Nara Cafe & Hookah Lounge

I wish I could give this place NO STAR! SO Rude, unprofessional, DISGUSTING and the SHORT five foot NOTHING bouncer that had an EGO taller than he is, was the most disrespectful human being I have ever came across! Not only did he call me a Bitch numerous times, he also threatened me Saying he was going to PUNCH MY TEETH IN! All I did was give him my ID. Get it together Nara STAFF!

Horrible!
Mainly this applies to only one «security guard» named Pat. He took advantage to mistreat & disrespect people who are loyal customers the minute the owner wasn’t present. Can you say power trip? It was excruciating! I will never go there ever again (until Pat leaves.) I will continue to spread the word. I hear the owner and everyone else is a nothing but a pleasure. It is sad that one person can ruin it for all.

Best hookah lounge ever! Super hookah menu! Staff is exceptional! Berry mint with ice hose.

Apparently this place is quite popular. We walked in around midnight on a Friday… well… we walked up… and then waited in line. I wasn’t sure what the line was for, because there was clearly no space anywhere for anyone to sit. When it was our turn to be seated, we were led to a table where there were 6 people already seated… they were two different groups… with us, there were 3 different groups sitting at one table… it was a little strange. The service was decent, out waitress was very attentive. The hookah was just ok… not too great, not bad either. The prices weren’t bad either. a hookah and 4 drinks for $ 60. The music was good. Aside from awkwardly having to share a booth with a couple that was all over each other, and two couples who seemed like they were on their first date, it was fine. The guy manning the bathroom door was nice enough to let me into the men’s room because I really had to go! And the bathroom was surprisingly clean!

Went to this place with a group of friends. Seriously the worst service I’ve ever had! I try to give everyone the benefit of doubt, but this was uncalled for… none of us were mean, needy, rude, nothing. They stood around in a circle (as I pictured) and we could hear them complaining about us [group was at the table, and 4 of us were at the bar.] Instead of waiting on us and doing their job they just gave us faces, attitude, and stood with their backs to us. Obviously a large group with separate tickets are going to tip you rather well, why wouldn’t you be nice?!
I, and my friends, will never go back, and suggest you avoid this place.
The owner needs to care a bit more and fix the problem, because he’s going to start losing a lot of business… with service like this, it’s inevitable.

Seriously this place is awful. We had reservations for 15 and when we walked in with 16 ppl our server seemed annoyed. She frowned the whole time and only came around to check on us every 20 minutes. We frequently tried to get drinks at the bar with cash because all our drinks were empty but they refused us saying that we had to wait on our server. Once ms. Negative Nancy came around she shook her head in anger again and again as we ordered, we were ordering beer (very easy customers). Any more negativity and I feel like I’m bashing this place but seriously the manager of the place needs to reevaluate whether his staff would like to serve the paying customers or frown in the back room and complain about the opportunity to make more money

Don’t go here, unless you want horrible service. I was so disappointed with the server I had last Saturday night. It was a very busy place, but my group was still waiting much longer, even given the busy circumstances. 20 minutes after we finally got seated a couple was brought to our table to sit there too… without the server asking if that was alright. After we asked for the check we waited 15 – 20 minutes for the check. My friend was also told the wrong prices & got charged for more than what she was expecting. I’ll never come back here again.

This is my go to place on a Friday nights. The hookah is great they have a wide range of flavors, drinks are great the environment is wonderful everyone is there to have fun I love it. On the other hand if you come too late the wait is forever and sometimes you wont be able to have a seat. I also will say that they need to hire a couple more servers because once they leave your area it’ll be awhile before they come back because its so busy, so I prefer to sit at the bar. Music switches up every now and then which I love and sharing booth is pretty good I always have fun meeting new people.

The service here is so bad it’s almost funny. It was slow, unfriendly, unprofessional, just really bad lol. The hookah is fine. They have lots of fun flavors, which is great but they don’t pack the shush a very well and they never come around with fresh coals. I am a DC area native and I used to frequent authentic, middle-​eastern owned, alcohol-​free establishments so I know about hookah. This is neither good hookah, nor a good business.

As far as hookah bars go, this is the one. It is definitely one of my favorite places to go. The drinks are «priced to sell» and the hookahs are delicious. «Ree’s mix» is the best hookah on the menu if you ask me. Their happy hour before 7 is great and hookahs are half price, so if you want to try it out for the first time, that would be the time to come. The staff are really laid back and not all phony like in mist bars, and if you take the time to actually talk to them you will find out they are really cool people.

Great spot on a busy Washington ave street to begin or end your night. Unlike places in Chicago this places has a full bar and serves hookah till 3am. On busy nights the wait can be bad and prepare to share booths with others. Thy have drink specials and that are pretty good compared to the other wash ave places. Ps Missy’s mix and missy th

Pretty chill place, plenty of drink options and specials everyday. I don’t recommend that one should attend on Friday and Saturdays due to the fact that it is so crowded and therefore the service wasn’t that great! Went yesterday with friends and had to share a booth with some random people. Sundays are much more laid back and wayyy less crowded. If you’re looking for a more intimate night of hookah, definitely go on Sunday.

