Hookah Bars NYC- Luxor Lounge

I went to the Luxor Lounge tonight in the west village of manhattan for some shisha and hookah smoke. it was a below average experience as the hookah that they gave us was very small and the hose was leaking. the shisha quality of this place is below par and the mixed tobacco hookahs are mediocre. My problem tonight was that the hookah and shisha combo made the taste way too sweet and the flavor degenerated very quickly. the first few pulls were definitely the best and the flavor turned to a sort of licorice taste within minutes. we had a lot of problems with this hookah tonight to say the least. the service was however better but the shisha and hookah experience was terrible. im not sire what it was about this hookah and shisha combo, but within fifteen minutes of smoking the hookah it seemed like it was dead. this should never be the case as a good hookah should ast for at least an hour. the leaking hose was very frustrating and it kept me desiring a better setup. we had to sort of hold the hose with a very tight fist in order to make it stop leaking and even that did not work too well. too often throughout the night i was pulling on the hose with my breath and nothing was happening. the water was not bubbling and there was no smoke coming out of the tube. the only good thing about this hookah was that the blow off valve was working properly and so any stale smoke that was left in the hookah was quicky ejected.

Hookah Bars NYC- Hookah Bar Number 10

Ok well i have to admit that i have been slacking in the shisha and hookah department. i have a great big list of hookah and shisha bars that need to be reviewed and i just have not had the time lately to go out and review one. i was supposed to go to a hookah bar in the east village tonight but yet again i got tired and fell asleep. well this is just going great for me. i have one job to do and that is to go out and review hookah bars and smoke shisha. what a hard life i have! i get paid for going out and smoking shisha out of hookahs at hookah bars and i cant even do that! this is kind of silly because my only responsibility is going out and basically having fun. i guess i am not really doing my job to its fullest potential. Well i am making a commitment to you and myself that i will have two more hookah bars reviewed by early next week and they are going to be of the hookah bar in williamsburg, brooklyn and another hookah bar on the lower east side. I am going to go to the hookah bar on the lower east side to smoke shisha tomorrow night and the night after i am going to williamsburg to smoke some shisha at the hookah bar off of bedford ave. Cheers!

Hookah Bars NYC- Williamsburg Part 2

Hey there! So i want to apologize for not coming through with the hookah and shisha review for today about the hookah bar in williamsburg. i have driven by it many times and i know that it is located on north 4th between bedford and driggs avenues and not usually occupied by anyone. this is a total bummer because i thought that a shisha and hookah bar in williamsburg would totally take off. i guess the problem is that the hipsters in williamsburg are too cool to do something actually hip like smoke shisha out of a hookah. i am very disappointed by this as i once thought that i could open up my own shisha and hookah bar in williamsburg that would be flooded with hipsters coming form the left and from the right. but mostly from the left... apparently hookah bars are too far right for a hipster to come and chill in. or maybe this bar is just bad. maybe their shisha is of low quality and the service is bad. then again maybe it is in a bad location. in any case, there needs to be a good hookah bar in the williamsburg area. there are many in astoria in queens and i always thought that astoria and williamsburg were very similar areas. in any case shisha and hookah smoking is something that needs to be done in every neighborhood in new york and i am committed to having a great hookah bar in every neighborhood.

Hookah Bars NYC- Williamsburg

The next bar in our lovely hookah bar reviews will be a shisha and hookah bar in Williamsburg Brooklyn. Now I know that many of you live in Manhattan and do not like the idea of going out into the boroughs but let me tell you that Williamsburg may be the closest thing that a borough has to Manhattan. Williamsburg is the first stop off the L train into Brooklyn at Bedford avenue and it is quite the up and coming area. The L train runs directly across 14th street and is accessible from almost any train. Williamsburg is a great place to sit down and enjoy a shisha hookah of any flavor because of its funky artsy attitude and vibe. The Bedford ave L stop is 10 minutes on the L train from union square, and only 13 minutes from the 8th avenue station at 14th street. The hooka bar that we will be reviewing next is a bar located on north 4th street between Bedford and Driggs and is quite a large place. There is a rumor that it will be closing down soon and it may remain as a hookah bar. In any case we of Williamsburg need a public place to smoke hookah because this is such a fun area and to be without a shisha and hookah bar would be a total let down not to mention it would not fulfill the stigma of Williamsburg being an eclectic, relaxed part of New York City. In my mind any part of New York City that claims to be a “hip” area must have a hookah bar as shisha smoking is quite a trend these days.

