Café Gitana

The service was great and kind. I think you get 3 coals, I don’t remember, but definitely not 1 because some places do offer solely 1 coal. The baklava was great! Drinks are kind of expensive, I don’t agree with the prices since I’ve drank the same drinks for cheaper (ex. Sex on the Beach). I’ve been smoking shisha for 4 – 5 years and explored many hookah places near me, and it was the first hookah lounge/​bar/​café that I’ve been to in MTL, and I could say it was such a great experience.

The Good: Absolutely friendly staff that are well informed too! The shisha was not bad either. Personally my favourite was the watermelon mint, while not overpowering at all, the shisha felt clean and well maintained and did not taste anything other than what I paid for. I also love how long and roomy the couches are, they provide enough room to truly relax and enjoy the shisha.
The Bad: Not sure if it was just me, but personally I felt that the food was lacking. They do not have much variety of anything to eat, mostly deserts.
The Ugly: While the couches are pretty roomy they are not the most comfortable, some spots smell a bit…
Overall experience: Defiantly one of the better shisha lounges, in Montréal if not the best! Would definitely recommend going here for any occasion.

Cool smoky atmosphere, but slow service, not enough food on the menu (just desserts), and they don’t use real charcoal for the hookah. But it is a nice place to hangout and catch up with friends. I’m Not a fan, but it is not a bad place.

I cant go any lower than 1 star otherwise they deserve –5. The worst shisha i ever had. I paid 23 $ for a piece of garbage. The shish tape all over the hose. I asked them to change it because it was very very heavy they took it back after 5 min they got me back the same shisha. I do not recommend it to any one ! don’t waste ur money. Go somewhere else

As a Turkish person, obviously I’m going to be a fan. They have turkish music, turkish tea (my favorite), turkish food, and shisha! It’s an experience to go here. I didn’t know that they have a terrace, it’s beautiful, and relaxing. The terrace is on St. Denis street, with a nice view and you could just enjoy your shisha outdoor.
As for shisha I suggest melon and mint; it’s a great combination in my opinion. Only melon is also nice too tho.
The only thing is that I hope they start using real coal, instead of the round thing they put, coal is way better then that one but still I’d go back there for sure!

Desserts were whatever, service was really poor. Waitresses were wack, dropped coal on friend. Then asked us if we had a pen to sign the check, and rolled her eyes when we didnt. I didn’t know this was a BYOP establishment.

We never had a problem until they overcharged us and didn’t give us a receipt. Based on the menu prices, we calculated (by adding tax etc) and it just didn’t add up whatsover. We asked them again how much the shisha was and then they told us a different price from what was on the menu, which, if calculated with tax, still didn’t add up. Simply a dishonest and quite sketchy way to run a business.

Nice hookah place, great seating and levels indoors. Specialty and seasonal beers, strong cigar selection and friendly albeit distant staff.

Amazing hookah & shisha bar with awesome manager and staffs, that you won’t get around this area! The bar is very accommodating to everyone. Best to go out ! Even according to
, Gitana is one of the best shisha place in the greater Montréal area! Anyone who is in town and wants have hookah & cigars or drinks, must be go in this oriantelistic place ! Mega clean and laid back atmosphere! Good for groups, a date or a night out with a friend. Such a great place! A+++

