Nemo NYC and Karaoke Cave

The bff (not to be confused with the bf) and I recently checked out  Nemo NYC  and  Karaoke Cave, two Manhattan karaoke joints located at 54 East 13th St. and 9 E 13th Street, respectively.  We started the night out at Nemo NYC and booked one of the private rooms in the back.   Unfortunately, the minimum occupancy is three people, so we had to pay a little extra.  What we really liked about this place was the song selection.  In particular, there was more than what you would normally find in the way of musicals.  They had some Glee selections too.  The waitstaff was very nice, accomodating, and responsive.  The sound quality in the room was great, and the drinks were tasty.  Overall, we really enjoyed out experience here.  What we really didn’t like was that you couldn’t control the microphone volume from the remote, or anywhere else in the room.  The waitstaff had to adjust it from outside the room, which was strange.  The mics were wired – which I think is incredibly unusual – I personally haven’t seen wired mics in any other place.  It certainly wasn’t a huge problem, it was just a slight impediment to dancing around the room while getting your groove on.  You could not raise or lower the key of a song.  It’s possible that this varies from room to room, but there was basically nothing available to us that you couldn’t control with the remote.  Many places we’ve been have the sound system in the room with all of the controls easily accessible, so we felt a little less in control here.  The food options were pretty poor.  I actually like it more when karaoke places let you order in from other establishments, rather than providing a weak menu.  We ordered a cheese burger because it seemed like the best option, and it was fine (but strangely dressed with A-1 sauce and mayo).   By far the strangest things was this – even though our bill was pretty large (2 hours in the room, several drinks, and dinner), they tried to tell us that they had a minimum credit card purchase of $200.  WHAT??  Unfortunately the completely puzzled/shocked look on my face was not enough to get them to retract that statement, so I had to launch into my spiel about how requiring a minimum that large isn’t in accordance with their cardmember agreement, blah, blah, blah.  They eventually let us charge it.  Next up: Karaoke Cave.

To get to Karaoke Cave, you have to go underground (hence the name).  The bouncer, John, was very nice and patiently answered all of my pricing questions when we arrived.  Unfortunately, at Karaoke Cave, the minimum room occupancy is four people, so we decided to just stay in the bar.  I ordered a couple of drinks and we had plenty of options for seating since the bar was not very busy (bad sign on a Friday night).  You get one song per drink, and additional songs are $1.00 each, which is 50% cheaper than most places.  The crowd was pretty mixed, but I imagine it attracts a large student crowd in general.  I immediately put a song in and liked that they enter both your name and your song selection into the system so that you can see your name pop up on the screen about three songs in advance of your turn.  The crowd was pretty rowdy and it was clear that obscure songs were not going to fly here.  You couldn’t really hear the singing that well over the crowd (even though, as I mentioned, it was pretty small), and it was moderately bright in the bar, which I found to be unpleasant.  Overall, we did not enjoy the atmosphere here.  I would definitely not recommend for the karaoke connoisseur, but if you enjoy a rowdy and drunk karaoke experience, this might be the place for you.