Downtown Echo Karaoke Box

A classic karaōke spot in Chinatown located on the second floor of a dingy Chinese mall on the southwest corner of Dundas and Spadina. They kick you out close to 3am and they accept reservations. Reservations are done for the night which starts at 9pm (it’s not by # of hours).
They had a good mix of songs that ranged from the old classics to the new pop songs. A lot of Chinese songs, but also had a good range of English songs as well. We had a short tutorial of how to use the system when we got into the room which was helpful to understand how to navigate the interface.
The rooms themselves are a little tight and not the most clean, but frankly it’s not the worse that I’ve seen.
As someone else mentioned in their review, there is a random 10% charge that is added to the bill and they explicitly make an effort to tell you that that is not considered the tip. We had the room that held up to 20 people and the minimum charge was $ 280, which wasn’t very hard to hit.
Echo is a little on the pricey side but it’s not a terrible option if you want to belt out some songs.

Oasis Check
RHCP Check
Biggie Check
Had most of my favourite karaōke favourites so can’t complain.
Turned up here at around midnight and the guys were great to accommodate 12 of us. The rooms were comfy, not huge cheesy ones. The system took some getting used too but definitely a decent kbar to visit.
That night it was a $ 200 minimum spend, not sure if that is the case at other times and days.

Good selection of songs and they actually show the songs music video.
Food menu is ok — all fried foods and unhealthy stuff. Good variety of drinks, both alcoholic and non alcoholic.
Minimum spend is worth is with a large group, I think it’s on the pricey end.

If I could give this place no stars, I would be happier. This place is a waste of time not only because it’s ridiculously overpriced but it’s customer service is totally lacking.
It was our first time going to a karaōke bar and no instruction on how to use the machine was given. No hook was provided to show song list. Everything was on a computer that was hard to navigate. Had to run out of the room to find someone to help us each time we got stuck because of the lack of instruction. It was just bad.
Totally would not return.

The place could’ve been a lot better, in my opinion.
Things to be improved on:
1. Bathrooms. The sinks were GORGEOUS, but everything else left much to be desired. None of the women’s stalls had locks on them, two of the three stalls didn’t have any toilet paper, and there’s a large open drain hole that people can almost step into if they don’t watch their steps.
2. The machine was primarily Chinese oriented, so it was very hard to use a search function for English songs. If the song had a multiple word title then searching was slightly easier, but if the song didn’t then we would be forced to scroll through pages (that aren’t organized by alphabet) to find them. I also had to do a lot of fiddling around before I got the hang of using the machine; the staff didn’t really explain it very well.
3. They didn’t have a great selection of recent English songs. Or even classic English karaōke pieces. Organization was also terrible; we found «On My Own», a song from the musical Les Mis, under a Chinese artist because the MTV was a Chinese singer.
4. The karaōke itself had a lot of problems. Sometimes the vocals weren’t taken out of the music. Sometimes the lyrics didn’t appear on screen. Once the wrong song started playing with the wrong lyrics and wrong music video.
5. I didn’t find the button, but the button to adjust mic volume shouldn’t be hard to find in the first place.
6. Some songs were super quiet while other songs were super loud, at the same volume setting.
Pros:
1. The fried squid was delicious.
2. The french fries were some of the best I’ve tasted.
3. They had actual music videos for some songs (and then extremely weird music videos for some others… dancing cops around a flag pole anyone?)
4. We had wireless mics that were very sparkly indeed.
5. The machine was easier to use than the one in Bar+, although that might primarily be because I can’t read Korean so I have no idea what buttons to press for the Korean machine (the things friends are good for).
We were 8 people, in a small room that was pretty comfy. We paid $ 200 overall for the night, with food and non-​alcoholic drinks.
Conclusion: I’d give 8090 a try next, and see which one I like better. Apparently they function in much the same way in terms of price. If I’m with a Korean friend I would just go to Bar+ (and not buy food+drinks, because we almost always have food before karaōke anyways). Bar+ is much cheaper.

I spent my time in New Year’s Eve with my friends. And it was the worst karaōke I have ever seen. Bad sound effect, bad service. They got the tips twice, I didn’t know if it was did by accident. Any way, My recommendation is just do not go!

