Time to update. It may seem a bit out there to give five stars but this is my personal satisfaction with this business and I understand your experience is not going to be the same. I personally always have an amazing time when I come here, never any problems, the workers are all awesome.
To start, since I've been to many karaoke spots on the island, I can honestly say I prefer two places over the others: Krazy Aiea and GS Studio.
Krazy Aiea is a bit grungy "looking" but it's clean. It's not like they never mop or wipe things down. The location is old so things are considerably worn but nonetheless, it gets cleaned. I've seen the mics and other things get wiped down but I'm not sure what it was they were using to clean it. Personally I've never smelled anything funny from the mics but you gotta remember that they were near people's mouths--people that have been drinking, eating, etc. I do advise for your own protection and for the protection of others, don't be putting the mic so close to your mouth that you can actually smell it. Up the mic volume if you must and hold it further away.
Next up: The books have all been recently updated, they have laminated covers and the old beat up ones were thrown out. Little known fact: Krazy has a Japanese song book. I use it all the time, every time I go. They seriously need to get on the K-train though because if they start having popular korean karaoke songs, I think business would boost greatly.
As for the standards on the policy for specials: I have been coming here longer than most patrons, I believe. It's been at *least* a decade. For the college special, I've always been asked to show the sticker that says what term I'm in. It makes sense and quite frankly, people can abuse the special and use an old college ID for who knows how long if they never checked. Don't blame a business for common sense standards just because it makes it difficult for you to get something special. If you ran a business too, you wouldn't want to be losing money on every tom, dick and harry with an old college ID. Think from the other side of the fence, people.
Interjection: they're going to start calling me Tara "the vengeful reviewer" soon. Swinging down my righteous hammer of logic....
In line with that, I want to talk about the service. There's cultural differences one should keep in mind when judging someone. I've never had any problems whatsoever with service here and I've come enough times to meet everyone that works here. Here's what I have to say: try to be open-minded and mindful about your own perception when it comes to ANYONE you are judging.
When I very first started coming here on my own, as in making my own calls for reservations rather than my friends, I too thought the person on the phone sounded a bit mean. I was uncomfortable at first, but when I came in, the person was actually quite nice. I recognized the voice. Seeing a smile though while hearing the same tone made me realize this person was not actually giving attitude over the phone. I also ended up seeing her pick up the phone to take reservation calls and I heard the same tone, but I really didn't feel that attitude was intended. That's just her tone.
Hawaiian and local-kine aunties, sometimes they can speak kind of frankly but they're not necessarily being mean. You know how you try to speak overly nicely to someone you just met but when you have familiarity, that tiptoeing is gone? That's pretty much the best I can explain it in a nutshell. It's a tone of familiarity and can actually be considered respectful that someone speaks that way to you. It doesn't always have to mean that someone is out to disrespect you. Sometimes in our culture, we just talk that way, that's all.
I'll admit, I'm a little more lax than most people. I don't go around to places and expect everyone to be reverent to me because I'm a customer. Despite that, I've come to know the difference between someone just being a grumpy grump versus having a frank tone even though they're actually not intending to be rude.
All of the workers here have been nothing but sweet to me and my parties in their own way. It's not "bright and chirpy," but nonetheless, it's respectful. I'm not related to any of them, don't know them outside of this business and yes, I've been coming here for years but that also means I've been here enough to see how the employees interact with other customers. I've never observed anything rude and I stand by my original rating.
This is a comfortable atmosphere for a great time; they have my Japanese songs, the equipment is still working pretty well after all these years, no one's ever been mean to me, I've never had any ew moments, the price is on par with other karaoke places and Mondays are the best nights--HALF OFF! I love coming here. No frills. No pretentious nightlifers. There's no reason I see not to give it my five star satisfaction rating. read more