I love this place. The service is great and tea is always good. Really like the patio and glass enclosure area. Very chill vibes

In Raleigh celebrating a friend’s birthday, decided to visit this establishment. Before we were seated, we asked could we be seated outside and was basically told no asked our server again and we eventually moved outside. We got two hookahs had to asked for tongues to flip our own coals. They had staff seated outside with us, but they were ultimately sitting there to stereotype us and make sure we didn’t walk off, not to actually serve us. We tried to ask for beverages several times. When we went inside to pay, the menu says $17.99 for a royal grape hookah, I was charged $30+. They said they charge more of the weekend, but NO WHERE ON THE MENU STATES THAT! This place is a complete rip off with sub standard service, will not return or recommend anyone else to visit there!

Best hookah lounge in town. Delicious and fresh desserts. They also have great drinks and smoothies.

I really enjoy visiting this place when I am in Raleigh but this visit was not what I expected. We were a group of 5 and we ordered our hookahs and then sat. We didn’t even smoke the hookah for long. We were not there for even 45 minutes and we were told to we had to leave because we were a little too loud but we were not roudy or rude. I guess I will take my business somewhere else.

I really enjoyed being here especially large group like ours, we really felt like kings, they let us do whatever we want. Everything was great honestly.

Guys this is the best hookah bar!!! Lovely staff. The vibes are great and the music is bomb!!!! Definitely a 10/10

Best hookah in Raleigh. My husband and I met here years ago and still love to come here. The best thing is you have options for seating inside or outside. If you’ve never tried hookah before, try the flavor “Sex on the Beach” or “Watermelon”. “Double Apple” is the strongest flavor and is meant more for experienced smokers lol just a heads up! If you’re celebrating a special night definitely try the fruit heads! The mint tea and milkshakes and coffee beverages are great. If you don’t like the music and you’re nice to the workers (try learning some Arabic), you could ask if they’ll play a certain song for you. A good place to begin and end your night!

So just moved back to the Raleigh area after being gone a few years. I decided to go back to this hookah bar I used to hit up 3 or 4 times a week. Come to find out so much has changed. The prices change every time I go there and it’s super expensive. When I asked the manager “Lo” about my problem he was very rude and dismissive of me. Even though it’s right next to my house I will not be returning . Trying to save you guys a trip and your money !

Lovely, cozy atmosphere and amazing staff. I also like food. Thanks.

Great place for shishaAmazing tea with sageJust what I needed

Last night I went to this establishment and got burnt by an employee working there with the Hookah cole. I have burn marks on my inner thighs even the chair I was sitting at got burnt. When confronting the person in charge he cursed me out so bad Infront of everyone. Then he lies and tells me the camera that was pointing right at me that it was not working when I could clearly see behind the counter that it indeed was. No one seemed to care about this senseless act. They told me all I wanted was money when all I wanted was for them to be notified about the carelessness of their employee. Very unprofessional.

Servers are amazing. Music after hours was good Friday Saturday. Good chill crowd .

Great place to hangout

Great vibes !! the place has been improving since new management took over . Very convenient location, and friendly staff

Even though i had the money, what hookah bar charges to be seated. hookah was way too strong. couldn’t even taste the peach and mint.

Its a cool chill place to lounge n enjoy yourself at👍

Awesome place. Great service

First time I have been. Very friendly atmosphere had a good time

Attended the Hip Hop & Hooka Brunch Party and it was a great success! Shout out to all the hands involved!

Good place to hang out late at night

Extremely friendly and knowledgeable staff. Turkish coffee was great. The hooks was so smooth and set up and so efficient. Would recommend! Will comeBack. Great atmosphere and great people.

Visited Sahara last night with a couple of friends. Split a large Turkish coffee (plenty for the three of us) and enjoyed a great smoke. Service was great and the atmosphere was very relaxing and chill. Will be back in the future.

Best service hoohka bar in the area. Awesome tea and dessert. Great for watching sports events in a chill atmosphere.

Totally professional! Hooked up the pineapple 🍍 hookah on the house! Best hookah in downtown so far.

Had a nice time here with a group of friends. Was really quite later in the evening but service was still on point despite being almost dead.

Nice place to have hookah

Great place to hangout

Very laid back. I enjoyed the atmosphere

Came in and felt comfortable right away. The vibe is very chill here. Its $20 for a hookah, which if youre by yourself will last a while, but is a great way to talk to friends for an hour or two. My only complaint is that at times the music was too loud, making it hard to talk, but otherwise a very nice place that made my introduction to hookah a positive one. I will definitely be back.

