Sahara Citi

Coming from California, we’re pretty big on hookah, so of course, when we visit New York, we would want to find a good spot. After visiting a few that were not that great, we finally decided to try this place, and we were not disappointed. Not only was the owner very friendly and generous, the hookah ripped too. The prices of the hookah and the drinks were great. It’s located right next to NYU and you could tell that this place is a regular spot for students who keep coming for the great hookah. Strongly recommended if you are looking for a chill place to come with friends and hang out. The owner was very accommodating and took care of us as if we were regulars.

Decent hookah bar around Union Square. It is a *bar*, so there are drinks and things like that (I hear the sangria is quite good), but the downside to it not being a *lounge* is that the seating is generally a bit uncomfortable. I feel like it’d be better to relax on some couches, like a lot of other hookah places in Manhattan seem to have, but this was minor. The hookah itself is typically pretty good and lasts a good long time. Prices are pretty average for hookah. The staff isn’t the nicest and the ambience isn’t the chillest for a hookah bar, but on the flip side the place is never really that crowded.

The tables were sticky and I felt like the guys that worked there had a «police» vibe — probably because the crowd seems to be on the younger side. It seemed like a great place if you’re a college kid but if you’re not its a little too low key with dumpy drinks (ex sangria that tasted like a combo of franzia and sangria mix) and the tables weren’t comfortable — any other hookah place I’ve been to has better seating for more of a lounge feel. I won’t count the random pillow next to me towards comfortable seating.

Came in on Halloween. Lounge was crowded but not packed.
Pitchers of beer are $ 20 but better by the glass unless premium beers. Premiums equal Stella or Hoegarden.
RG3 for mayor.

Great for a calm night out! The décor could use some work. It’s fun though. Good hookah

My boyfriend and I are interning here for the summer, and struggled for the first couple of weeks trying to find a hookah lounge that matched the one we had back at home. Sahara is that place. It’s located conveniently around the corner from our NYU dorm, and the owner is a HUGE believer in the fact that the customer should always get what they want. They are fantastic at changing coals, doctoring your hookah, and have quick, great service over all.
Also, they just make sure you’re taken care of. They know my boyfriend and I are regulars (at least while we are here), and I got really sick the last time we were there and they were more than helpful in getting me fresh air, liquids, and a chair.
Essentially, great service, customer satisfaction, and oh yeah. GREAT smoking hookah.

Wonderful place with great staff and reasonably priced items. Loved every minute here, would love to spend everyday here. Can be both relaxing and entertaining depending on the time of week. Lively crowd and faithful loyal customers.

If I could I would give this place zero stars. Seems like a nice place but once we were seated we received NO service. A waiter came over after we were sitting for a while and asked if we had menus. We did not! Then after we had ordered drinks and hookah, we kept on waiting… and waiting. A table that came After us received their hookah first. When we asked about ours, we were told ours was coming. Ten minutes later our waiter took the hookah from the table next to us After they had smoked it to us and said they had accidentally given to the wrong table. They didn’t understand when we said that we didn’t want one that was used already. Nobody came to ask if we wanted more drinks. Never coming here again. Worst customer service ever!!!

This place is a joke.
I went there with my friend to enjoy a nice evening of hookah… From outside the place looked strangely empty and we couldn’t tell if it was open or not. Apparently it was open but the atmosphere was far from pleasant. Interior is cheap looking and the menu absolutely ridiculous. Coffee, tea, cappuccino, soda, all for the same price ($ 5)…which doesn’t make any sense.
Very amateur and unfriendly staff too. If you can, avoid this place!