Well, bad service can truly destroy a decent place. We had the worst experience here. We arrived just after 7, ordered a hookah and a few drinks from a scowling waitress who took forever to wait on us despite a nearly empty store, and tried our very best to enjoy our night. Drinks were eternally slow, service was always with a frown, and while our coals were stoked regularly, we still failed to experience the relaxation traditionally associated with hookahs. When the place started to get busy we squished together to invite new arrivals standing in the entry to sit nearby, and had fun chatting with them and making fun of the angry waitress. After finally flashing down our waitress to ask for the check, it was delivered 20 minutes later, and apparently 16 min after 10 pm, which meant we were automatically charged 18% gratuity. This extra fee also came with a few extra drinks tacked onto our bill, which, unsurprisingly were very painful to get removed.
They do have delicious shisha flavors, and sweet tea vodka (my favorite alcohol), but beware the extra charges and the unfriendly faces!

I was looking forward to coming to Nara Café for so long because of the raving
reviews it received here on Unilocal.Now that I’ve went and had an atrociously disappointing experience, I am utterly confused. Either that, or this place is hit or miss. In this case, it’s definitely the latter.
This place does one thing really well, and that is serving terrible hummus. The hummus plate we ordered was awful. I mean, the texture and flavor were both just so, so off. Now, I love hummus; it’s one of my all time favorite foods. I like my hummus to be smooth, creamy, and delicious, not clumpy, bland, and tasteless. I mean seriously, it had 0 flavor. It was as if someone mashed up a bunch of canned chickpeas straight from the can and put it on a plate. I felt sorry for the blob of hummus in the tiny little plate they gave us. So sorry that I kept forcing myself to eat it, especially since it was a bit pricey. They should really consider giving this item another name because it really is not hummus (as least not hummus done properly).
The hookah was okay, but was overpriced (as was the food). Save your money, and for God’s sake, please spare your taste buds.

This was my 1^st time there. LOVED IT! Excellent drinks, amazing hookah experience. I will be back :)

Went here for the first time about 2 weeks ago. It was pretty busy the night I was there, which was a Friday night. The group I was with was fairly large (12 people) and as the night wore on, we were told that we took up too many tables. We were using 3 tables and paid for each of them along with 2 hookahs going at all times. Outside of that bit of concern, the service wasn’t too bad. We always had drinks at the table and the guy that brought the coals around was really fast and friendly. I also learned that you can buy one of their hookahs if you really like them.
Overall, not bad but I would like to see what else there is to see in St Louis for a hookah lounge. I’ve seen better and I’ve seen worse. Prices were a little higher than I expected given the condition of the bar.

My personal favorite hookah bar in St.Louis. Good drink and music selection. Hookah is top notch. When it gets really busy on the weekend you might be waiting a while for you waiter but for the most part, they take really good care of you there.

It’s a good place to come hookah at. I actually went in the afternoon, but something to take note of is that you need to be 21+ to enter after a certain hour at night.
Décor: Dark and a grungy. They have a nicely sized place with booths/​tables and a bar. It’s not the cleanest of places, but that doesn’t bother me too much.
Service: Well, we were one of 2 tables there, hah, and while she did come by, we had to go to the bar to get the check, so service was a bit slow.
Hookah: I liked their hookah! I had a good time just sitting there and relaxing. We weren’t rushed or anything so that was great.
Overall: I’d come back here if I wanted to hookah around the area. It’s not my first choice place, but I’m not too picky at where I smoke at.

A decent place to hookah on Washington Avenue if you want to change up your nightly activity. I will warn you that it definitely gets super crowded on the weekends.
Some things I took note of:
–Friendly, cool staff. The servers are super nice and they give you quick service. Also when you order hookah, there’s a guy that comes by to change the goal from time to time.
–They have a great selection of flavors for hookah.
–i love the belly dancer
–Horrible speakers that will blow out your eardrum.
–The DJ plays music from the top 40’s and likes to switch it up with some Middle Eastern music which is pretty cool
–The whole place is small and they have gross bathrooms (i guess the gross bathrooms aren’t their faults because it’s usually the drunk idiots who keeps peeing all over the toilet seats)
–Unique crowd with a mix of decent people and douchebags
It could be better or it could be worse.

A nice hookah lounge in the heart of Washington. When we first got there, the ambiance was perfect. Throughout the entire time we were constant checked on by a friendly waitress who got us anything we needed immediately after we asked.
However, after a certain time the mood changed and it turned into a club-​like atmosphere with those who came from the clubs nearby. The music changed accordingly and the mellow mood my group was in was kind of lost when they switched it to top 40 dance music. Hmf.