Hookah Bars NYC- Review part 5

Ok so hey there! We want to welcome you to our favorite hookah and shisha review site on the planet! This is Hookah Bars NYC. We are a hookah and shisha review site dedicated to reviewing hooka and shisha bars across New York City. I am an independent hooka smoker dedicated to smoking as many hookas and different shishas as possible. I travel around new york and find the best spots to go and smoke hookahs any night of the week. Todays hooka review will add another new criteria, the most low key and relaxed bar available in New York. Now mind you that I have not been to all of the hooka bars in New York yet but out of the hooka bars that I have been to so far, Café Khufu is by far the most low key. Mind you that I went there on a weeknight around eleven o’clock and it was pretty much dead. I really do not know how this place survives in a place like New York City but I did like the extremely mellow atmosphere and vibe that is within this weird Egyptian shisha bar. This shisha is so so and the hookah quality is mediocre like I said the vibe is very mellow and I don’t think you will find many other patrons there if you go there on a weeknight! Well that is it for now as our hookah and shisha review will come to a final end. I am going to start doing one encompassing review a week and I will leave the other days for individual hookah bar reviews.

Hookah Bars NYC- sorry

Hey there! im sorry i have been absent on my shisha and hookah bar reviews for the past week! i have been very busy on vacation in jamaica! while i was there i did not get a chance to smoke shishs or a hooka one time! what a bummer! i searched for hookah bars and i found that most of the time when i mentioned them people were confused and thought i wanted to buy pot. this was not the case and i was totally let down by the lack of shisha and hookah smoking that goes on in jamaica. i ended p sitting on the beach every day wishing i had a hookah to smoke. next time i travel i am definitely going to check my luggage and bring a damn hooka and some shisha! this was a major damper on my trip all together but on the upside i will be getting to more bars this next week to review more hookahs and shisha flavors available in NYC! Stay tuned!

Hookah Bars NYC- Review part 4

continuing on our concept of young people in hookah and shisha bars we have two more that come to mind...The Luxor Lounge in the west village and of course the giant Le Souk bar in the east village. now although these bars are well respected in the field of hookah and shisha smoking, there are always quite a lot of young people in these bars. when in arrived at le souk, the top forty music was heard from the street where we waited for the woman with the clipboard to ask if we were on the list. We told here no and proceeded to get our ids checked by the bouncer. When we entered the bar all that i could see was the ocean of young people, smoking shisha out of hookahs. i saw hundreds of twenty somehthings shoveling down middle eastern food and smoking shisha hookas furiously. as i proceeded through the bar i noticed the crowd had come to eat smoke and dance. the music was loud and the people were getting roudy. the bar had lines and it was very hard to get a drink. mind you this was a weekday when i went so these kids must have been in college because who else can get ridiculously wasted on an average tuesday night? we will have more on this idea of young people at hooka and shisha bars tomorrow when we review the sillyness that goes on at the luxor brand of hookah and shisha bars.

