Cafe Revew: Sahara East

[MonkeyBiz]

So I was in New York City last week, and had the chance to go out for a night on the town with a few local friends. We ended up hitting a hookah bar in NYC, Sahara East. It's a little hole in the wall place, but all in all it's real nice. We showed up around 8pm and it was surprisingly uncrowded. We were seated quickly and started off with some raspberry flavored shisha and a few Heinekens. The hookah had obvously seen a lot of use, but it was well prepared and very smooth. I think they were using Saet Safa shisha, but I'm not positive. So we smoked our first bowl of the night, continued drinking, and ordered food. We got the hummus as an appetizer, and I got the Kofte Kebabs as my entree. Both were excellent, especially the kebabs. For our second hookah, we chose raspberry vanilla, which was a little harsher than the first one, but not bad otherwise. Both hookahs lasted about 40 minutes or so with three people smoking. The hookahs were $15 each, the entrees were $10-$20, the appetizers were $5-$10, and the beers were $6 each. A word of warning: they only accept cash, but there is an ATM in the resturant.Appearance: 7/10 - Could be a little nicer; some of the tables were in disrepair and the hookahs were showing a lot of use.Service: 8/10 - Our food, hookahs, and drinks arrived quickly. We had to ask three times for dinner menus though.Hookah: 9/10 - Excellent hookah, very smooth and flavorful.Food: 9/10 - Very good food, well worth it on it's own.Value: 7/10 - Prices add up quickly and can get very expensive; also, the cash only policy doesn't help, but it is New York City.Overall: 8/10 - Great experience, good value. I would highly recommend this place to anyone in NYC looking for a good hookah bar. It's located inbetween 11th and 12th St. and 1st Avenue. Enjoy!

[Allalone]

I give Sahra east two thumbs down! I used to go there all the time until i just got sick of the terrible service. Go there when its packed and i'm sure u'll see what i'm talking about. They take a long time seating you, the coal changes if any take way to long. The Waiters are rude (tried to rip me and my friends off once) They just have that negative aura around them, they want u in and out, 10 mins. after u get ur hookah they give u the bill. If u want to go to a extremely good hookah bar i suggest a place called Cozy Cafe, wonderful service excellent food and the manager is awsome (hooked us up with free hookah after we had a convo with him) Cozy Cafe actually got the best hookah bar in 2006 award in sum magazine he showed to us bout NYC. But yea i give Sahara East a 1/10 and Cozy Cafe 9/10
 
Cozy

[yashman19]

Good review. Everyone who is rating lounges should make sure to add them to the lounge directory. Even if someone already has rated the lounge in the past, its good to hear from more than one person.And holy christ, 6bucks for a brewski? I guess since its NYC, but still....