for the real karaoke experience, this is definitely the place to go! read more

I love Gamba for their amazing $1/person/hour rate from opening till 2 pm everyday. Once every couple months, my friends and I get up ridiculously early and make the 45 min trek down to Gamba for some amazingly cheap and satisfying karaoke. The only reason I'm giving 4 stars instead of 5 is that their set up isn't the best. Yes, they could upgrade their furniture. Yes, they could improve their lighting (if you're looking for cool flashing disco lights, then go elsewhere!). But you really can't beat the early bird price. They let you bring your own food and drinks, so typically my friends and I will make a quick stop at the 99 Ranch nearby (there's also a Starbucks there for you coffee lovers and a couple of Asian bakeries) and grab some breakfast, and then carry everything into Gamba without a problem. As far as song selection goes (I sing a lot of Japanese karaoke), Gamba has the best selection I've found at any karaoke place in the bay area. When I call to make my reservation, they always ask which language you would like to sing in, and if you say Japanese, they'll ask if you want to sing with Joysound or DAM (they're two different Japanese karaoke systems). First time they asked me, I was really impressed!! I've been once for English karaoke as well, and I remember they had a good selection, including a pretty up-to-date top 40's selection. All in all, Gamba is my go-to spot in the bay area for some solid and cheap karaoke. My only complaint is that it's too far away from me or else I'd be there every other weekend! read more

This is a cute Karaoke joint. There are lots of private rooms although they don't seem to seat too many people. You can use the Japanese machine but all the text is in Japanese. I was able to guess based on my rudimentary Japanese and my okay Chinese skills but if you don't know either language just use the English one. The hourly rate is very cheap and it makes this a fun place to kill some time with friends! read more

We were having an impromptu GNO and stopped by Gochi's for dinner and dropped by here for karaoke after since it was literally, right next to Gochi's. It looked pretty deserted when we got inside and they had tons of rooms available, but we got stuck in this small room with no air (aside from a fan) with a really old tv and an iPad with this ridiculous app that was very difficult to use. To do anything on the app, you pretty much had to hold the button you're pushing for a ridiculous amount of time for anything to happen. The iPad was probably the most advanced item in our whole room! A lot of the other rooms had flat screen tvs and comfy couches, our room looked like a super tiny classroom with really red walls and a giant old tv. My friend also wanted me to mention that she was very disappointed there was no tambourine, although I think that was the least of our disappointments. We used the English books and entered the "codes" as well as search by artist/title and it really took a long time to use. They have a lot of new songs which was nice, but the music didn't have any background vocals and a lot of the lyrics had incorrect timing which was really annoying. There was even one song that just had "mm" and "ahh" instead of having the actually lyrics to the song, what was up with that?? Needless to say, probably won't be back again. read more

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Got invited to come with family friends here this evening for the first time. Oh my God, Ive not had this much fun since I was a child. This is the best idea for family fun, group of friends, etc. You get a room depending on how many people in your party. Inside are couches, chairs, tables a giant tv, and iPad to the pick the songs and 2 cordless microphones. You can pick songs from the books they provide or you can search on the iPad. You can pick the order In which songs are played and boom! Karaoke! The pricing SO reasonable, it's literally unbeatable. This is a hidden gem. NO alcohol allowed in property. Food is acceptable. I recommend this place if you love karaoke and your family. read more

Hm, I've been to too many karaoke bars to admit but Gamba is mediocre at best. 1. The rooms are bright as HECK. The lamp makes me feel like I'm in an office. No disco ball or dimmer light options. 2. The first room we went to smelled like B.O. Had to wait and be switched to a different room. 3. The acoustics are not as friendly ... other karaoke places give you a little bit of an echo so your voice doesn't sound so raw. 4. Some songs were terribly timed with the lyrics. The lyrics would pop up as soon as you were supposed to start singing so unless you have the entire song memorized, you're stumbling for words. 5. No score!!! What's the point of karaoke without being graded on it? Lol. Gamba is very minimal. I might as well be at home with my friends and just blasting youtube singalongs. read more

This is one of the cheaper Bay Area Karaoke places, but still came out to $40 for two people for two hours, which felt a bit high given the quality of the rooms. It looks and feels like a converted community recreation center. The rooms are outfitted with mismatched and old furniture. Our room had printed wall paper of a brick wall; why? The accoustics also felt a bit off as others have pointed out. Nonetheless we had a rousing good time karaokeing. Who doesn't love belting out the latest songs, which they have in abundance? read more