Hookah Bars NYC- Review part 3

So the next part of our review of shisha and hookah bars we will be looking at yet another aspect of our criteria for our shisha and hookah bar reviews. this week we will look at the best hookah and shisha bar for the younger crowd. As far as young crowds go The Sahara East in the East Village was a stand out for me in terms of hooka and shisha bars with young people. The word young may even be an understatement in terms of describing the age of the people that go there. i would say "underage" may be a better word to describe the age of the hookah and shisha smokers that attend the Sahara East hookah bar. i like to smoke hooka and shisha with all types of people and actually hooka smoking is for me is my greatest opportunity to reach out and meet new people no matter what. so if you are a young person and you like to get away from the grip of your parents to do something rebellious, go to the Sahara East hookah and shisha bar for a crowd like yourself. i was a little thrown off when i saw the amount of young people at this bar. the quality of the products at this bar are sub par but there must be something compelling about this hooka and shisha bar for young people. i think the most compelling thing is that they probably do not card for alcohol or tobacco smoking so if you are fifteen, then this is the bar for you! haha. Well actually this bar is not the greatest shisha and hooka bar that i have ever been to. actually it is probably one of the worst for all around quality of a hookah bar. however like i said, if you are a young person this is probably the bar for you. next time we will shed more light on this subject of young people in hookah and shisha bars so until then, Happy Smoking!

Hookah Bars- Review Part 2

So obviously here we are again to keep the shisha and hookah bar review going hopefully not to a point of redundance. So we left you last time with the clearly stated sentiment that the Hookah Cafe on East 60th between first and second is most definitely the best bar in town and definitely the best bang for your buck. the best shisha flavors were also won by this hookah bar this week and the service again takes the cake. now we are going to change things up in our little hookah and shisha review by altering the terms of the ratings. for the most popular bar we vote on Le Souk in the east village. We choose this hookah and shisha bar to be the most popular because it obviously is. this shisha and hooka bar was blasting on a Tuesday night! there were so many people there and the music was so loud that i could not stay for very long...however, it wins this weeks hookah and shisha bar for popularity by sheer volumes. I could not get over how huge this place was and the amount of people in it. I now know why it is so large: it is here by popular demand. no other hookah or shisha business can produce the amount of volume that Le Souk puts out on a daily basis. And it is obviously the in the latest fashion too because stars like Colin Ferrel go there and hit on young beautiful women. So by the sheer popularity of this hookah bar we give it a thumbs up. as for a mellow atmosphere well you wil have to find that somewhere else, but if you like loud and in your face music and tons of people getting wasted, this is the bar for you! I love to smoke shisha out of a hookah any where pretty much so stay posted for future reviews!

Hookah Bars-Review

SO this is the weekly of all of the hookah and shisha bars that we have smoked shisha in to date on our wonderful list of reviewed hookah bars. in this review i will give you my top three hookah bars of the week plus my least favorite hookah bar that i have been to so far. SO i bet you can guess that my favorite hookah bar so far is the Hookah Cafe located on the upper east side in manhattan on E60th st between 1st and 2nd avenues. This wonderful little place by far has the best shisha that i have ever smoked. there are many perks of going to this place including the very warm and friendly hospitality of the owners and the baklava is fantastic. everything in this bar is homemade and they do not have anything pre-packaged. they have separate hookas for different flavors and i think that that is just a marvelous idea! the couches are low and the taste of the shisha and their hookas are unrivaled. The Hookah Cafe is the perfect atmosphere for smoking shisha because of the dim lighting and the nice middle eastern music. Even the food at this hookah bar is homemade and delicious! you can read my full review below where i just go on and on about this wonderful little gem on the upper west side, telling all of their little secrets to running the best hookah bar in manhattan and probably the entire state of New York. we will be posting a video clip sometime soon about this bar and have you the user rate it for quality. it will be posted on youtube and links to it will be posted on this blog. more of my reviews of this weeks picks will be up tomorrow! until then, happy smoking and treat your mother well!