Like most fobs I’m a big fan of Karaōke. I’m Chinese so I prefer venues with a good selection of Chinese songs. When it comes to downtown Karaōke, Chinese Karaōke fans are limited to where they can go. Echo is located in the heart of Chinatown and if I were to write this review 5 – 10 years ago, it would have a lot more going for it unfortunately.
Pros:
One of the few places downtown that offers a lot of Chinese songs
Location very accessible
Offers Happy Hour
Cons:
Very outdated rooms, badly needed reno
Karaōke Equipment not quite up to par anymore
System Charge???
Like I said, if I were to write this review 5 – 10 years ago, this place would probably garner a very strong 4 out of 5. However, today we have so many more options for Karaōke that you’re probably going to find much better places to go to.
Located in the heart of Chinatown Echo is very easily accessible by TTC for non drivers. If you’ve been there in the past, you’ll notice that the place looks exactly the same as it did for a while now. Some of the rooms are cramped, the walls are stained, and you can smell the washrooms from half the hallway away. They are in badly need of some reno but I don’t see it happening ever.
Inside the rooms the karaōke equipment seems out of date as well. The sound quality just isn’t as good as it should be. They still use non-​wireless microphones in a lot of the rooms. There’s a huge echo on the microphones that I can never seem to correct. The song selection is pretty good though. They do update frequently enough in that regard.
Echo does offer Happy Hour Karaōke. In the afternoon, from 3pm to about 830ish, it’s only about $ 10 a person for the entire time. You also get 2 free drinks from a limited selection. Not bad at all!
Ever heard of a systems charge? Me neither. I went last weekend and when we got the bill, there was a charge listen as «S.C.» Any normal person would think this was a service charge. Pretty standard stuff. When I got to the booth to pay, I was told this was a «Systems Charge» for the equipment and that the tips were not included yet. When I questioned this they kinda tried to save themselves by saying tips were now optional. Pretty shady if you asked me… I’m not sure about the legality of this since there was nothing stated that a systems charge would be levied on all bills.
So yeah, Echo’s not too bad these days but I’m sure you can do better nowadays. I loved Echo when it first opened but with more options available today, it might not be your best option.

I was going to be all lazy and not review this place since Shari M. and Avitania B. pretty much covered everything I wanted to say but my sense of Unilocal civic duty kicked in when I saw that it had an average rating of 3.5 stars. My experience was 2-​stars at the most.
Chief complaint: Severely limited song selection. If all you sing at karaōke are current Top 40 hits then this place was designed for you. I am not this patron.
Other complaints:
–Retarded browsing system instead of song books; you have to use a remote control to scroll through artists’ names on a single screen. This means only one person can browse and select at a time, and the artists were arranged in some strange order that was neither strictly alphabetical nor by genre. WTF?
–Lyrics missing from some videos; I don’t know all the words to Kanye’s «Gold Digger» by heart. Can a bitch get some help with the lyrics, yo?
–Actual music videos instead of the hilariously cheesy B-​grade karaōke videos. This is just wrong.
–The place smells of greasy Chinese food.
–Pricey if you don’t use enough of the alcohol credit for the room.[1]
The two stars are for:
–A/​C
–Not smelling like a bordello
–Not judging when they’re closing up and you down a full glass of vodka and need to be escorted out of the building with a barf bag[2]
******************************************************************************
[1] Actually, this doesn’t apply to me.
[2] Not saying this happened. Just saying.

Sigh. I was hoping this place was going to be better.
Let me do a breakdown of this place
STRENGTHS
— takes reservations
— large space, tons of different rooms
— serves food
— does room service
— wide array of boozy and non-​boozy drinks available
— great mango slushies!
— clean
— they will take you to your room if not all of your party is there
WEAKNESSES
— no song books. You have to use the screen, and the sorting is odd. Eric L was looking for Incubus, and when we would scroll through the alphabetical artist listing, sometimes it would show up, sometimes it wouldn’t
— very limited choices. Some of the songs they had would have no lyrics. These wordless songs were a bad taping of a MTV or Much Music video.
— no Drake
— no System of a Down
— creepy. Echo is in a little mall at Spadina and Dundas. The parking garage underneath smells like wet dog and urine. When you take the elevator up to the second floor, there is a security guard there. He checks your ID (which, at almost 33, this was a compliment!), and stamps your hand for re-​entry. At one point when one of the servers came in, I thought he was wearing a bullet proof vest! When you leave, you can’t go out the front door, you go out the side door. Hello… was I at a karaōke place or an oral surgeons?! In order to take your money, the staff go into a little room with a window. Weirder, is you can pay by debit, but there is a bank machine right in front of the window.
— expensive. Of the four karaōke places I have been to, this was the most expensive. If the song selections were better, and I didn’t feel like we were going to be mugged or something, this place would be return worthy.
All in all, the best karaōke place has still yet to be found.
Echo is open from 3 pm to 3 am.

