Eat Up Havana: Singing the Praises of U&I BBQ & Karaoke’s Menu

Over a decade ago, former Westword food editor Mark Antonation began his food-writing career by eating his way up Federal Boulevard. Now, we’re turning our attention to another vibrant culinary corridor.

The four-plus-mile stretch of Havana Street between Dartmouth and Sixth Avenue in Aurora is home to the most diverse array of international cuisine available in the metro area. From restaurants and markets to take-and-go shops and stands, food lovers of nearly any ethnicity or interest can find a place that will remind them of home or open new culinary doors. In Eat Up Havana, Antony Bruno will visit them all, one by one, week by week. Check out his previous stops.

This week, Bruno visits U&I BBQ & Karaoke Bar.

Would you go to a karaoke bar just to eat? By the looks of it, plenty of diners are doing just that at U&I BBQ & Karaoke along Aurora’s Havana Street. 

In fact, it could be fair to call this a Chinese restaurant disguised as a karaoke bar, with a long list of both American Chinese and classic Chinese menu options for those more interested in using their mouths to eat rather than sing. 

The expansive menu here can be broken down into three sections. First is what the restaurant calls “Traditional Chinese,” but is actually traditional American Chinese options. Think sesame chicken, General Tso’s, sweet and sour, and yes, crab cheese wontons. No judgement. 

The second section is the venue’s namesake barbecue options, consisting mostly of different proteins grilled on skewers served in sets of four. Sounds simple, but there’s a whole page of fun and interesting meats to choose from. 

Beef, for instance, can be had as straightforward ground beef covered in a lightly spicy sauce, or as short ribs and even “rib film.” There’s also lamb chop, ground lamb, and lamb kidney. In the pork section, you can stick to simple pork belly, or branch out to pork feet, pork intestine, or various types of Chinese pork sausage (lap chong). 

But it’s the chicken options where you can have the most fun. Obviously chicken wings are tavailable, but why bother when you have the opportunity to try chicken cartilage, gizzards, heart, and the perennial dim sum favorite, chicken feet (fung jao!). 

The pro move here is to order multiple grilled skewers, which come served all together on a large party platter for easy picking and eating by hand (one hand on the mic, the other on the skewer). 

The third section are the bigger plates of “chef specials” that include a solid beef chow fun, mapo tofu, and Sichuan twice cooked pork. According to staff, some of the more popular chef choice options include the stir fried Hunan beef and the beef with spicy pepper. 

But that’s just the start of a two-page list of dishes rarely found in your “standard” Chinese restaurant. Chile pork kidney, stir-fried frog, spicy pickles with chicken gizzards, spicy pork intestines. It’s a voyage of discovery for the uninitiated and experienced eater alike. 

Whether you’re singing or just eating, the process for ordering food is much like that of buying rounds of drinks at a bar. You simply walk to the bar and place your order. Ready for more? Just walk back to the bar and order again. It’s nothing like the typical everybody-orders-at-once type of situation expected at most restaurants, and it makes for a wonderfully casual and low-pressure experience. 

Because all that singing makes for hungry work. Here’s the lowdown on the karaoke: the main seating area is for eating only — there’s no stage to sing in front of strangers here. That’s all saved for the private rooms, which you can reserve in advance by calling ahead (online reservations are not available). 

The price depends on the size of the room. A small room holds about two to four people; medium is good for a group of six to eight, and a large room can accommodate around twelve. There’s no pricing or details for the karaoke on the website, so again, call ahead. 

Once in the rooms, the setup is simply a tablet connected to a big screen, which you use to search YouTube for karaoke versions of whatever song you like, and then sing along to the words streaming on the big screen with the assistance of the two mics provided. 

Sometimes you’ll have to skip past a YouTube ad to get to the song you want, but the tradeoff is access to the entire YouTube music library (a stark benefit over the sometimes-limited libraries of closed-looped karaoke bars). 

The rooms can be a bit dark, and the tables are a bit narrow for groups ordering lots of food to accompany their vocal freestyling, but the staff is friendly, helpful, and surprisingly unfazed. And by the looks of it, the large groups seated either at the dining tables or wailing from the singing room find every bit of it just to their liking. 

U&I BBQ & Karaoke Bar is located at 1555 South Havana Street in Aurora, and is open from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. For more information, visit renjianyanhuoui.com.

All the previous Eat Up Havana stops:

• Old Town Hot Pot
• Leezakaya
• Chutney Indian Cuisine
• El Tequileno
• Milkroll
• Shin Myung Gwan Korean BBQ
• Watan Restaurant & Bakery
• Las Fajitas
• Mr. Tang
• Nana’s Dim Sum & Dumplings
• Yemen Grill
• Tofu House
• Sushi Katsu
• Coco Loco
• Ali Restaurant & Bakery
• Thank Sool Pocha
• Taqueria Corona
• Hanyang Wang Jokbal
• Coffee Story
• Tofu Story
• Havana Street Night Markets
• Seoul BBQ & Hot Pot (the Hot Pot)
• Seoul BBQ & Hot Pot (the BBQ)
• Pho 75
• Yong Gung
• Chopsticks A GoGo
• Angry Chicken
• L Cafe & Food Court
• Gangnam GT Lounge & Karaoke
• Katsu Ramen
• Dae Gee
• Snowl
• Chef Liu’s Kitchen
• Piramides Mexican Restaurant
• +57 Bar & Restaurante
• Il Forno di Tutti
• Ifka Cafe
• Maandeeq Restaurant & Cafe
• La Sazon de Irene