Xhale — Restaurant in New York

i dont want to be super mean and put one star but this place is rather small. My gf and I went into this place once and for the first time walking by the music was pretty loud and it seemed like a nice place to go. We pulled up to the spot and took out our ids and the bouncer looked real hard at me and the picture on my id and unfortunatelty my id has me with no glasses on and when we went i had glasses on as well as a beard so I was ready to dip if he didnt let us in. I told him that the picture was taken a long time ago and its not fake what so ever even though he scanned it. Finally he decides to let us in and BOY! the place was mad small. As soon as you walk in there are little tables and booths where you can sit down but they had reserved table cards placed on them meanwhile it wasnt even that crowded. The female host escorts us to a table where we were right in front of the dj. Have to admit there was no need for the music to be on full blast in such a tiny place. We order the hookah and before you get the hookah you have to pay. The price....25 dollars i think and for what? When i ordered the hookah i must of waited maybe 20 minutes tops for it and then I see the female host smoking and Im like it must be nice that she gets one and to come and find out, she was smoking the one I bought. I only know this because she comes over after a few puffs and says OMG I'm so sorry i thought someone bought this for me but i realized that this one was yours. SERIOUSLY!!!! I can make better hookahs in my house using what i have than this place. The couple that was next to me ordered another head for the hookah and he payed almost the same amount probably a little less for a refill. If you would of made the hookah correctly you wouldnt have to charge a crazy amount but i guess its just for buisness. The hookah was horrible and Ive been to hookah lounges and had better but this one was straight up trash. Only giving this place two stars because the music was pretty good. Never again am I coming back...

Today was my first time at xhale. I wanted to come here for some time now since I used to work across the street. Me and my boyfriend went in for lunch. We were the only customers at the time. Philly with sweet potato fries was great but....that's the only positive experience I had there today. Food was served in plastic baskets. We didn't receive plates or silverware. I had to look for a server to get a fork (it was a plastic fork not very classy ). We also had to ask for coals. Anything that we needed we had to get up and find our server. I'm a server myself and never experienced such bad service. Not to mention the 25$ hookah wasn't good. It tasted burnt with no flavor. I go to a hookah bar in Bay Ridge where hookah is amazing and half the price. Noone ever checked on us,not even once. I had to wave to a server (his name was Harry as apeared on the bill)while he was sitting on the couch smoking hookah while on his phone the whole time. Finally when I received my bills took him another 10 mins to come and get my card (which ended up being declined even tho I have funds in my account ). But what really mad me upset the most was the %20 forced gratuity on my bill. Now I know why you add it. Otherwise Noone would make any money in this place for such horrible customer service. Last but not least: I read other reviews about this place and it's funny how the owner answers to negative reviews as if they are fake. Why would anybody(in this case many people ) take their time to say something bad about your business? Makes no sense to me. Never coming back. If your reading my review I recommend you go to one of the hookah bars...

After further considerations, I can't give this lounge 4 stars since I always find myself choosing to smoke hookah on steinway. It wouldn't make sense to rate it higher than the places I frequent more often when I choose to smoke outside of my house. As I've said in a previous review, the hookah at xhale is fine, it was enjoyable. But why pay so much when I can pay $10 for a hookah that I will enjoy just as much if not more? As I've also said in my previous review, there's no such thing as an excellent hookah when it comes to the nyc hookah scene. So when comparing lounges of equal merit it comes down to price point.

Another reason for my revised review is the fact that the music is unnecessarily loud in such a small venue. It's personally not my cup of tea and biscuits.

On a side note to the owner: 1) it would not cost $50 a hookah if you tried to keep up with the new innovations that the west coast has embraced 2) San diego and San Francisco don't have higher rents than austin street? Don't make me laugh. Some places in cali are more expensive than the most expensive parts of nyc. 3) vortex bowls are made of cheap ceramics, made in china. You were probably smoking fumes for the 6 out of 7 hours (ceramic has terrible heat retention so instead of properly baking the tobacco from the bottom up you're creating a thin crusty top layer too quickly thus preventing the heat to travel throughout the bowl properly). I highly recommend stoneware clay phunnel bowls 4) your responses kind of insulted my intelligence. Al Fakher doesn't make Pumpkin Pie or Blue Mist.......