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Great song selection and decent prices. It is the place to go for all you otaku's and karaoke fans~ The music selector a digital remote pad and is pretty accurate. The only down side is the rooms might be a bit on the dirty side. read more

After spending a couple years in Japan, seeing that Gamba has the Japanese-style karaoke system was a welcome sight for me when I visited with a couple friends (one of which was from Japan). I was so glad to use that karaoke system, and it was decently priced considering we were there on a weekend evening. The sound system was a little bit scratchy sounding/feedback-y at times, but it was still a fun experience. Looking forward to going back and getting my sing on! read more

As far as I know, there's only three places in the Bay Area that have a legitimate Japanese karaoke system: Round One in San Jose and Concord and Gamba in Cupertino. This review will only focus on the Japanese systems that they have: Joysound UGA and DAM As far as I know, the systems are actively updated. Most top Orion Chart songs will get there, same for Kpop songs. English songs are also pretty well updated. tip: It is a lot easier to use the app or website to get the song code and type it in directly than it is to interact with the tablet. For anime songs, idol stuff ( im@s, love-live, etc), the selection is limited, it will have most of the main songs but with some selection missing here and there (Example: There's Cutie Panther but psychic fire and other BiBi songs aren't available) . Just don't expected to find any b-track or obscure sub-unit songs (Symphogear Duets, Bang Dream, Million Lives are very limited). I only come here to sing kpop, idol songs, and anime garbages. They also sell drinks and snack. The markup is actually not very high. Btw one of the big room have AC. Though I still wouldn't recommend stuffing more than 5 people in that room for an extended amount of time. It gets real swampy. Until Round One's karaoke machine stop breaking, Gamba is still the king (or use Joysound for PS4/Switch) read more

Right now, only one good friend is my karaoke buddy. Why won't anyone else go with me? I mean, I love music and I am almost as good as Kimmie from "My Best Friend's Wedding". :P Gamba is an excellent place to do this. Pretty much any time you want to go, it's open. Almost anything you want to sing, they have. It's also literally next door to Gochi, a great spot for authentic Japanese eats. To karaoke properly, drink lots of liquid or else run out of singing steam. Gamba has a mini-fridge full of teas, soft drinks and water. And check it out: a touchpad tablet to select songs. Easier than thumbing frantically through the phone books and punching in numbers on a remote control. Just search by title or artist. You are required to let them hold onto your ID or a credit card in order to use the tablet. Because they want to prevent weirdos from absconding with it, I guess? The list of songs is extensive and relatively recent. I believe customers can even request Gamba to acquire songs if they don't find them in the system. It's current enough for me. This summer's Katy Perry songs "California Gurls" and "Teenage Dream"? Check. "Brick by Boring Brick" by Paramore? Yup. How about Stone Temple Pilots, "Between the Lines"? Well what do ya know-- it's there. Minor bug/hiccup: Neon Trees' "Animail" [sic] is listed in the tablet database, but... not. The system would merely repeat the last song, while claiming to be playing "Animal". Place holder perhaps, but the song's been out since spring. Gamba is hella better than other karaoke places because it's open during the day, not just nights and weekends. Rock bottom daytime prices. Excellent variety of songs old and new. Plus, it's sanitary. And organised. These things are kind of crucial. Have you ever been to karaoke holes in the city? Yeah. Gam-bat-te Gamba! :D read more

Gamba Karaoke is now my favorite place for private room karaoke!! We were there last night and had a blast!!! They have 9 private rooms and 1 large party room for up to 25 people. There's no alcohol but snacks, teas/water/soda are available and it's right next door to Gochi Japanese Tapas (which has alcohol if you need a starter!) if you're hungry. The Best Things about Gamba are the amazing LARGE music selection (in 5 languages) and the books/computer combo for song selection!! Let me explain... a lot of karaoke joints seem to be going to an all computer system for song selection. This is time consuming and makes it hard to casually browse through songs. I hate all computer song selection!! At Gamba, they have several several books in the room so more than 1 person can browse at a time, by title or artist. You can casually put songs in, allowing people breaks between singing, rather than inputting several songs at once. It's much nicer when books are available! Also, as I mentioned, the song selection is great! They had everything from Aretha Franklin to Whitesnake to Queen to Prince to Country to Oldies to Broadway to Akon, Nelly Furtado, Captain and Tennille, Jodee Messina, etc... and lot's of Japanese stuff I didn't know. LoL Things I've looked up at other places but they didn't have, they had at Gamba. 17,000 English songs 27,000 Chinese songs 45,000 Japanese songs 5,500 Korean songs 3,000 Spanish songs Prices have changed a lil since RY posted... up and down in some cases. We split 3 hours of Karaoke with 5 friends and it was less than 20$ a piece! Here goes... *sigh* LoL 1-2ppl 3-4ppl 5-6ppl 7-12ppl Mon,Tue,Wed 5pm-9pm $15 $20 $25 $30 9pm-1am $20 $25 $30 $35 Fri,Sat,Sun, & Holidays 2pm-6pm $15 $20 $25 $30 6pm-2am $20 $25 $30 $35 I'll definitely be back. I'm actually planning a party around it in a few weeks. See ya there! read more