Was kind of confused by the fact that when we walked in there were about 15 open tables and yet we were seated RIGHT NEXT to the door (like I could lean over and touch it with my hand). Can’t speak to the quality of the hookah as I’m 6 months pregnant (though, apparently not one to discriminate, the waiter offered me his recommendation). Wasn’t too smoky when we went though and the hookah from the surrounding tables had a rather pleasant scent. A particularly boisterous group was seated shortly after us in the adjacent corner and every 10 minutes a couple of them would go leave the HOOKAH BAR to go outside for a cigarette break (a thing I have always found confusing but which specifically peeved me this night because we got blasted with cold air every time they walked in or out thanks to the awkward seating arrangements mentioned earlier).
They were out of lamb. So I just ordered hummus and babbaghanoush (forgive the spelling but you know what I’m talking about). Which took them 30 minutes to bring out. Now unless he was harvesting the chickpeas from some hydroponic garden in the back and hand grinding them with mortar and pestle before serving the dish, there is no reason raw food should take that long to prepare. Hummus was basic at best and babbaghanoush was subpar. Highlight of the experience for me was the hibiscus tea which was delicious even without any sweeteners.
Having budgeted out about 45 minutes to eat, we ended up missing our movie around the corner when ordering/​meal/​check took over an hour. Never again.

This review compares other hookah establishments in New York, particularly East Village. Sahara is casual and comfortable. It has barely any heat it seems, but the service is quick and adds its reward on your bill as «service charge.»
We had the watermelon hookah which was fine– light, not too sweet and strong. Wines we had were the usual you expect at a hookah lounge. To change this place up, I’d recommend playing some authentic music or less of the Adele I heard! I’d give this somewhere between a 2 – 3, but I still like Kazuza for hookah in the neighborhood for the hookah, ambiance, and quality of drinks/​food.

question: where do you go when your co-​workers are a lil tipsy after a company holiday party? answer: hookah.
all my co-​workers were stumbling around Flatiron trying to figure out where to go on a MONDAY for fun times. i suggested hookah and all of them were game. now, the mission was to find a hookah place nearby with decent reviews and a prime location. we were thinking about east village… but closer to the L train. Sahara Citi popped up on my radar and i remember visiting the place a while back.
we greeted by the owner immediately. probably because they literally opened up their doors as we came in. LOL. we ordered my favorite, Rose, Jasmine and Pina Colada. the rose was magnificent as usual. we were there for a couple of hours puffing on shisha and drinking lots of red sangria. the service was great… and as we danced around and made ourselves comfortable, more customers came walking through the door and packed the place up.

I’ve been here twice, and both times have been really bad experiences. Hookah was either harsh or didn’t pull, and the service was terrible. We were seated, weren’t even given menus for the first 10 minutes we were there, and our order wasn’t taken until 10 minutes after that. After ordering, it took 30 minutes to get our hookah. The excuse we were given was, «it’ll take a while, he’s making a lot of hookahs.» BS. Pretty much everyone in the lounge already had their hookahs, including a table that had ordered after us. Nobody was there to change the coals and it took forever to find someone to try and «fix» the hookah. It wasn’t until we asked for the check that they decided to pay attention to our table and bring us new hookahs.
Also, there is about 0 ventilation in this place. The hookah was so bad that I only took about 3 – 4 puffs, yet I left the place feeling like I had smoked for 2 hours. The place has ONE bathroom, so if you’re there at a crowded time, be prepared to wait 10 minutes for that. The only reason I decided to give this place another chance was because it is the closest hookah lounge to where I live. Won’t be making that mistake again — I’ll gladly walk the extra half-​mile to get some quality service and hookah.

I’ve been here 3 or 4 times, not because I wanted to, but because it’s a block away from where I live.
The hookah itself is pretty great (recommend mint!), but the service and atmosphere are lacking. The servers are barely around. I wanted water, and he never came with it. This happened on two occasions. The sangria is also watered down, so although fruity, tastes pretty bland.
I’ve never ordered food there, but I’m not expecting much.
Definitely not my favorite spot to go, but because it’s so conveniently located, I don’t mind!

Seriously? If you enjoy a total lack of customer service and waitress attentiveness, and an unfriendly and unwelcoming attitude, go to this place. It is great for overcharging for bland and boring chicken and a waitress who literally disappeared with NEVER any follow up.
I work hard for my money. I hate to spend it out on a place that serves crap food AND has lousy service. Be smart, take your business elsewhere.