This place is great. Middle eastern hospitality is a thing of subtle beauty, and these gentlemen execute it flawlessly. They also excel at packing the hookah.

Love love love this place!!!! Very nice vibe great hookah!!!

Great customer service best employees ever thanks xoen for being great to us!

Hands down the best place to have Hookah and. Work in TriangleVery friendly staff and unique flavorsMust try

This is an amazing place to unwind in the evening/night. Place seems to be family run, and they are super understanding.

First time coming, recommended by a friend and was trash. Horrible customer service. Not coming back.

Best teaAnd hookah

The shisha is great . But over priced and so is everything else. However ...their Turkish coffee is amazing . I would have given it a 5 if it wasnt so damn expensive. This place needs competition to bring their prices down .

I highly recommended this place SOCIAL DISTANCING IN EFFECT it s perfect and clean and the hooka very awsome.

I had very good experience here, all kind of people are welcome. Parking is difficult for my friend but as for me I pick Uber no problem. Not pretendsous place I been customer before and I will come back again.

Great place. Its comfy, being semi-outside means your conversations arent intelligible beyond your little table/couch group, and the worker there was amazing. He could tell my friend and I were just guessing how to properly use a hookah, so he gave us some advice. He occasionally came by to grab the billion degrees Fahrenheit top piece to blow out any ash that accumulated before replacing the shisha/tobacco-cubes (I dont remember the correct term) for no charge. At first he recommended we only keep one cube on the burner, but after noticing that my friend and I are practically immune to nicotine at this point in life, began to come by, de-ash our hookah, then place massive cubes in sets of three for us.The peach flavor is the bomb. Smooth, not overwhelming, doesnt get old—if you look at the menu and are just blanking out at all the choices, go for the peach.Once we had to leave, I tried to cover my share ($10.11) with $10.75, since Im poor and felt guilty that I couldnt tip as much as my friend did. The living legend, the charitable Chad that is the guy working the cafe that day, declined my three quarters and then offered blessings upon me. I guess hes some kind of cleric or paladin. Either way he made my day.TL;DR—Just come here and chill. Its great. Youre reading this looking to hit some phat hookah; HIT SOME PHAT HOOKAH here and make sure to tip The Man (never caught his name) as much as you can. Hes too good for this world.

My fiance and I have visited this spot once or twice a week for months. We receive TOP customer service EVERYTIME. The owner and staff are always friendly, make time to chat with us, fast to bring out our hookah, and always check to make sure we are good. The music, atmosphere, coffee, and desserts are great. If you dont like crowds, go earlier in the afternoon.

Certainly a top place in the area. i will be bringing family next time. prices were reasonable. menu is like a place in miami i enjoyed

Best hookah bar in the area. Relaxing place to chill out and smoke hookah. The use quality equipment and have very nice staff. They are pretty good at swapping out coals even when they are busy. Decent selection of shisha flavors, but do run out of popular ones at times. They dont serve alcohol but they do serve cold and hot drinks. A good mix of people, if seems like all are welcome. It gets busy on the weekends, and super smokey as you can imagine. I would give it 5 stars if it were a bit more upscale. All in all a great place to go and have fun.

Amazing hookah. Great place to relax. They have great discounts for regulars. Amazing service and staff. Definitely going again.

Best Hookah in Raleigh. Very friendly staff and a great atmosphere. I highly recommend!!!

A little pricey for entry and hookah than Im used too, but overall I enjoyed the mixed crowd, music, and laid back experience

9/30/2011 - Im revising my earlier review. As a last resort we went back, and were pleasantly surprised. I think the place may have changed hands and this time the service was excellent. We even got our Turkish coffee in ceramic cups. :)*******************************************Be prepared to get second class service unless youre a special customer. By second class I mean at Sahara you get: Turkish coffee in paper cups instead of china cups UNLESS youre a special customer; your charcoal allowed to completely go out and you have to ask for replenishment several times UNLESS youre a special customer and your charcoal is always refilled; no servers checking to see if you need beverage refills UNLESS youre a special customer; no sitting on the sofas (only the tables and chairs) UNLESS youre a special customer. None of the desserts listed on the menu were available and there was far less tobacco in the hookah than we usually get at hookah cafes. The positives: the decor is great and the tobacco was tasty. It could have been a great customer experience had we not been made to feel that we were second class customers. As a business owner I understand the value of rewarding regular customers, but NEVER by treating them better than new or occasional customers. Very bad business practice.

