Aladdin's Sheesha Cafe in Tallahassee - Phone Number, Reservations, Reviews

This has been my favorite hookah lounge since 2008! You won't find a better hookah experience. The grape leaves and princess tea are also amazing.

TL;DR Nice atmosphere, but the hookah policy and cover fee suck The good: the cafe has very great decor and atmosphere. Beautiful artwork, lanterns, nargilas, and tchotchkes adorn the building which hosts themed couches and a nice patio. The mid: the service was mediocre, and the food was not worth the price on its own. Being a hookah lounge, I can understand the focus is not on the food, which serves to generate more revenue for owners than hookahs alone can pull in. Still, we had higher expectations for the snacks on the menu The bad: There are many issues with pricing which I think the owners should reconsider. First is the cover charge. I think this makes sense in large groups, but in small groups which don't take up much table space, I find a $6 cover fee for people who are not spending money to be ridiculous. Perhaps the owners should consider only applying the cover fee on weekends or with large groups. It doesn't make sense on a Monday night when the cafe is empty. The most frustrating part of the evening was the logistics of smoking. There were four options for shisha: single (which serves 1-2 people), double (3-4 people), triple (5-6), etc. I was with a group of four, but only two of us planned on smoking extensively, so we ordered a single hookah, which came with the least amount of shisha. The employee refused to give us a single, and required us to purchase a double to serve all four people at the table. We explained that only two of us planned on smoking considerably, and therefore we did not require (nor could we finish) a double order of shisha. The employee said "it didn't matter" and that the requirement was so that we wouldn't 'hurt ourselves' by burning through the shisha too quickly As predicted, we left the restaurant with only a small layer of the shisha burned. We wasted money on an amount of shisha our party did not want to, nor could, practically smoke. This practice really ruined the evening for us. No other hookah lounge I've been to practices this. If you want to smoke 4 orders of shisha, as one person or as five, you order 4. If five people plan on smoking one order of shisha's worth, they should be allowed to do so. It isn't as if the owner is losing money; if we order less shisha we lose less of their supplies. I can understand this rule for large parties, it would indeed be silly for a table of 10 to order a single. But this rule makes no sense for smaller parties and felt very much like a ripoff. I'd really recommend that the owners reassess this policy, as well as the way the cover fee is implemented, to make both more fair for patrons. If those polices were improved, the other issues with the cafe (such as the mediocre service or food) would be much more tolerable