Haven’t been here at night or anything but I stumbled upon Sahara Citi on my Unilocal app after looking for a hookah place within walking distance of Union Sq. I came in and was welcomed by the hostess and I was craving hookah.
With the combined effects of a stressful week, the sake of killing time, and wanting to relax after a long day of walking, I plopped myself down at the nearest seat and ordered a mixed grape and mint hookah. Their hookahs are quite good and aren’t harsh at all. This makes a huge difference because I’ve had quite a few hookahs where they were hitting too harshly and left me sounding like a man the next day. SC is nice because it doesn’t have that club-​y feel and it’s more of tables, chairs, and just chilling instead of gyrating bodies flying into your hookah. This place is NOT byob to my knowledge because a couple tried to bring a bottle of wine and they ended up drinking it on the street. (The owner and waitress somehow provided them with plastic cups.) Now, c’mon.how accommodating is THAT?
I’d come back because not only was there attentive service and frequent coal changing happening but because the owner is really nice and makes sure all his customers are attended to. I’m not the only one to sing the praises of Sahara Citi but there was another man who was sitting there eating who swore up and down that this was the «BEST» hookah in the city of New York and ate here frequently because of the customer service.
Definitely recommend for a nice, chill night.

Sahara Citi was clean, modern, and made a really good hookah– one of the better ones I’ve had in NYC. Our waitress didn’t really speak English, but made up for it by being really cheerful (just below the threshold where it becomes annoying) and hard to dislike or tip badly.
When I went on a Friday, it was quiet and pretty dead, which I regard as a good thing. There’s no liquor license, and I can’t speak to the quality of the food. Hookah was pretty inexpensive, tasty, and smooth.
There was Kurdistani TV playing the whole time, with some sort of hidden camera reality show. I don’t know about now, but it was hilarious when slightly oxygen-​deprived from the hookah.

We were actually looking to go to a different hookah bar but once we heard it was a $ 20 minimum per guest, I turned to Unilocal.Glad I found this place. No liquor yet because they just opened, but no minimum! $ 15 hookah (no charge for mixing flavors) that smoked smooth, great friendly and attentive staff, and good food. They play top 40 in the background, which is helpful when you get sleepy from the hookah. It also attracts the NYU crowd, so you can expect a lot of college kids there over the weekends.
One of the girls that works there, maybe hostess? is incredibly sweet! She stopped by to chat to us multiple times, told us the best things to order, and made sure we were taken care of. I actually think that almost every person who worked there stopped by our table to chat and make sure our hookah was smoking well and that we were happy. It was my friend’s first time smoking and she loved it!

Last Saturday, I went to this new one in Lower East Village, Sahara Citi. It’s a Middle Eastern hookah bar /​restaurant on 13^th St b/​w 2^nd and 3^rd avenue. As usual, I ordered a mixed mint hookah: this time, a mint and vanilla mix (so glad they didn’t charge a mix extra-​charge like other places). Natural coals, Namoor hose, Khalil Mamoon hookah, delicious. For food, I went for the chicken shwarma. I particularly like the prices, especially when you account for the quality and giant quantity of rice and salad.
This place is quite awesome. The manager ensured my satisfaction with everything, as it should be (I’ve been finding customer service to be under-​valued in other hookah establishments). When looking for a hookah bar, I’d definitely recommend this place for any enthusiast!

I finally had a chance to stop here today. I noticed it opened a few weeks ago. It’s situated conveniently right across the street from coffee central, aka Everyman Espresso.
I ordered a tabouli salad from her togo today. It was very very fresh, and hit the spot for my slight lunchtime hunger.
Definitely want to come back here and try a hookah.
It’s an unusual block to have a restaurant, as there aren’t any others around, so I really hope that doesn’t slow them down. Excellent food!