Momo Lounge

If you want local bluegrass, blues, and jazz then the Momo is your place. Small and quaint. Full service bar. Cool vibe and laid back. Get here early to get a good seat.

If I was a fresh 21-year-old looking for someplace to kick it with my girls, and maybe get holler'd at from some horn-dog dudes, then yeah this is the place I would come. But since I'm far from that being in my early 30s, happily married with a usual bedtime of 10p - this is not the setting for me. I recently paid Momo Lounge a visit since our friend was dj'ing, but if it wasn't for him then I would not have went to Momo Lounge. Getting into this establishment is not a problem. The security and door guys are d!cks for a reason, their job is to keep everyone safe so if they ask to search bags, jackets, etc., let them! ... I'm thankful for their service and the fact that they are very thorough. Momo's actual dance floor area feels small and cramped. It also has a funky-dunky smell that is disgusting. The VIP area towards the back is cheap and dark. The only tables worth getting are the ones directly adjacent to the dance floor and facing the Dj, but those tables aren't even worth the minimum $200 dollars. The overall vibe of Momo's is raunchy and strip-club like. Not sure if it was just the Friday night special, but I felt gross just after an hour of "bottle service" - we left and gave our bottle away. There are so many other nearby lounges that are classier, cleaner and have a more respectable crowd. I will not return to this establishment, even if you paid me a million dollars.

Great drinks, great fun! Ordered the mom chicken club and it was fun! Thanks for the fun time!

Went for blues night and had a great time. The staff was friendly and the music was tight. I look forward to going again. $8 cover at the door and no pressure to buy drinks or food...though they have both.Street parking most for 2 hours only until after 10pm...parked for three plus hours no ticket, but I think we got lucky b/c of the rain.

Decent Venue & Nice Dance Floor, But Expensive Drinks & Ill-Conceived Bifurcation of Venue Cover-Charges for Simultaneous EventsSITREPI've been to several events here to the associated "downstairs-venue" Harlows, including swing dance competitions, Cheeseballs, Tainted Love, Retro-Union Reunion, Peter Murphy, etc. as well as the "upstairs" Momo Lounge over the years with local DJs mixing a chill beat. Definitely had some pretty good times at both places.But let's be clear from the get-go - Harlows/Momo is ONE VENUE - the website says so: http://harlows.com/the-momo-loungeDon't pretend to be otherwise. More on this later...SET-UPThere is a central dance floor with the perimeter of the room consisting of VIP couch areas on the North Side, the DJ booth riser and the extensive bar on the East Side, the entrance from the street on the West Side, and access to the stairway leading to the patio on the South Side. Furnishings are elegant, and dance floor permits close to 100 happy frenzied patrons enjoy grooving on the floor at the same time.But crowded, Momo isn't the easiest place to stand around without crowding into dancers. Further, raised VIP areas & walkway access are not always clearly indicated (some of the lights on the floor are woefully inadequate, especially with strobe, laser and spotlights from above blasting into your face like a super nova) and people can trip very easily by not gauging the locations of the stairs, and loosing balance and falling from that area into the dance floor (like I did, much to my chagrin).Best part of the whole venue complex is the joint-patio area: smokin, chillin, mixin with EVERYONE, this is the place to be! ILL-CONCEIVED BUSINESS STRATEGEMSWhat is confusing sometimes is the configuration of events with Harlow's / Momo venue set-up. I've been to events to where the entire building is accessible, and poppin!But other times, each area is closed off to the other area and though they barricade each venue group from the other, we all join together in the nice joint-patio area, so what's the big deal if everyone has access to other rooms as well? It really shows short-sighted business strategems when you deny access to patrons between different rooms, but more importantly, it cuts into potential profits.SHOOTING THEMSELVES IN THE FOOTBar business metrics show that MORE bars patrons have access too, the more likely they will be to SPEND MORE: (1) More likely to drink more with more availability - especially if one bar area is overrun & crowded and another isn't; (2) Have fun "Testing" bartender skillsets of a different bartender ("who makes a better drink", "who uses more/less alcohol", "do they charge the same?"; (3) Research if different areas have different alcohols available (not all bars are alike); and, (4) Different areas featuring different music are more likely to capture more people to drink if there is a room with music that the person likes. Unhappy people don't drink as much as happy people. If one room plays crap-music (to that patron), they won't drink much. But if they get to move to a room or patio-bar area they like with ambiance & music they enjoy, they will imbibe more.FACESIn contrast, this is why FACES remains a pre-eminent local bar-venue in terms of business plan & bar-promotion. I've been hitting it on Thursday nights and they have SIX (6) distinct rooms, all with their own bars, all playing different genres of music. BUT ONLY ONE COVER for the whole complex.That's smart. People move around from room to room, enjoying "House music" in one, enjoying Karaoke in front, enjoying chill beats by the Pool in back, enjoying Gothic-Industrial mixes in side room, sexy rave dancers in middle, etc., but NO RESTRICTIONS on moving from one area to another.I've seen many of my friends grabbing a drink from almost every room in the FACES night club on a Thursday. I will defer judgment on whether it's smart - they know their own limits, I don't - but from a business perspective, FACES has got a slam dunk set-up making bank because no one puts the brakes on patrons moving around to different rooms to spend more.SEATTLEI love PIONEER SQUARE on a Friday & Saturday night. To take it to the next level, almost 10 venues cooperate together with a shared cover charge that gets you a wrist band, and into all the venues within walking distance of each other. Business is BOOMING for these bars. So it's fair to say that not only do some multi-room venues like FACES "get it", some Cities "get it" even more than Sacramento.But hey, if a community like Sacramento does't want to do anything to get themselves out of the "minor leagues" of Entertainment & Hospitality industry, who are we patrons to stop them from "shooting themselves in the foot." Some cities are destined to be forever "high school".THE LOWDOWNDecent venue could be a better experience if fully integrated.

