Dandanah Cafe & Grill

My Brother visited me from Dallas, TX and I took him and his family to Dandanah Café & Grill, and here is what we ordered:
— We started with their Seafood Pie (Feterah) which is my first recommendation for anyone who likes to try the place! It is amazing and you can’t go wrong with this choice!
— Grilled whole Fish Platter:
Authentic Egyptian Grilled fish! it is amazing
— Grilled Quails platter:
A signature Egyptian dish! and it is amazing
Deserts:
— Oum Ali (similar to bread pudding)
— Sugar Pie (Feterah)
— Nutella Pie (Feterah)
My Opinion about the food:
The food is 100% authentic Egyptian food, generous in portions. All bread and pies are baked in house in the oven and are served hot and fresh! The same scenario applies for the rest of the platters!
Environment:
Once you enter the place from outside, waiters /​waitresses will meet you with a greeting to the place and have you seated, they are very happy to serve you and are keen to satisfy your requests timely. They even provide you with a pager that includes a server call button to press on if the waiter /​waitress is busy with other customers, and a request for bill button!
Price:
Prices are reasonable compared to portions and quality.
Hookah!
In my opinion this place is the best place which serves hookah in the greater Houston Area!
I would recommend you try a watermelon hookah with watermelon head!
Putting all of that together, I conclude it is a wonderful place, amazing food and amazing hookah

Hands down the best Egyptian food in town. Service is excellent hookahs are even better. They take extra good care of their customers and are never slow and always very attentive! The sweet fatera is a must!

I had several items from the menu like: Foul, Hummus, Shakshooka, Koshary and the best of them all Pizza!!!
The Pizza is so good you would eat your fingers after. Also, the best breakfast you could order from this restaurant is Shashooka and Hummus. The Hummus here reminds me of home, the koshary kinda does that too.
All in all, this is the best Middle Eastern restaurant I tried in Houston, and I tried a lot of them. Highly recommended restaurant for Americans who want to try authentic Mediterranean food.

Always wanted to try this place, upon entering the room was a pleasent grape scent filled the room from the hooka. All the bread was made fresh all the chips are made fresh. seating inside and outside. The waiter was very sweet and she explained things to us gave us our little indicator to order food. I had gyro and lamb meat it was really tasty, cucumber sauce was very fresh that was on it. The price point is very low for the amount of food that you get its worth the while must try.

Best Classy place in town with a very special menu that offers very unique home made style food and a variety of different kind of drinks, as an Egyptian, this place is little Egypt for me that offers food that you won’t find anywhere else in Houston like Fatayer, Hawawshi, Molokhia, Kebda and much much more and thanks management for bringing my favorite juice. yes they now offer sugar cane juice :)
Keep it up guys

This place is amazing! We get it at least once a week for lunch for the whole office!
The owner is pretty cool as well! He always remembers me. Their hookah is amazing and specially the pineapple bowl. You should try their sweet fateera, it’s one of the best. I would recommend this place to everyone! Oh and it’s BYOB :)

Hands down best customer service and hookah in Houston! Everyone here is always so nice and polite.

I assure that they don’t deserve a one star the food quality is bad I went to many Mediterranean restaurants i didnt have bad food quality at high price like this one I don’t recommend it to anyone. The staff was very rude they didn’t get me what I want my wife got sick from the beef shawarma never go back again.

This place has authentic Egyptian food that’s cooked perfectly… Highly recommended. The service is great and their hookah is awesome

I love this place it’s like true traditional Egyptian food which is the tastiest of all! Everyone one here is very inviting and friendly they make you feel at home ! The belly dancer comes on Saturday after 10 and it can get packed but it’s a lot of fun because we Egyptians love it when there’s a fun party atmosphere!

I compare all Mediterranean to my fav place so I have to say this place wasn’t bad but I’ve had better. They didn’t offer any lunch specials so I spent almost $ 30 for a plate of beef shish, hummus & salad and a side of falafel. The falafel and hummus was the best part. I think I was expecting kabobs but instead it was just a pile of sliced beef similar to regular fajita meat.
The atmosphere is certainly more for the hookah loungers. I was a little disappointed because I had seen the place for a while and really wanted to try it out.
Not bad, I just probably wouldn’t come back.

Great atmosphere. Almost feels like you aren’t in Houston. Ok maybe not. Good servers. If you don’t care for hookah and foreign music/​language, not a place for you. Food was decent. Not overpriced.