Very professional and attentive staffLaid back music and great hookahsDiverse crowd

Went on a Friday night and they wanted to charge us ten bucks per person to get in. There were seven of us in the group so we felt that was a little steep especially since there was not going to be a discount on the hookah or drinks. You have to give people something for their money especially when its late and the place is half empty. I may go back but it wont be during the time where they are charging an entry fee.

I went for my birthday they gave me a discount and free cake haha it was so much fun and the whole place was lit I’ll be back for sure.

This place is complete trash. We sat at a table in the corner and they wanted to charge us $45 just to sit there. That would haven been on top of the price for hookah. We went on a weeknight when it was slow. When we walked in, we placed our order, then two couples after us walked in, did the same and got their hookah before us. We had to wait over 30 minutes for our hookah. Of course the other couples were white, while we are Saudi Arabian & Sicilian. Preference much? Would NOT recommend to anyone. Dont waste the time or money!

Sahara is one of the most authentic yet modernized hookah bars Ive been to in the country. Being an avid hookah smoker, and while working a job that requires travel often, I have been to a large number of hookah bars. Sahara Cafe in Raleigh is by far my favorite outside of the Middle East. The hookahs are top notch using the best quality hookah, tobacco, even the best coals! Their drink assortment is excellent (my favorites being tea with mint and the Pistachio shake). Service is phenomenal and the staff is very welcoming and willing to help whenever needed. I HIGHLY recommend anyone that is in the triangle or travelling to the Raleigh/Durham area at any time.

Nice atmosphere, cool spot. $10 cover per head, and limited parking.

It’s like on the week days the hookah be trash and on weekends it be the best. Train your workers to make hookah right . They honestly don’t know what they doing. Only on weekends but over all hookah is Great (only on weekends)

Not impressed with the shisha we got. It doesnt smoke the way it should. Flavor is gone within minutes. Its dry and flavor doesnt stick. They took some of the juice out with a rag and wish we were asked if we wanted it in the shisha or not. There was little knowledge about what we were asking for. Go somewhere else that actually knows how to have good quality shisha

Shady business. Owner charged my card twice and then would not refund the next day after showing receipt. Do not use your card here!

If I could give it zero stars, I would. We came in, just me and my boyfriend. The place is emptier than a church in hell, with the exception of two guys sitting at a corner table. We get told have a seat wherever you want, so we do only to have the guy come by a minute later and tell us that those seats are reserved year round. I pointed out that the place was literally empty and was told that it doesnt matter, they can come by any minute. I guess those peoples money is greener than mine, so I made sure to take my less-green money somewhere else and will also make sure they never see any of it at all

This place is amazing! Love the service and the staff. Owner was super nice and respectful. Definitely would recommend this to anyone looking for a chill place to be!

Great hookah, great atmosphere, wonderful service. Had a pretty long wait for coals at the end but it was still early.

First time here. I kinda like the place. the people here are soo sweet, But The hookah here isn’t that good tbh.

My wife and I went there earlier before it got busy but the owner was very attentive. We got our hookah and tea within minutes of ordering. It’s a great pre-date chill spot

Had a great time smoking hookah, dancing, and meeting new people!! Great atmosphere! Great people! Great service! Even better time!!😊

Friendly, genuine staff and the best hookas. Inside and outside offer different feels, music, etc. Pick one depending on your mood that day. Great place to meet friends, play cards, watch the game, or do work/schoolwork.

Atmosphere is great but service not so much. The young new girl there is awesome but before here service a guy barely showed attention or patience.

I order a certain flavor and they did not mix my favors correctly. I traveled through the Middle East for the last 8 years and I know how this is suppose to taste. When I addressed my concerns, I was told that there was nothing they could do to help and I had to be charged extra to correct it. This is unprofessional and unfortunately they didnt count on me knowing how hookah actually works. I did like this spot but that on top of the waiter not knowing what drink I order when she gave me my drink is just unacceptable. I will not come back here.

My first time going to a Hookah lounge and it was a good experience. The atmosphere was laid back and the music was nice.

