Restaurateur Chris Zhu has been busy this year; she’s slated to have opened four family-owned restaurants by the time D.C. rings in 2023.

Her latest spot, Ginza Karaoke and BBQ Lounge, is two doors down from her popular all-you-can-eat dim sum restaurant, Han Palace, which opened just over two months ago on Barracks Row. Now customers can finish up their dim sum brunch and walk over for karaoke, she says.

Zhu says she’s loved Eighth Street SE, and when she toured the space Ginza Karaoke and BBQ Lounge is now in, she knew she had to expand in the neighborhood. Plus, there’s no other karaoke spot nearby, and she sees it as a necessary addition to any neighborhood, she says.

Sitting above clothing boutique Bitter Grace, Ginza offers a second-floor karaoke lounge with dark decor and LED lights, along with a full bar where customers can sing along with a projector and karaoke tablet, or rent one of seven private rooms that accommodate up to 15 people.

The dimly lit lounge, which has a long, graphic-tiled bar with a shiny backdrop, also serves up a full menu of Japanese and Chinese BBQ favorites, including Mongolian lamb and pork skewers ($4 each), plates of grilled vegetables ($15), gyoza ($10), the largest, plumpest honey BBQ chicken wings (five for $12), and more. An automatic 20% gratuity is added to all tabs, a fact noted on a paper sign taped to the bar. (Disclosure: Zhu gifted these plates, cocktails, and a dessert to this writer.)

For those that want to forego a night of singing in front of other guests, an elevator off the main entrance leads straight to the third floor of the restaurant, where the faux-leaf and flower decor (and brighter lighting) is more casual. There are elevators to each floor of the lounge in addition to the stairs, making it accessible.

At night, Ginza offers the same menu upstairs alongside specialty cocktails like the Lavender, made with vodka, butterfly pea flower tea, and gold dust ($16), or the white rum-based Ginza’s Lychee ($17) — both on the rocks, specifically cubes donning the Ginza logo, a big “G.” An outdoor terrace in the front, decorated with twinkling lights and a pink Volkswagen bus that Zhu says she found cute and picture-worthy, offers many more tables.

During the day, the third floor bar transforms into a tea shop serving up cake rolls ($18) and mille crepe — slices of a cake made with stacked crepes and cream — ($11) alongside bubble teas, both alcoholic ($11) and not ($7). Zhu says she hopes the space becomes communal where people can stop by for dessert and a drink and stay to read a book or do work, like at Starbucks.

The whole elaborate affair is pulled off by Zhu and her family. Her sisters, Stephanie Zhu and Tiffany Zhu, own and operate Ginza on Barracks Row, while her brother — who previously helped with operations at Chinatown’s Wok and Roll — will soon do the same for the second location of Ginza slated to soft open at the Wharf on December 16.

Zhu and her family came into their own with Han Palace. The original Han Palace, located in Arlington, has been a beloved local spot for over 50 years now, and the Zhu’s took it over in 2015 when a close family friend and the founder of the restaurant decided to retire and sell it to them. Mr. Lee, as Chris calls him, knew that her big family was capable of taking care of the restaurant because of their connections to the local Chinese community.

Since then, the original Han Palace has moved to North Bethesda, opened a second location in McLean in September 2020, and opened another offshoot in Woodley Park in April 2022. (As for the expansion into Southeast, it was kismet; the Ginza space is owned by the same landlord as her Woodley Park location, she says.)

“We grew up very close,” Zhu says of working with her family. “We have an understanding and trust between family, and we all have talents.”

Zhu remembers being 11 years old when she and her siblings bonded over karaoke; her family was the first in her neighborhood in China to get a karaoke machine. It was the best entertainment at the time, Zhu says, which is why they remain so fond of it and want to bring more karaoke to D.C.

Zhu says her brother prefers larger restaurants, so he defaulted to running the larger Wharf location, which will serve the same cocktail and food menus, sans the bubble tea and desserts. Meanwhile, Stephanie wanted to operate a smaller bar, so she’s behind the bar at Ginza on the Hill.

The desserts at Ginza are also family made; Zhu’s cousin operates her former home bakery, The One Cakes, out of the bubble tea bar on the third level. She’s been baking and selling mille crepes and other traditional Chinese desserts for years, Zhu says, so it seemed natural to bring her on as a pastry chef.

Ginza Karaoke Spot & BBQ Lounge is located at 526 Eighth St. SE and is open Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 1 a.m., and Friday and Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 3 a.m.