Hay Karaoke & Events — Restaurant in Garden Grove

Sorry to say, I used to be a loyal customer to Hay Karaoke, but I will not be coming back here ever again. Their management and employees are extremely disorganized and their "case manager" basically deflected any responsibility for lack of communication on their end for something that wasn't my fault.

I booked a room over the phone with Gwen Thursday night. She told me for 5 people, I would get the room for $40/hour. I sent them a $40 deposit that would go towards the final amount. The next day, Friday, we show up, 10-15 minutes after our reservation started. I told an employee that we had a reservation for 5 people. We got put into a pretty large room for 5 people but didn't think much of it. We stayed for 2 hours and checked out. The total ended up being $118ish. We paid, but were confused because it should have been closer to $40 + tax and fees if the deposit was applied and if it was really $40/hour. I bring this up to the employee, who's a different one than the one who put us in the room. He pretty much almost crashes out and is almost cursing under his breath over how frustrated he is about this. I tell him that not only was our $40 deposit not applied, but the amount was high for a $40/hour room. He said that Gwen is never here (he said that 3 times) so she always says that rooms are $40/hour. I'm kind of confused and also don't know what to make of that because it's not really my problem that there's miscommunication on the employees' end. He also said he didn't know I had a reservation to apply the $40 deposit, which that part I will admit is my fault, but that was resolved, as he refunded $40 back to us. We decided to reach out to Gwen, the lady on the phone who I made my reservation with, to see if we could get a refund for the discrepancy in the room rate.

I text her on Saturday explaining the details. She says that a case manager will call me tomorrow. Sunday passes and I don't hear anything, so I follow up with her on Monday asking if he's going to call me. A few hours later, he calls me. First of all, he thought I didn't get a refund for the deposit on our room charge, which is not what happened, so I am unsure and doubtful of what Gwen told him. I explained that we got charged for a bigger room than what was quoted. He said that because we came late, they gave our room to someone else, and put us in the next smallest room which was the $50/hour room. I told him that I wish there was more communication about that, like when we got there, that we would be charged for the bigger room because we were late. In retrospect, I don't think you should give someone's reserved room away at all, but especially not without telling them. Otherwise... what's the point of a reservation... He said "maybe you didn't hear correctly or you don't understand but I was there when you and your friends came" and also later said he wasn't the one who put us into that room??? I didn't even see another employee??? Also what is that kind of deflection/gaslighting... Then he explained to me that they only have 1 small room for $40/hour and the other rooms are more expensive. Again, I'm asking for clear communication, not for a bunch more smaller $40/hour rooms. Even if we're late and you give our reserved room away, you should say that... instead of trying to charge us for a room we didn't ask for... The last thing I said was this disorganization and miscommunication from the employees' side is really off-putting and I won't be coming here anymore, and he laughed a little and said okay thank you, goodbye.

The lack of clear communication and accountability for said miscommunication is more infuriating than not getting a refund, on top of not being taken seriously or really heard for my concern by multiple employees. It is really disappointing because I've been coming here and even recommended this place to my friends for years, but everyone should steer clear unless you want to get upcharged, disrespected, and gaslit by people working a damn karaoke place. I would rate 0 stars if I could. Fucking...

I was ready to provide a (mostly) positive review until issues arose at the front desk when we went to pay.

I called the location for info and a couple of questions. We were looking at the Ruby package originally but didn’t need the food, so the lady I spoke to said we’d basically have to pay for all the additional things a la carte basically ($45 per hr for the room, $70 for decorations, $60 for cake, $25 for fruit plate, $45 deposit to book). I talked it over with my friend who was helping me put this together for a different friend’s birthday and we decided to go ahead with the booking. I called back and confirmed the quoted prices but was suddenly told the deposit would be $100. I shrugged it off since it would get deducted from the total anyway so I paid it (was asked to pay deposit via Venmo or Zelle which felt unusual but oh well). We got the room for $45 per hour, the decorations, cake, and fruit plate. I also asked her about the policy/fee for outside alcohol and she said she’ll have a manager call me.

Manager ended up calling me at a time when I was already asleep and left a voicemail to call back and mentioning upgrading us to one of their VIP rooms. This kind of thing usually happens if there were no other room options available so I was initially thinking… “Okay awesome that’s so nice of them!” I called back later the next day, but no answer. I got through to someone later on and asked about the outside drinks policy (a whopping $15 per bottle or $30 per case, so we decided against that) and then I thanked them for the room upgrade that was mentioned on the phone.

Now, when I’m told something like “We’re upgrading you…” for whatever reason, it’s expected that it’d be at no additional cost. Like if you’re flying somewhere and a gate agent tells you they’re upgrading your seat, no way would they be charging you the difference since it wasn’t something you chose, right? WELL! Imagine our surprise when we go to pay and the bill is nearly 2x what we were expecting!! (Not to mention we never even got the cake I ordered…) The guy at the front desk explained that the package we got was the Gold Package because of the room being able to hold so many people… we were a group of 8 who DID NOT select the larger room. Both the employee and myself tried calling whomever to get this sorted out, but no one answered either of our calls. It was not the employee’s fault for this issue. I showed him the quoted numbers I was given and was ready and willing to play the voicemail proving I did not choose this larger room but it was given to us. He told us the best he could do would be $55 per hour for the room since he couldn’t get in touch with anyone and we were all exhausted at the point so I said fine and would try reaching out to the numbers I had for a way to resolve the issue.

I sent the photos of the receipt showing the amounts we got charged to the lady who I did the booking with and the deposit through, but haven’t heard back since. I told myself if I didn’t hear back by this evening I’d go ahead with posting my review and update it if things get fixed.

Now with all that said…

The room and decor were very nice and it made for a great celebration space!

The experience was wonderful until the literal last minutes so this wasn’t the kind of review I wanted to leave. The lack of communication between the staff just left us all with a really sour...

Poor, cheap and not clean place. Food is not good the fish was smell bad. We bought Silver Package for which is comes with the cake food. The cake was so small it was not enough for this much people. I wish I could bring my own cake! I was so embarrassed front of my guests. They gave us limited plates and they charged for extra sodas 105$ when I said that we didnt even drink this much. Only 9 soda and few water cups. They said will return it after the party. But they didn’t. They enforced me to pay to the party. Even it wasn’t over yet. The room was so cold, not clean and poor style when we entered. Decoration was look like old style, balloons are dusty, and cheap ones. Looks old not matching our Barbie style party at all! I was so upset. I see dead bugs on the floor. They didn’t clean it inside room after each party is over. Room smell smoke. I don’t recommend this place if you are looking more nicer newer place do not go there. I did a mistake choosing this place for my special day and will...