Smokey overpriced They dont serve alcohol they didnt play the music that we like even though we requested several times the vibe was off wouldnt recommend everyone just sat around and looked at each other even though music was playing vibe was very weird

My friend and I are regulars and they are always extremely polite, give us free things, and make sure we always have a good night.

My first visit to a Hookah place in the US. Been to a lot of these back in India. Expected a lot here with the rating and all but this one was subpar. Not even as good as the ones in India. Terrible ambience with annoying middle Eastern music and aged black and middle Eastern dudes smoking and talking amidst the music. Zero for the hookah. Just couldnt get it to smoke properly. The waitresses tried a lot but just didnt happen. In the end, we gave up and left. 20 bucks down the drain. But 5/5 for the service and the waitresses who cared a lot to get it working. Zero for everything else.

Worst hookah experience ever. I used to go to this place every Friday and Saturday night and it was the go to spot but recently the staff has shown no curtesy and over charge for everything. I ordered 2 hookahs and both were horrible. When asked to change them, literally, after 5-6 minutes of trying to fix them ourselves the staff sends their coal guy to hit it and show us its pulling - like no we don’t have your horrible lungs to hit it like that. I’ll never be returning to this hookah bar ever again.**Posting this review after multiple bad experiences. **

Atmospher was nice and relaxing. Hookah came out in 5 minutes, and server was very attentive.

The only place I know likeThis thats open during an earlier day. I always love it, always a good experience. Try their Arabian tea with mint- trust me itll change your life.

Amazing service, great kind people. Wonderful time

One of the greatest spot to chill and relax on weekdays and the right place to hit after parties stays open till 4am which is amazing in Raleigh.Delicious hookahs flavor and very friendly staff

Cool hookah bar, both inside and patio seating. Club like atmosphere on weekends on the inside. Real fun.

Amazing relaxing space. Incredible service.

Nice service, May need some updating with ventilation and plexiglass.

This place used to be a lot better. Was shocked to find out it was the same owner.

Decent after hour spot something different than going home lol

I really used to like this place but its lost its spunk over the years. If you want to smoke and chill without a crowd, then you go during the off times like maybe in mid-late afternoon. If you want the crowd, and the music, then you go like Thursday, Friday or Saturday evening. It used to be fun to go here in the evenings on the weekends, but usually there is not enough room. They also started charging $20.00 per person at the door which I believe is ridiculous. The last time I went there, there was a fight and I believe thats when I made the decision to not go there anymore. Management is also not really nice, they kind of have attitudes and dont play your music when you request it and also play for people they know.

I liked the atmosphere, DJ was pretty good considering it was a very mixed crowd. Great plae to visit after the club, or after a house party. Everyone was polite and attentive. Im 22, and the crowd was roughly around my age..so 20-30 ..a few 40s here and there. First time, going and Im pretty sure Ill visit again. The only reason I cant give 5 starts - they dont serve alcohol after 12am. WHATs UP WITH THAT ?

Good place. But they are charging $10 as entry fee. Well get playing cards once we enter

Its is a cool welcoming place were u can get good hookah and some great coffee jus ask for Sarah or Theo to make the coffee

Nasar is family. Great place after the club to hang out

Great chill spot!

The shisha wasn’t taste like it should be, beside I’ve got cold sores after smoking hookah !So I think you should pay more attention on sanitation !!

Friendly and quick service, and nice ambience. High quality product. I would go again.

Thank you for everything. The customer service is outstanding. ❤️❤️❤️

This place will make you feel like your home, love it!

Naser the owner is super smart guy and knows how to run a business, the girls there super nice and the prices extremely reasonable, very popping place, we had a lot of fun

Nice place for hookah bar with a lot of variety and decent prices

So packed you have nowhere to sit. And no alcohol

Nice chill spot

Friendly staff, plenty of seating, fair pricing

Good Hookah and right next to downtown. Must check out!

It used to be really good and the hookah was amazing. But lately its not all that good.

Everybody is so friendly and nice, especially the staff!  great place to unwind after long day at work..

Except the hookah, you don’t get anything here. You name it, she/he will say they’re out of it or someone just ordered the last piece of it. Its just hookah. Even the food, we got it from McD opposite to this store.

They are open late! Great place to be, place needs a bit of touch up but the hookahs are fun

I want to comment about Noor Issa’s review and confirm that she is very wrong about her opinionI am sure there is something wrong because this place never serve food since they open and they have the best friendly customer serviceI feel bad when somebody try to hurt any businesse for no reason