I was at Yonge and Dundas with my cousins on a Saturday night and we decided to find a place to smoke shisha. Since we weren't too sure where to find a place, we asked the guys who worked at Paramount, a Middle Eastern restaurant in the area, they recommended Shishawarma.
I don't know why, I just assumed it would be a fairly decent place to smoke hookah. Boy was I wrong. There was outdoor and indoor seating, we chose to sit inside, and noticed tables that were empty and hadn't been cleaned; food and tea cups were leftover. From the name you can tell that they not only serve shisha, but shawerma too, which didn't strike me as too sanitary.
That seemed like the reoccurring theme at this place, unsanitary, from the bathrooms, to the floor, the wait staff and the shishas. Of course, no one forced me to stay; we were already there so might as well make the best of it. There was no real mood there, the lights were turned on all the way, the old timers Arabic music would play for two minutes then cut off for half an hour.
We ordered two hookahs, one in mixed berry which was good and the second in cherry which was a huge disappointment. I asked the server if he could change the flavor for me to strawberry, I waited half an hour, reminded him, waited another 15 minutes before he brought it out, it was a tastier flavor. The staff was all Egyptian, and their culture showed in the way they served, everything seemed to be in an "Inshallah we'll get to it" style. We also ordered a pot of tea, which was nowhere near hot.
One thing that struck me as strange was that the shishas were taped in the middle, between the glass and the metal part. Each flavor had a different colored tape, which is understandable, but it didn't appear to me that they were replacing it every time.
How would they change out the water? Did they even?
Overall, this is a place that must have its regulars who could care less about cleanliness. However, for me, it's an establishment that I would never return to, not even if you paid me.