Hookah Bars NYC- Cafe Khufu Part 2

Cafe Khufu is a shisha and hookah bar located in the east village on east 3rd street between first and second avenues. Honestly i was not impressed by the hookah or the shisha quality of this bar. They do not serve alcohol and the one drink minimum is kind of annoying. i really dont know how this place stays in business. The vibe is very mellow and the service is ok. There is an Egyptian vibe in this place with egyptian artwork that covers the walls. The walls have a makeshift cheesy feel as they are painted to look like they are large stones from a pyramid or something. The hookah s that they use are in ok condition but they certainly do not have specific flavors for certain hookas. they place was pretty much desolate so i gues that was pretty authentic like i was in the desert or something. The Shisha flavors were average although they did not carry too many of them... The brand they carry is soex shisha which is an herbal shisha with no nicotine? how could this be. im not sure i got the correct info on their brand of shisha. i think that i definitely got a buzz from the tobacco that i smoke this night and i find it hard to believe that the shisha that is used in the hookas in Cafe Khufu is herbal no nicotine alternative. They do have belly dancing at this hookah bar once a week and that sounds pretty cool! unfortunately i do not think that i will be going back to this bar. as i said in the last post, the hookah and the shisha became unbearably sweet within about 15 minutes of smoking their hooka. the upside to their operation is the lemon wood coals which provide an authenitc hookah smoking experience. Have Fun!

Hookah Bars- Cafe Khufu

This Hookah Bar is located in the east village on 3rd st between 1st and 2nd avenue.
Not much on the outside. bobmarley playing on the inside. very calm and quiet hookah bar and shisha vibe. interestingly painted walls. no alchohol. one drink minimum. the mix flavors add 2 dollars. sowax brand hookah tobacco. 13 dollar hookah. Three person maximum per hookah whether they are smoking or not. white grape hookah. the owner is very nice. we got a pot of ginger tea that was very good. the tea was 3 dollars a person. the hookah and shisha became to hot and too sweet to the point of harshness within about fifteen minutes. the lemon wood coals were a nice touch. we will bring you more about this east village shisha and hookah bar tomorrow afternoon! this hookah bar was fine for a cheap spot to bring some friends on a school night. it is not the kind of place you would want to go on the weeken. the vibe is very mellow and the shisha flavors are not that good. for this area however it is cheaper than the other hookah bars. there is an egyptian vibe inside of the place and like i said before the owner is a very sweet man. he will entertain you with shisha and hookah smoke bubble which he blows from soapy water into a bottle with a hole in it.

Hookah Bars- Hookah Cafe Part 7

Ok this must be the last hookah and Shisha review that we post for the Hookah Cafe. Although we cannot say enough about the quality of this bar and its wonderful service, enough is enough! So in our last post we commented on the wonderful and splendid 3000 year old recipe for hooka shisha called saloum. Saloum is a recipe for hookah shisha that is made with raw sugar cane and burns very hot! the burning temperature of this shisha is so hot that you do not use tin foil to cover the bowl head and the lemon wood coals are placed directly on the shisha. now let me tell you that the saloum is absolutely fabulous! the burn is so hot that you can taste the authentic flavor of the shisha mixed with the heat of the coal. you can taste the heat of the burn of this tobacco. And this shisha is so strong that you can feel the nicotine start at the top of your head and run down your entire body as soon as the smoke hits your lungs. The smoke of the saloum shisha is much less thick than the normal shisha and you must pull a lot harder to get a nice hit. Do not be deceived! a small pull of this translucent smoke will get you very buzzed. This is the super hookah. Be careful! the rich taste of the coals and the pure taste of the sugar cane hookah shisha enrich the experience of the hookah smoking to a near state of collapse. Wow. I am floored from my head to my feet! I can barely bring the hose to my mouth after a few long pulls of the saloum. be prepared for a full body high from the moment the smoke enters your lungs. a real treat for the body and mind, the saloum's authentic taste and feel will take you for a real ride to the pre-civilization, tribal roots of this ancient ritual. the taste is so robust, the synesthetic effect takes place where the taste of the lemon wood coals produce outstanding results that you can really feel.

