| rev:text
| - Had some mixed experiences at the Cafe Hookah Lounge, so 3 stars seems the way to go.
My girlfriend and I wanted a place to get some hookah and get our drink on at the same time, and stumbled upon Cafe Hookah Lounge after wandering around the Quartier Latin. The place is just a couple blocks from the Berri-UQAM metro station and is next to a lot of bars and food joints.
The place is really nicely decorated. Low lighting, wooden tables with padded benches, trendy modern flowing-water-stands that change color, and a cozy semicircular bar. There is also outdoor seating too. Music is relaxing, chill, and doesn't sound like a club for drunk teenagers unlike so many hookah bars. But the best part are the three booths -- where you actually take your shoes off and get to stretch out on a large cushion. EPIC IDEA. Well the booths were taken our first time here so we slid into a table.
Our waiter was pleasant and attentive. Hookah is very well priced ($8.75 a bowl) but the bowls are small, they do not last that long, and they use very cheap and smelly quicklights. Bleh. But hey, it's happy hour Mon-Fri from 4pm to 7pm and there are $3 shots and $5 cocktails so let's not get too down on the experience. Our drinks were on the weaker side, unfortunately.
And then we inhaled that shisha. Ouch. Someone did not prepare this correctly, and the harshness made it unsmokeable. Having some experience with preparing hookah, I figured it was probably due to the tobacco having too much contact with the foil, but they did not give us any tongs to adjust the bowl, and the bowl was much too small for me to do anything by hand without seriously risking burning myself. A shame :( We puffed very lightly on this bowl and then left.
Well the next day we ended up bar-hopping through the same neighborhood, and we decided to give this place a second shot. Hooray, a booth was available! We crawled in and ordered some drinks (splurging on the more expensive cocktails) and these were STROOONG. Better experience already. The hookah this time was very well-prepared and we smoked two bowls. I don't agree with the other reviews about the flavors not being too strong -- they are just about perfect for me.
Unfortunately, our second time there, our waitress could not be more rude. Immediately after bringing us our first hookah and our drinks, she slaps a receipt in front of me and DEMANDED I pay her immediately. What? I can't, like, relax for two seconds? Um...okay....I hand her $25 and she makes change and gives me coins and then stands there staring at me, waiting for her tip. I stare back at her blankly. How could someone be this obnoxious? Awkwardly I give her $2 and she goes away.
She did the exact same thing after our second round of drinks and our second bowl. Ridiculous.
So, mixed experiences. Regardless, it's a nice place to hang out. I would return next time I'm in Montreal.
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