Sahara Hookah Cafe — Restaurant in Raleigh

Great place. It's comfy, being semi-outside means your conversations aren't 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 don't 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, doesn't 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 I'm poor and felt guilty that I couldn't 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 he's some kind of cleric or paladin. Either way he made my day.

TL;DR—Just come here and chill. It's great. You're 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. He's too good...

9/30/2011 - I'm 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 you're a "special" customer. By second class I mean at Sahara you get: Turkish coffee in paper cups instead of china cups UNLESS you're a "special" customer; your charcoal allowed to completely go out and you have to ask for replenishment several times UNLESS you're a "special" customer and your charcoal is always refilled; no servers checking to see if you need beverage refills UNLESS you're a "special" customer; no sitting on the sofas (only the tables and chairs) UNLESS you're 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...

My 1st time visiting on Saturday 11/12/22. Definitely the go to for after hours, if you don't mind them being overpriced. Not sure why there was a $10 cover on top of my $42 hookah. I enjoyed the ambiance of the venue. Quieter in the outer room where one can enjoy conversation. Then there is an inner room where one can enjoy diverse rap/hip-hop and dance responsibly (don't knock the hookah over)! Giving 3 stars because the hours say until 5 am Saturday, I arrived/ ordered around 3:45 am, got my hookah around 4:15 am with no coals, waited another maybe 8 to 10 minutes for coals and tips. Finally, enjoying my hookah until about 4:30 when one of the men helping run the place shouted "Everybody get out!" I got maybe 10 minutes out of my $42 hookah, which is a shame because it was really the best hookah I've had in a while (white peach get that one). It was going so well...very bad taste to kick everyone out so abruptly after I waited patiently...with 30 minutes to spare and only having enjoyed a few puffs of the expensive hookah. Might not return if I'm expected to throw money away like that on the 1st experience!?...