Hookah Bars- Hookah Cafe part 1

Let me just start out by saying that this was probably the most enjoyable shisha and hookah smoking experience that i have ever had. i had such a pleasant time at this location smoking their wonderful homemade blends of shisha tobacco out of their Israeli hookahs, interacting with the staff and learning about their operations, that i might go so far as to say that this is the be all, end all for the best shisha and hookah smoking experience in the new york city area. so lets start out with the usual logistics then we will get into the good stuff. The Hookah Cafe is located at 309 east 60th street between 1st and 2nd ave in Manhattan. when you walk into this joint the intoxicating smell of the sweet shisha smoke will sweep you off of your feet. the dim lights and funky middle eastern music set a very relaxing tone and mood for the full experience that you will get when you hang out here. the granite tile designed floors and the low seated bench style couches are a perfect fit for the resounding atmosphere of this wonderful bar. Let me just say that for this experience that i just had, it was one pleasant surprise after another, and i really only have great things so say about this place. my first pleasant surprise at this wonderful hookah bar was the no drink minimum. now this should not be a surprise, but unfortunately most of the other places we have gone to do have a drink minimum which is a total bummer. so with that out of the way we will tell you that the price for a singe hosed hookah is 20$. now you may be saying that that is above average, which it is, but i am going to take a stand for this wonderful establishment and tell you right out that it is worth every penny. in-fact, the shisha and hookah quality is so supreme and unsurpassed that the Hookah Cafe could easily get away with charging double that. i cant wait to tell you more, this place just keeps on getting better, you will just have to wait until tomorrow where i will spill the beans about this marvelous hookah bar!

Hookah Bars-terrible service

ok so maybe what i said about smoking shisha out of hookahs in the last post was a bit of an exaggeration. Luxor cafe is nice however the service is terrible. too many times i have gone there and found the hookah service to be sub par. last night for instance, we ordered a hookah and it came about fifteen minutes after we ordered it. now this is not a full restaurant or bar so i imagine that all the people do who are in the back of this place are doing is packing the occasional hookah and getting someone an occasional sam adams or bottle of water. now this to me sounds like a very remedial task which would take only a few minutes TOPS. the fact that we waited so long for a hookah was silly and their one drink minimum thing is stupid. the worst part about this place is that the hookah packs are not even packed fully and they burn out and become harsh after about 15 minutes. the shisha quality is fair but like i said they do not put enough shisha in the bowl for a hookah to smoke for a considerable amount of time. the fact is hat most of these bars use outdated products. they use very old hookah and tin foil for a coal screen. this is the 21st century and i think that people smoking shisha out of hookas might enjoy an occasional glass screen or a clean hookah that is not clogged or leaking air. that is all im saying

Hookah Bars- Le Souk #3

ok so heres the deal with this hookah bar. the fake plastic twenty somethings and the new jersey crowd smoking shisha kind of got to me. i guess smoking hookahs is quite the fad as of lately, after all this bar would not exist if it were not for recent hookah fad and pop culture shisha attitude. after learning that the only chill place in the gigantic hookah bar was bottle service only, i became very discouraged...to say the least. so now after walking through this maze of a hookah bar, drenched with sweaty popped collars, and filled with frantic black dresses, we decided it was finally time to order ourselves a hookah. so we did. we sat down in the second room on the right where there were lounge couches filled with people and barely had room to seat the three of us. so we sat in the crowded hooka bar with tons of people singing along to top 40 music. now let me say that this hookah bar has food and it is damn good. very pricey but damn good. so we ordered an grape mint hookah and it came after about ten minutes. the quality of the smoke was damn good! the hookah worked properly (which was a surprise) and the shisha flavor was not harsh and rather smooth. the coal burned evenly. i did not get a chance to see what brand tobacco they used but i am sure that it was of top quality. the only draw back of this hookah was a big draw back at that. the hookah was 23$! twenty three dollars..... oh my this is by far the priciest thing out there and for the privacy and intimacy of this hookah bar i find this to be very poor. the fact that we could not have a conversation without shouting, and that it totally broke my wallet was very discouraging... i dont know if i will ever venture back to le souk. so what i will leave you with is this... le souk or le suck?