I assure that this place doesn’t even deserve one star!!!
Last week, I invited my cousins who just came from overseas. We ordered the food and after 40 minutes of waiting finally! We got our food and that’s not everything! The food was freaking cold, Taste disgusting, and the waitress didn’t even ask us if everything is okay or why don’t you guys eat! We called her to tell her about the food, she took it for another 20 minutes then she brought the same food but this time from microwave! Wooow I felt super embarrassed in front of my cousins! I Also paid 78 $ only for 3 freaking meals and one orange head hookah! i can get the same meals same everything at Wasfis restaurant or mawal café for less price and better quality!!!
Now for the hookah. Orange head is 18 $ plus plastic hose 20 $ plus tax 22 $ plus gratuity 24 $!!! pineapple head is 30 $ plus nothin just by its self! Why. !!! (O.o) Do you guys use gold instead of tobacco !!! I can get better hookah at any hookah bar do you want for less than 17 $ and better quality, come on guys!!!
So expensive so disgusting I rather go to McDonalds than going to Dandanah café & grill!!! Management is ((zero))!!! Sorry but it’s fact…

Came here for the Ramadan iftar and they rolled out the buffet with all the delicious Egyptian food. $ 17.95 a person but it’s all you can eat, which can be a bad thing if like myself you’re weak for Egyptian Kushari, Kofta and Mesagah (however the hell you spell it).
I would have liked more green salads in the mix but I guess that’s what Fadi’s for.
Overall delicious food, like seriously delicious.
Now, to the things I dislike about this place:
Even as an Arab man, I cannot accept having the entire restaurant designated for smoking.
It is a restaurant after all, not a bar. Sheesha is notorious for making your clothes smell for days, and it’s seriously nasty. I’d like to sit and eat in the AC without having to inhale hookah fumes.
Bathroom, well it has a bucket next to the stall as a trash can I guess. Yep a bucket. It seriously could use a renovation.
Restaurant interior, the place has this darkness to it, which some may like. But it just feels kinda unsanitary.
To the management, I seriously hope that you consider putting a non-​smoking area and that you do something about the bathrooms.
Final note that I almost forgot. As this is a buffet that the staff adds to your plate, as opposed to you filling it by yourself. I can’t understand why the management waits until the Maghreb athan to start serving.
You have around 50 customers in the house, if you start at 8:26pm then it’ll be at least 20 minutes before the last person in line gets their food.
It won’t hurt if people start getting their food at 8:15 and wait on their own tables until they hear the athan. That would seriously help reduce the line on the buffet.

As an Arab, it’s completely normal that I’ve tried almost all of the hookah (shisha) places in Houston, but no matter where I go, and how often I may try to change it up, I always end up back at Dandanah. Don’t ask me why, but it’s honestly where I feel at ‘home.’ It’s hard to find a place where you can say that you are friends with the owner. If you go enough times, you expect that people will know your order without you even asking. That’s exactly what happened to me at Dandanah.
Change is good, and I’m all for trying new places and supporting local businesses. But facts are facts — if you want the best shisha in town, you have to make the however-​long-​it-​is-​from-​where-​you-​live drive to Dandanah. My shisha of choice is orange head with orange mint, and I’ve converted many of my friends to the same flavor. Of course, if you’re more traditional and prefer the boring double apple, you can of course find that too, along with a dozen other flavors.
When it comes to the food — I’ll say this, everyone has their own preferences and tastes, but if you want the best off the menu, order anything that comes from the oven. The pizzas are great (I’ve tried the margarita and seafood alfredo pizzas– YUM!) Not just pizzas, they have authentic ‘feteer,’ which is basically bread stuffed with whatever your heart desires. Lots of my friends go for the basterma (pastrami) and gebna (cheese) feteer, and other carnivores go for the meat feteer. You can create your own concoction if you choose to do so, but why fix something if it isn’t broken? Even better, at least for this writer is the sweet feteers: mixed nuts, coconut, powdered sugar, and get this… they even have a NUTELLA feteer. Trust me, you have to try it to understand how good it is. Nutella fanatics rejoice, it doesn’t get better than this.
Come on any given Friday and you will find a live oud (lute) player who sings the best of the famous Arabic tarab and it really sets the mood completely — especially when the night is calm and a cool breeze hits your face, with the shisha on point and your cup of shai (tea) in hand.
Saturdays at 10:30 the belly dancer shows up and the entire restaurant is packed. Honestly I think people go on Saturdays just to see her dance. It’s a lot of fun — my friends and I enjoy each others company, and what’s even funnier is seeing the older generation enjoying the show. Fridays and Saturdays are packed and valet parking is the way to go. (It’s complementary, so you just have to tip them if you want to).
Everyone has their criticisms of Dandanah, but regardless we always end up there because we know that our experience won’t be half as good anywhere else. Trust me, we’ve tried. We ordered tea at another shisha place and the sugar was mixed with salt… yuck. Speaking of tea, Dandanah’s tea is on point — almost every table that is in the restaurant has a pot (or two) of tea and they keep ordering more.
The staff is friendly and will cater to whatever you need, so if the service appears to be slow for whatever reason, trust me it’s much worse at other places. Speaking from experience, there are more important things to appreciate than criticize.
The prices are reasonable, the outdoor patio is awesome (especially in the summer), and the fun times I’ve had at Dandanah make it more special.
I hope the readers have a good experience at Dandanah.
Tell Hasem Amal sent you and enjoy.

