Chao K Party (Dhoby Ghaut)

Chao K Party at Dhoby Ghaut is worth picking for the sound alone. Karaoke rooms usually let you down on the mix — levels drifting between too loud and too soft — and this one holds it clean all night. The rooms are done as a futuristic, neon-lit set, and they are comfortable enough to sit in for a long session rather than an hour.

You can order food to the room rather than going out for it: grilled skewers from early evening on weekdays and all day at weekends, alongside a Sichuan menu. Allow longer than you expect for it to arrive, and get the order in well before the kitchen shuts for the night. Birthday cakes can be carried in, and the room runs well past midnight, so it works as the place an evening ends rather than starts.

Book rather than walking in, especially at a weekend, because rooms go and the wait is real. Two small things are worth packing: your own soft drinks, since what is sold inside is priced for a bar rather than a supermarket, and your own disposable microphone covers, because the rooms do not supply them. It is on the third floor of Rendezvous Hotel on Bras Basah Road.