Karaoke means booze – but what food works best?

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

What’s your go-to karaoke tune? And have you considered what you might like to eat while performing it? Karaoke clubs have not typically been the sort of places one might associate with fine food. But with the advent of a new wave of upscale karaoke clubs, so too has arrived a more elevated menu. 

Moyagi is a karaoke concept that launched in Stockholm in 2020. It now has venues in Malmö and London. The original Stockholm branch includes a full-scale restaurant with in-room menus offering katsu sando (made with entrecôte), bao, spring rolls, chicken karaage (breaded nuggets) and miso fries – the kind of pan-Asian sharing bites Swedish customers expect from Japanese-themed karaoke. At BAM Karaoke Box – a Paris-based company that operates six venues in France, two in Madrid and one in London – the food offering has evolved to match regional tastes. When it launched in Paris in 2014 no food was available. Then pre-packaged options were introduced, followed by a chef-devised menu of healthy dishes. Ultimately, however, French customers preferred the traditional bar snacks they were used to elsewhere, such as cheese and charcuterie platters. In Spain, the fusion menu includes gyoza, cheesecake, tiramisu, jamón and mochi.

Erchen Chang is the creative director and co-founder of the BAO restaurant group in London. Growing up in Taiwan, where karaoke is hugely popular, she would regularly go to karaoke (or KTV) on Saturday afternoons with friends. “It was the perfect outing for having fun and releasing stress from school,” she says. For most grown-ups, karaoke requires alcohol. And lots of it. But in Taiwan, where the drinking culture is less pronounced, food is a much bigger part of the experience. Says Chang: “The goal is to sing and eat in almost equal measure.”

The choice is extensive. At New CB Party in Taipei, for instance, the selection includes everything from stir-fries and assorted lu wei (braised dishes) to “American fried food” platters to assorted fresh fruit trays. “There are also throat-protecting herbal soft drinks that taste a bit of menthol and help you sing better.” Certain establishments such as Cash Box Party KTV are known for their beef noodles, while high-end karaoke bar ONCOR serves a menu masterminded by André Chiang of two Michelin-starred restaurant Raw, which includes black truffle cold noodles, sanbei chicken and five variations of hotpot.

The goal is to sing and eat in almost equal measure

BAO launched its first KTV room in its Borough branch in London in 2019, followed by others at Marylebone and Shoreditch. Its latest opening at Bloomberg Arcade features two KTV rooms with a food offering that includes xiao chi platters (dumplings, prawn shia song, fries), mini bao and Taiwanese fried chicken. The dumplings are deep fried (not soft as they might be in Taiwan) so they’re less messy and can be held by hand. The bao are smaller than those in the restaurants (“one or two bites instead of three or four”), making them quicker to eat and less likely to sit around getting cold. According to Chang, fried chicken is the ideal karaoke snack because it’s well-seasoned comfort food that stays warmer for longer.  

For the London branch of BAM Karaoke Box (its largest yet with 22 private rooms, two bars and a terrace) British chef Sabrina Gidda created two separate menus. The former was designed not to include sticky, overly saucy items to prevent too much mess. “But we soon realised everyone wanted to order whatever they liked to the rooms,” says founder Arnaud Studer. Among the more popular dishes now on offer are Merguez sausage hotdogs, pear and chicory salad, fried chicken and (from the current festive menu) wild mushroom mac ’n’ cheese and turkey and cranberry toasties. The signature dish remains the aged chuck double cheese smash burger made using patties from HG Walter, which Gidda insists “is as good as any burger in London”. 

On a recent visit to BAO City’s Taipei room (inspired by the film “Taipei Story” and dominated by an LED screen like a neon hoarding), I and a dozen HTSI staffers put our singing voices and the food to the test. A number of things came to light, including how many people knew the lyrics to “Teenage Dirtbag”. The pao tsai pickles and smacked cucumber were peppy antidotes to the greasier dishes. The grab-and-go pork and daikon mini bao could be dunked in hot sauce and eaten with one hand while holding a microphone with the other. And the Taiwanese fried chicken with soy garlic glaze and lemon mayonnaise was snacky nirvana. So much so that the singing seemed to fade into the background. Not altogether unwelcome when ABBA came on for the umpteenth time. 

@ajesh34