Hooka Bars- Le Souk #2

Wow. this place is huge. as we walked past the shisha smoke being smoked out of bubbling hookahs by college kids in collared shirts and black dresses, i realized that this hookah bar was quite the scene. and by scene i mean there were drunken frat guys and sorority girls that were decked out in fancy clothes and sort of reminded me of the west village. this i thought was peculiar since this hooka bar was located in the east village in alphabet city. all in all i thought that the scene was quite plastic. in fact that is one of the only ways i would use to describe this scene. it was very plastic. so as we proceeded through the hookah bar i realized that the dirty house music was coming from down below. what? there is another floor?? now this place is really really big and i could not quite comprehend how a place this size could fit somewhere in the east village. so i decided to walk down the stars to the dance floor where the third alcohol bar was located. across from the now desolate dance floor was another lounge area that was slightly elevated and had pretty white candles on small tables. as we sat there for about ten minutes i wondered why there was no one serving us... as a waitress came by i asked if we could order a hookah and what i though she replied was "you have order at the bar" what she really said was "you have to order a bottle." thsi was the point which i said "what?" wait a minute, the only way we can sit here is if we order a bottle? this was by far the chillest place in this bumping hooka bar and we could not sit there unless we ordered a bottle. what a let down. we had ventured downstairs to escape the plastic twenty somethings to find out that the chill area in the bar was exclusive and that we were not. to be continued....again

Hookah Bars- Le Souk

As i approached this east village hookah bar i realized what i was about to get into... i could hear the top 40 music playing from down the block and i could smell the shisha as well. uh oh. sounds like a deadly combination. there were three bouncers that stood outside of this hookah bar, all with ear pieces, and a velvet rope that sectioned off the entrance. there was a cute woman with a clipboard asking if people were on the list. we were ID'd and let into the crazyness that they call Le Souk. on first impression i though to myself, wow! dim red lights! this was a change from yesterdays sahara east! as i looked around the front room the volume from the top 40 dance tunes started to get to me. i saw many people at dining tables eating very expensive Mediterranean food and i thought to myself, how could anyone enjoy a meal with music this loud?? so we kept on walking into the next room where therewere doxens of people crowded around a bar and people scattered on velvet couches smoking a variety of hookahs and shisha pipes of all different flavors. the top 40 music played on. i suggested that we grab a seat when i realized that there was another room! we walked into the other room only to find more dining tables with people smoking hooka and eating mediterranean cuisine only in this area there was some dirty house music playing along to the subtle bubble sounds of dozens of smoking hookahs....to be continued....

Leaky Hookah- Shahara East

on the outside of this east village hooka bar there are great colorful yellow signs with a sort of make shift hand drawn feel. you can see the sign that says Sahara East hookah bar. when i walked in the door there was no one seated in the front and i was a little confused. then i saw down the long narrow hallway lights coming from the back and people seated smoking shisha of different varieties. the first thing that i noticed about this hooka bar were the very bright lights which were quite misgiving due to the relaxing nature that a hookah bar should have while people are engaged in smoking sheesha. i thought wow these lights are bright. so in the front of the establishment you can see that it is a restaurant and i figured that the back would be a lounge type area with comfortable couches and dim lighting. instead there was a restaurant style seating with hard chairs around stiff tables. the back area of this hookah bar looked sort of like a tent that one might see in the middle of the dessert, covered with tapestries and hanging lights. this was ok but as i said before the lights were too bright. the hookah was poor and 15$. there is a one drink minimum at this bar and they are all 5.00, even the water! there is strange middle eastern up tempo music playing. they really need to make this back area a lounge if they want to make it cool. they serve nakhla tobacco and walnut coals! the tobacco is low grade but the coals were of an excellent wood variety. we got mint raspberry and our hookah was very leaky. this was all in all a disapointment. this bar has a high school vibe reminiscent of fraternity boys and drunken louts. the hookah had a strange licorice taste and it was obvious that it was not cleaned well. the mango juice was heavily sweetened. this is not the best hooka bar by any means but if you are a high school kid or a frat guy this may be the place for you, as we should try to keep these types in a fixed location:) just kidding.