I just can’t get you outta my head…
As in, I can’t get the fact I sang Kylie Minogue out of my head… poorly, yes, but I sang it nonetheless.
This place was in hardcore China town, and at certain points I felt like a tourist in a distant land.
Cheap bottles, cheap food, and a comfortable environment to let your guard down (although the cheap bottles help with that anyway). Definite must for anyone who has no problem making a fool of themselves!

Echo Karaōke Box has the makings of a great place (large space, decent location, lots of seating) but several major weaknesses keep it from being awesome:
1. Ri-​cock-​ulous bottle service price. $ 100 gets you a bottle of crap vodka (Smirnoff) and three mixers (flat Coke, fake tasting cranberry, and something else similarly unmemorable). It would be more worth it if the mixers weren’t awful; hell, I would have paid more for vodka that didn’t taste like distilled hairspray. Bottle service price aside, the room rental price is one of the most expensive I’ve ever seen for a private room Karaōke joint. Also, no Diet Coke. Hmph.
2. Poor song selection. A bunch of modern stuff, but not much by way of classics. I’m sorry, but who does Little Bow Wow at Karaōke? Where are the standards? Frank Sinatra, Journey… hell, only one measly Tom Jones song? Booo.
3. Many songs selected didn’t even have words at the bottom of the screen to sing along with. Whaaa?
With that said, the rooms are large and did well at accommodating our big group. The service, though nice, was on the meh side — when I asked our server what our vodka choices there were, she looked at me like I’d grown a huge accessory nipple out of my forehead.
It was my first Karaōke joint in Toronto, so I’m hoping that there are other places that step up the game.

Just pure fun. That’s what this place is.
I’ve never been to this type of karaōke bar, but I thought it was brilliant. This bar has individual rooms with their own karaōke system built in. The rooms can sit about a dozen people comfortably. Each room as a 40 inch screen LCD that plays the video and lyrics. Just beneath it is a smaller 18 inch monitor to browse the song catalog. There are 2 microphones with long cables so you can pass them around the room with ease.
The only knock is that they need to update their library and have a better interface to browse them. The songs are organized by odd categories and the alphabetical system is all mixed up.
We were 10 people.
From 10:30 until 2 am.
3 — 26oz’s of Vodka @ 90 $ each. That’s like 3.50 $ a drink
2 – 3 appetizer trays.
Bill was ~370 $ after tax.
40 $ each for 3 hours of fun + drinks = Hard to beat.

You don’t know what you’ve got t’ill it’s gone…
Since my resent trip to BKB Karaōke (
) I’ve been forced to upgrade my rating because frankly this might be the best Karaōke in town!

On weekdays it’s happy hours from 3 to 8:30pm /​weekends 4 to 8:30pm. We couldn’t get there until 6 to 6:30pm, and they gladly extended the happy hour fee til 9pm for us. Just ask. It’s quite reasonable, i think. It includes 2 non alcholoic drinks.

Echo is on the 2^nd or 3^rd floor of the Chinatown Centre at Dundas and Spadina. The place is pretty nice inside, I’ve only ever been there in the dark but it didn’t feel too scary or intimidating. They have huge flat-​screen TVs and comfy chairs. Washrooms are nice but are often packed due to everyone drinking to excess.
I have been to this downtown karaōke delight twice so far, and even though some things went wrong, both times I absolutely loved it and will probably be going back.
Round 1: Testing the place out with a group of 4, and we booked the room over the phone a week in advance. It was a super tiny room but it did the job, and we ordered a bunch of drinks by pressing a button on the remote (they come to the door and order your food/​drinks! You don’t even have to get up!). Ended up being around $ 15 for each of us to sing to our hearts’ content for the entire night (9pm-​3am), not including drinks.
Round 2: This time we had a larger group of about 10 – 15 people coming and going. Booked their largest room a week in advance, only to find out upon arriving that they had only booked the room for «happy hour» and had gave it away because we showed up closer to 11pm instead of at 9. They offered us a smaller room instead, which ended up working out perfectly. This was the time we found out that they offer drink credits, and since the room cost $ 150, we were entitled to $ 150 in drinks. And we only had an hour until last call. So we got a ton of free booze, essentially, and everything worked out to about $ 160 including tax. $ 10 each, including drinks, on a Saturday night.
My experiences here were good, as long as I booked it in advance. If you want the room for the whole night but don’t plan to arrive until about 11, let them know very explicitly (I had told the guy over the phone, but I guess it wasn’t very clear). Ask them about the drink credits because they make everything so much enjoyable!
As for the music selection, they have a bunch of classic karaōke songs, but they are missing some older hits (no Bön Jovi except for «It’s My Life»? That should be illegal). After another couple times here, I think I’ll need to find another place just so I can sing some different songs, but Echo takes the cake because of location and those drink credits.