Annoyed By Lack Of Aussie Hospitality

[pingywon]

I am from the U.S.
I travel ALOT for work.
I am new here. (welcome me! )
I luv Aussies.
I have been to Sydney 3 times now.


With all that out of the way... I found 2 options to smoking shisha this trip to Sydney.

I found a tabbaco shop here by the harbour (tourist area) that has 3 over priced pipes and 3 or 4 flavors of shisha. It would have cost me about $100 to get everything i need from this guy.

With that option out I actually found a resturant (by the Harbour again) that is a middle eastern themed place that offers shisha on the menu.

The "manager" is not of middle eastern decent at all. I have a feeling this place may be owned by middle easterners but they apparently have this aussie girl running it.

Now shisha is on the menu right next to the ice cream as a dessert option.

I went there early on this past week end and she was not going to let me smoke ...with out looking at the clock she says "Not until after 3pm"

...it was like 2:58pm

I got seated (OUTSIDE) and ate and smoked.....no probs


I would have gone back there and ate everynight since then if the customer service was a little better.

The Indian waiter guy that actually waited on me was AWESOME! (props to him!)

I went back there tonight. Told some waitress to seat me outside because I wanted to eat and smoke shisha ...the problems began.

She tells me she thinks I cant smoke and she will need to speak with the manager ... the same (aussie chick) manager comes over and doesnt remember me ...she tells me I can't smoke until after 9pm.

I tell her that I want to eat too (impling im not just trying to freeload a seat in a resturant)

She doesn't care. I then call her out ...and say "thats funny because you told me 2 days ago that I had to wait until after 3pm"

she gives me a shocked look and then remembers me (I was dressed very different the 2 encounters her and I had)

she agrees she did say after 3 the other day..then goes on to clarify that she meant to say that you can smoke from 3pm to 6pm ..then you have to wait until after 9pm....blah EFFIN blah.

Finally I said to her .....

I didnt see any hours associated with shisha on the menu and if what you say is true ..you may want to think about adding them.


needless to say I was upset.
needless to say I feel that these "rules" are just her personal preferences ....that is the part that pisses me off the most.

I have it in my right mind to drop the name on the resturant a long with the website so that anyone who would want to let them know how not to treat customers could do ...much as I already have.

Thanks for listening guys.

[racemyghost]

Thats just a load of crap.

Welcome though!

[Stinkyfisherman]

that is some poo poo. i woulda wanted to talk to the owner and not just the manager

[Codename067]

now thats bullshit

i mean, making you have to wait 2 minutes till you get the hookah just pure bullshit. I

t freaking takes that long to pack a bowl, so why not put the order in and have you smoke by 3? even after?

bullshit move on behalf of her.

[pingywon]

well here you are .. I didn't think I would find the forum smart ass so quickly, but you didn't waste anytime did ya?

[nidal105]

Hey Pingywon,
Sorry to hear about the crappy experience...It really pisses me off to see people coming to Australia and getting treated like that.
I am not from Sydney (I live about 3 hrs away) but I know the place you're talking about. The food is OK but the problem is that the Shisha is crappy and way overpriced. It seems to me like the Shisha is on the menu as a novelty item that they don't put much effort into. I know this because they never seem to encourage anyone to order it, and I have been there twice.
Unfortunately, you're in the CBD part of Sydney (which BTW is beautiful, but does NOT cater for the Shisha smoker). In Australia there is nowhere near the type of Shisha culture that is found in the US, and so the large majority of areas in the major cities are not catered for Shisha smokers. When me and my friends go to Sydney, we do one of two things:
1) Take our own Shisha and set it up on the apartment balcony
2) Drive out to the Shisha cafes in the Western Suburbs, where all the Middle Eastern shops are. These are usually about a 25-30 Minute drive out of the City (depending what time you leave). We usually go to Titanic Cafe in Bankstown, which makes a decent Shisha for a cheaper price than the City, although service can be a bit slow. Edited March 11, 2008 by nidal105

[pingywon]

Hey Pingywon,
Sorry to hear about the crappy experience...It really pisses me off to see people coming to Australia and getting treated like that.
I am not from Sydney (I live about 3 hrs away) but I know the place you're talking about. The food is OK but the problem is that the Shisha is crappy and way overpriced. It seems to me like the Shisha is on the menu as a novelty item that they don't put much effort into. I know this because they never seem to encourage anyone to order it, and I have been there twice.
Unfortunately, you're in the CBD part of Sydney (which BTW is beautiful, but does NOT cater for the Shisha smoker). In Australia there is nowhere near the type of Shisha culture that is found in the US, and so the large majority of areas in the major cities are not catered for Shisha smokers. When me and my friends go to Sydney, we do one of two things:
1) Take our own Shisha and set it up on the apartment balcony
2) Drive out to the Shisha cafes in the Western Suburbs, where all the Middle Eastern shops are. These are usually about a 25-30 Minute drive out of the City (depending what time you leave). We usually go to Titanic Cafe in Bankstown, which makes a decent Shisha for a cheaper price than the City, although service can be a bit slow.

You do indeed know the place.

The food is mediocre and the shisha is wayyyyy over priced ($25) but I was willing to pay it. Thats the part that annoys me is that here I am willing to pay $25 a bowl pretty much and im getting denied.
you are also right about it being a novolty to them.

I had heard about Titanic in Bankstown ..and also heard about a plce in Punchbowl ...problem is getting there with no ride.

for the price of a cab both ways and some smoke ... I might as well spend the $100 on the harbour here from the tobacco shop (the older man that runs it is pretty cool)

Good to hear an Aussie share my sentiment!

[mathuv]

wow that sucks. well here in malta, only place you would find shisha is in the nightclub area. no problem in summer as they open early, around 6pm and its fairly priced and good service, maybe a bit slow at times. welcome to the forums

[r1v3th3ad]

the hours might be because of customers?

I was just thinking that that could be when business really picks up and they get slammed, so they don't have time for hookah. Even if so, it is bullshit how they treated you and it not being written anywhere

[Codename067]

Then again, it's just one person, and you just had the bad luck of running into her.

[pingywon]

the hours might be because of customers?

I was just thinking that that could be when business really picks up and they get slammed, so they don't have time for hookah. Even if so, it is bullshit how they treated you and it not being written anywhere

this was her excuse ..but there was no one there ... no one around ...and no one coming. This is a tourist area on a monday evening ....its not like it was a friday night......bah!