So where do I even start with this place. I have been a regular for almost 2 years now and definitely have had my ups and downs with Dandanah. The one thing that keeps me coming back to this place is the hookah, I personally think its the best in Houston and have tried all of the other spots in the area. I recommend getting Grape Mint in an Orange. Other thing that Dandanah has going for itself is the fact that you can smoke Hookah indoors. Not many places offer that so if its too hot or too cold outside, sitting inside with an excellent ventilation system is a definite plus.
The food is also hit or miss here. Because of their brick oven, the pizzas here are pretty good, especially the Beef Pepperoni. The mixed grill platter is pretty good too.
Another good thing is that on the weekends they have valet for their customers. Their parking lot can get pretty busy so its very convenient.
Now lets talk about the downs. The staff here changes weekly it seems. One week you have exceptional service and the next a whole new staff arrives and doesn’t know how to serve. For being a regular for 2 years, there’s a level of service I expect and they definitely don’t deliver. Not to mention that Dandanah will automatically put gratuity on your bill regardless if you’re with 6 people or even ALONE! Definitely one of my pet peeves cause I would tip way more if the gratuity wasn’t already included.
Another thing, you have to pay for water. They only have bottles of Ozarka and they cost $ 1.50. Oh and make sure to never order a soda here. They will give you a 12oz can of soda and charge you $ 3.50! That’s like over a 500% markup! RIDICULOUS!
Though I have cut down on going to Dandanah, the hookah will for sure keep me coming back.

This establishment really deserves NO STARS AT ALL…
If you value good food and good service STAY AWAY FROM.
Dandanah café & grill
Mediterranean Restaurant located on 2707 Fountain View Dr, Houston, TX 77 057.
I am sick tonight from bad fish that I unfortunately purchased from there! My stomach aches and I won’t be surprised if I throw up later!
The servers seem more opt to serve/​tend to the customers of their own culture more frequent rather than tend to customers outside of their culture. I personally watched a Caucasian family wait FOREVER TO BE WAITED ON. This is the second time getting a taste of that as well but that family got it the worst!
I don’t give a d*mn if I AM NOT from your country. You will respect me in mine!
I’m a paying customer.

My first visit here. I had heard about it and figured I would try it since my first choice did not open till 2:00. Seemed like when I arrived the crowd was very slim. Took a little while to even get seated.
I finally received a menu and thought the prices seemed a little higher than other places offering the same thing. I opted for the Beef Shawarma plate which come with 2 sides. I usually always order water with my meal because I need to drink it. To my surprise I was given a room temp Ozarka bottle with no glass of ice. So. they charge for ALL beverages.
Before eating. I had to visit the men’s room. I noticed an employee after finishing his business (trying to be polite) did not even bother to stop and wash his hands. Luckily he was not a cook or serving food. BUT STILL!!! He evidently was arranging the Hooka setups for people. Still NOT good.
Finally I get my food. The texture of the meat looked different. Gristle like. It lacked flavor, but the hot sauce kind of helped some. Rice was okay and hummus was acceptable. Bread was to thick in texture. Not sure if they made it there are not. Service was just slow. The Bill ran probably about $ 7 higher than other places I could get the same thing .
I hate to be so critical, but I will not be going back. Too many other places I can get Beef Shawarma that tastes better. PLUS free water. I cannot really say that it was even a solid effort. Plus their help or that one needs a lesson in hygiene.

Amazing place. Great Egyptian authentic food. Always adding different new plates to the menu.
Nice atmosphere and location. Great hookah. Friendly staff and the owners are
Very friendly and caring.
Very authentic traditional bakery, baking fresh great Egyptian traditional bread.

the easiest meal that they could possibly do, «chicken shish kabob» tasted like regular grilled chicken with typical rice nothing special.
My goodness. my stomach hurt eating their food and their seasoning isn’t good at all! I’m so sad because they didn’t even have salmon kabob which what I normally eat and I took a bite of the chicken and stopped eating it right after.
Easy to order to go though, they pick up calls quick and orders usually are ready within 15 minutes.