"I could spend my life in this sweet surrender I could stay lost in this moment forever Where every moment spent with you is a moment I TRACTION" From Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing", as interpreted by Gamba Karaoke. The karaoke system is a bit old, and it seems like some of the lyrics were transcribed, ahem, unofficially. At times you get missing lyrics or even altered lyrics. That's one way to put your knowledge of a song to the ultimate test! If you and your friends can suffer waking up early, Gamba has an awesome rate of $1 per person per hour from 8am to 2pm daily. Otherwise the rates steadily go up during the day and are highest after midnight. Because we all know that after midnight is when the party REALLY gets started! read more

Good first experience karaoking in the South Bay. Sunday morning deal of $1/person got me in, totally! I love to sing, and I wasn't expecting to have such big variety of Spanish songs (I was biased that will be focused on an Asian clientele). The room was fun, all painted in apple green with matching fuchsia sofa (matching with my clothes, for some reason). I felt like at home, in a small room, feeling comfy and doing our 'awesome performances'. I could hear some of the bad singing coming form rooms nearby, but it did not matter too much as we yelled harder:). I will repeat the experience. read more

Gamba Karaoke - Karaoke Near Me - Cupertino, California

If you can come here during the day before 2 p.m., it is so, so worth it. (I can't really speak for the other prices since I've only been here during the daytime.) $1/person per hour! :D The rooms are spacious and clean, with lots of couches and a whole ton of song selections. You can bring in your own food and drinks, so we stopped at 84 degrees + Go Fish Poke Bowl before coming here. We only sang english songs this time around, and the music videos they have for them are...hilarious[ly random], to say the least. We especially got a kick out of the floating lipsticks and questionable-looking tomato(?) in the video for Whitney Houston's I Wanna Dance With Somebody. They gave us an iPad for our room, which made looking for and entering songs super easy. The rooms aren't exactly soundproof, so if you're purposely butchering Barbie Girl, your neighbors might not be too pleased? They can always counter with something else though! :P All in all, if my friends and I were free again during the daytime, I definitely wouldn't mind coming back! :] It was a lot of fun! read more

It's as fun as 1) a no booze karaoke lounge can be and 2) your friends with you. There's some silly snacks and drinks but you can go next door and get good Japanese food and bring it in. Order it at Gamba and you'll pay a service charge. They were cool and told us to just do it ourselves to save some dollars. Nice. The little computer kinda stinks for browsing songs. You gotta so a complicated search. Still, for no frills it's A OK. read more

This place is cheaper than most because it doesn't require you to buy a drink. On the con side, this means you should bring your own water cause those vocal cords get dry after all that singing! It's only $1 from 8am-2pm! Granted, not sure who sounds great that early in the morning, but when you're singing with friends, there's nothing like bad karaoke to bring everyone together right? Came here with some girl friends and we paid $4.95 per person for the first hour (the rate before 8pm) and $6.95 per person for the second hour. $11.04 for two hours of pure, unadulterated vocal joy? I'd be back in a heartbeat the next time I feel the need to get my inner diva on! (And it's right next to Gombei so you can get food after! ;)) read more