Was here Saturday night with my group of 8. We won a free bottle and booth thanks to their Fb contest! We arrived around 10:30 pm no wait and were taken right upstairs to our booth. Our server immediately came over, can't remember her name but she was great. When we arrived it was pretty dead still, maybe about 5 people other than us. But we started drinking and around 11:30 it was packed! Music was ok, I'd say play more hip hop and less reggae. When the reggae started a lot of us sat down. Overall really great atmosphere,and love the interior. Will be back again!

So the next time I want to drink with unfriendly people that care too much about looking cool I'll come here. It's pretty nice and everyone dresses up. The music was OK too. It was like Faces remixes of divebar jukebox songs and cool hip hop. Normally the staff at spots like this are grumpy and pushy. I understand why- it's the crowd that comes to places like these. Unless they are gay, guys who think dressing up is fun are not to be trusted, ya dig? BUT the staff here was actually quite friendly- both door guys and security. The crazy thing is I got in with 2 dress code strikes against me. My Christmas sweater ensemble included a (Santa) hat and it wasn't exactly dressy/classy. I don't know why they didn't let you other guys in. I guess you just gotta play it cool and own it.Dare I say 3.5 stars????

Great venue, had many fun nights here when in Sac and hope to return as soon as it's safe.

I walked past Momo's twice because I assumed I'd see a sign for it somewhere "behind Harlows." I felt like a bum walking back and forth in the back alley trying to figure out exactly where it was. That's when I decided I'd just walk up to Harlows' back entrance and ask if it was Momo's - and ofcourse it was.This is my first time going out in Sac, and I'm not sure if this is always the case, but I had to pay $15 cover. I absolutely despise paying cover, and $15 is alot for a girl at 11PM! Was I not looking my best today? Alright, note to self: wear something a little more skanky like the rest of the girls here. And then there was the music - it wasn't quite my style. Now, I don't want to offend any of you 2pac lovers, but I wasn't feeling the California love today; or the mix of Missy Elliot and Trance. The best part of the night was seeing the most straight laced 30-somethings scream, "... to the windooooow... to the WALLL!" And for the sake of the appropriateness of this review, I won't continue with those lyrics. The fact that the DJ was playing these songs off his laptop, and that he had decided in advance that he would play these songs was even more ridiculous.It was nice to have a place to sit down, and the outside patio bar looked pretty cool. Drinks are strong and you could avoid cover if you're on the guest list, but it seems like there are a ton of other places more happening on J street so I won't be back for awhile.

If I could give 0 stars I would!!! Simply because we got to downtown pretty late, but still wanted to do something fun around 12:55-1am went into the club paid $20 for me $30 for my boyfriend security charged him a extra $10 for his hat to get In we sat least thought we would have until 2am!!! The club closed 15 min into us being there, no last call for drinks just the last song and the club closing !!! The women at the door could have told us this in advance or even charged half price of the original cover charge !!! Very disappointed that they treat people this way