Forget Marlboro Lights – in the Muslim world, all the cool kids smoke shisha. In a bid to copy them, many of Ireland’s more adventurous holidaymakers return home with a hankering for another go of that flavoured smoke pipe thing. But can a hookah be had at home? JOE went on the shisha hunt in Dublin to find out.
By Robert Carry
Tea Garden
Location: 7 Lower Ormond Quay, Dublin 1
The Tea Garden (not to be confused with the infamous Tea Gardens in Sydney’s Bondi Junction so beloved by the city’s GAA- jersey-on-a-night-out contingent), is actually well worth a look even if you’re not after a shot of the pipe. The tables are set low with pillows around them to sit on and the décor makes it look like something you’d find hidden away in an Eastern souk.
As the name suggests, this place is all about tea. They have what has to be the widest range to be found in the city with not a Barry’s teabag in sight.
If you order a cup of tea the price of a go on the shisha pipe comes in at €9.90, and each pipe is limited to three persons. If you’re going in just to get your smoke on, you’re looking at a still pretty reasonable €13. They come in a range of flavours including apple, pineapple, sweet lime, blueberry, strawberry, blackberry, mixed fruit, vanilla, mango, peach, raspberry, orange, rose, water melon and sweet melon. For an extra Euro, you can have your pipe iced.
Click here for more information.
Amir’s Delights
Location: 5 Blooms Lane, Ormond Quay
This Moorish-style café sits in a particularly multicultural part of the city – with Italian restaurants, a Korean supermarket, a Turkish food outlet and some hippie shop selling beanbags for neighbours.
Amir’s Delights isn’t just restricted to shisha – it also serves up a number of other hard-to-get favourites of the Muslim world. They do a cracking line in fresh mint tea, which comes in a silver teapot and is drank from a small, leaf-lined glass, Turkish coffee, which you’re not supposed to finish because the coffee grinds remain in the bottom of the glass, as well as a range of Tunisian patisseries.
While the ban has forced our native smokers to pull miserably on their John Player Blue in the drizzle outside the front door of their chosen drinking establishment, the legislation only affects tobacco products meaning sisha smoking is exempt.
The price of a go of a pipe at Amir’s comes in at €10.
Click here for more info.
Rotana Café
Location: 31 South Richmond Street, Portobello
This place used to be one half of Christy Bird’s antique shop but as its latest incarnation, it has become a prominent meeting point for the city’s Palestinian and Lebanese communities.
The Palestinian owner has put together a menu of traditional dishes from the region featuring the likes of manakeesh, foul medammes and lamb kefta. The food comes with a good reputation and has won the café a place on the Dubliner’s list of 100 best restaurants.
If you’re up that way at lunchtime, you could do worse than stopping by for a homemade falafel – they comes in at a cheaper-than-McDonalds €5.40, with chips for an extra Euro.
But even if you’re not hungry, you can still darken its doorway in the hunt for the shisha it provides, which again comes in range of different flavours. It will set you back €10 with a meal or €12 without. However, staff tell us that they only serve shisha outside.
Click here for more information.
Shisha Man
Location: Everywhere
Like some sort of Islamic superhero, Shisha Man stands ready to assist those who can’t be bothered trekking from one side of the city to the other in the hunt for a shisha fix.
Targeting mostly functions and events, this Irish-owned company will drop the pipes right to your door with a shisha operator on hand to assist while you get your smoke on. They also extend well beyond the city limits and will deliver to anywhere in the Leinster region.
The most basic one-pipe package comes with two single-hose Arabian style shisha pipes, an unlimited supply of mouth tips, charcoal and flavours of your choice. The Shisha assistant prepares the pipes on site while giving advice on how to best enjoy the Shisha experience. The chap is willing to hang around for a full three hours from the time the Shisha is served.
Not a bad bet for a party, the package comes in at €180.
Click here for more information.