I would NOT recommend Gamba, go to Music KTV!! This place overcharges you and the rooms aren't that great. Music selection is terrible and it is pricey!! I came here to Karaoke with a few friends. We called ahead, so we were able to get a room right away. While we were waiting at the counter, I noticed that the girls paying were holding an Ipad (which they had to return). I thought it was pretty cool if we got to choose the songs from the Ipad. When we talked to the owner, he asked how long and what type of songs we wanted to sing. We told him about 1 hour and English songs. He led us to a small room which can seat about 4 people. I asked him when we were going to start getting charged, and he told me 'right now'. (Minus 1 star) I think it is better when the group gets charged after the first song starts to play. Otherwise, we are getting charged for not even singing, since we are looking through the books for the songs. There was an old looking couch and a portable chair. There was only 1 book listing new songs, but the latest showed Nov 2010. I noticed some songs were missing from the 'New Songs', too. (Minus 1 star) My group never got the 'Ipad' to navigate and select songs. Instead we were given a chunky device that looked like a calculator..lol. We basically had to enter in the numbers for the songs. The tv in the karaoke room was fairly small and it was not LCD. While we were singing, I noticed it was basically words on a blue screen. (Minus 1 star). It would be great if the actual music video is playing. The sound quality isn't that great either. After singing for about 2 hours, we quickly went back to the counter to pay. Me and my friends noticed that we got overcharged by $8, and we have no idea where that charge came from. When my friend asked the owner how many hours we are getting charged, it was supposed to be $58. The bill came out to $66. I don't think it is tax, since that should be less than $8. I guess it is a bit shady for the owner to add more charges without telling his customers why. I probably won't come back here based on this experience. read more

Gamba/Ganba is the only proper Japanese karaoke box (private karaoke place) in the Bay Area. (The Chinese call the private karaoke places "karaoke televisions" or "KTVs" and the Koreans call them "noraebang" or song box.) Now that I think about it, Gamba is the only karaoke place in the Bay Area I go to and one of only two karaoke places I go to period. It's that good. Really. The place is quite cute. I mean, they play a sneaky trick in telling you that there's a good amount of foreign songs, but it is really nothing compared to the list of Japanese songs. Not only that, the place itself is pretty clean and it has Joysound's HyperJoy v2 systems. The Japanese and English rooms have the systems and you can even settle for the old DAM system for nostalgia reasons. The people are real friendly and the place is constantly finding ways to improve. It has a very good Happy Hour rate. Oh and it has quite the song lists. I need to mention that a good amount of their songs have furigana (the aid that helps you read the kanji) throughout the entire song. ^_^ If you're new to the place, here's what you need to do. First, tell them how many people are going in. If you are speaking in Japanese, you'll next be asked whether you want the Joy system or the DAM system. Sometimes, they ask you if you want a Japanese room or an English room. You'll be asked how many hours will you spend in the room. After that, you'll be lead to your room and you sing from there. If you speak in English (I feel like I have enough experience on the English side now), you'll just skip to the hours part. Oh yeah. People that are not comfortable with karaoke are better off with the English rooms because they're more likely going to find songs they're familiar with. The Japanese rooms have some English songs, but they will have to work for a bit to get them and there are also Eurobeat songs, a genre those people will most likely not be familiar with. I should also say that there are some Japanese songs in the English room, but there are not a lot of songs to work with overall. That's why if I decide to sing strictly in Japanese or mostly in Japanese, I want a Japanese room. As for flaws, there are not many. Although they lowered the price on drinks, the drinks list and the foods list while I'm at it are a bit limited. (It could use Elise sticks for example.) I may have said that the song lists are terrific. However, I wish that there are more songs from both hemispheres such as more Immature songs for the west and "First Kiss Monogatari" ("First Kiss Story") songs for the east, but at least there's a song request box. Oh, you can hear the music from the other rooms while you are in the hall or your own room, but it's not that bad for me anyway. Other than that, there is not much else to complain about. I can't find a karaoke place in the Bay Area that would come close to Gamba. You can't find another place that lets you sing songs such as "Dance With Me" (the original version and the Japanese-Korean version) and those other classics. By the way, if you are one who needs alcohol, go to Gochi, as there's a law in Cupertino that prevents Gamba from selling alcohol and adding on, they don't let you bring in alcohol or smoke for that matter so that the place stays clean. Also, there are not many videos with images that are noteworthy, but there are videos never the less. I should mention that they appreciate it if you reserve your room, but you can still go drop by. So, please keep this business alive because there are not many karaoke boxes outside of Japan. +: It's cute, it's presentable, the staff's nice and the song lists are dynamic. -: Aside from limited lists of foods and drinks and the absence of some songs, there's not much else to worry about. read more

My friends and I came here for a birthday celebration and it was so much fun!! It's a little old, but you can't beat the prices! This is the most reasonably priced karaoke place I've been to in a while! They have a huge song selection, but it's a little hard to search through their books. I prefer screen selection tools, but once again, you can't beat the price. They also offer drinks and snacks for sale at the front desk! Definitely recommend this place! read more