Let me start it of correctly. Being a 1^st time visitor in this wonderful city, after researching off the hook on Unilocal I figured Café Gitana would be amazing for my friend who does not drink alcohol and only smokes an occasional cigar. We went it around 8:30pm and was confused on where we should go. We waited about 4 minutes before being acknowledged. A younger lady handed us menus and said sit wherever. We chose to go a short flight of stairs. We waited another 10 minutes before she came to take our order.
I don’t really do hookah unless I’m with the right group but my friend Bry was fixed on a good cigar. The young lady asked us what we wanted. I ordered basically an 8 $ glass of house wine and Bry wanted a cigar. Our server disappeared for 5 – 8 minutes again before bringing out a cigar menu for him and promptly left after dropping my wine off too.
We waited another 15 minutes wondering if we had did anything wrong. Our waitress had been everywhere but out spot. I convinced Bry that it was okay and to relax. Then an angel appeared. There was a young friendly guy who seemed to take control of the whole place. He bounced around from place to place and came over to us. He was friendly, inviting and gave awesome recommendation on cigars for Bry who eventually spent about 22 $ on a cigar. He is truly the reason for the two stars as he was literally a breath of positive air. He brought the cigar, ashtray, cutter and even cut it for Bry.
He eventually disappeared to spread joy to the rest of Gitana. Out of nowhere the earlier female waitress came back and said it’s pay as you go, no credit or debit cards from anything but Canada and pay now. We handed her money and I asked for a dollar back so I could give it to the other guy. I was under the impression they shared tips but as someone whose been in service it’s always good to hear you’re doing an awesome job. The waitress who has only dealt with us about 3 minutes in total time came back demanding a larger tip and saying what it custom. I explained that the guy had spent more time with us and I also wanted to thank him for helping Bry find the perfect cigar (which he was enjoying very much). Bry was frustrated and didn’t understand what he did wrong. I just wanted her to leave us alone.
Don’t work in service if you can’t at least be cordial about it. Don’t demand something you don’t deserve. Bring us back the Angel. He should be promoted because he really is the only reason beside the ambience that this place get the stars at least for this experience.
Thank you sir, you made our night.

Nice location, but shisha (double apple lacked flavor) was weak along with the baklava and mint tea. Only saving grace was the outdoor seating and nice music… unlikely to visit again :(

I’ve been coming here for years– never once has it failed to get me into great spirits. I love this atmosphere, how relaxed people are immediately upon entering. Truly excellent service.

Really was turned off from this place. Anti-​American place. They treat you different then the locals. Even if you speak french. Slow service. Average everything. Never coming here again!

Been going to this place since my uni days approx 12 years ago. Love the inside décor and the ambiance, truly feels like you are somewhere in the middle east firing off a sheesha. I love their outside seating as well along a very nice strip of St. Denis. Decent prices, really good sheesha and amazing décor inside. I did not have any food or cigars so cannot comment there. They have the basic beers available and some nice Quebec craft, my gf enjoyed a mojito which was relatively well done.
For the last 12 years I have been coming here and never left disappointed…

Great Shishas, only café that provides cigars as well.
It’s a chill place for drinking and smoking :)

Had an awesome grape with mint mix and turkish coffee. The staff was very helpful and cheerful especially Wayra. She was great. Definitely going back. Actually I’m on my way: D

Great place! I really enjoyed it on the late late Friday night. Hookah is excellent and very reasonably priced. I really recommend the mint and grape flavor. They also have some cool snacks as in deserts and etc.
They also have drinks, even some really really cool unibroue beers on draft (amazing).
Service was great!

Je né suis pas fan pour les serveurs, ni pour les choix de boissons, ni même pour les choix de narguilés. Je suis fan à cause de l’ambiance, du côté relaxe dont il est si facile à se laisser border par, par les bons moments impossibles à manquer une fois qu’on est bien installé entre deux coussins avec ses amis.

Enter the void. Enter the smoke. This is the sheesha or hookah establishment in Montréal. I order a mint hookah with some mint tea and perhaps some Turkish delight or baklava and lounge around for a good length of this your life on earth. Sit in the back on the reclining seats or upstairs! Sitting on pillows is a delight. A night at Café Gitana is a night spent immersed in an atmosphere; ephemeral, otherworldly, perhaps it was a fever dream or writing on the foggy windows on a winter night. Smoke fills the air, smoke fills your head and a song plays in the distance. Is this still Montréal or Istanbul a voice asks; neither in fact but several caravans of Rom en route to everywhere. As-​tu le vide? Have you entered the void? Go into the smoke and you will see what it is. Go into the smoke a and dissipate.

Great hookah bar. It had middle eastern tapestry on the walls, middle eastern music playing, and comfortable seating to lounge in.
Café Gitana was great in their service. The staff checked up on us and promptly brought out our beer and wine.
We had gone to another hookah bar the night before, which despite their cheap prices, we weren’t a fan. At Café Gitana, it costs about $ 14 for a shisha with two coals. That could last you a good while. We stayed for about an hour and we barely finished one coal.
Wish we came here the first night in Montréal. Great place.

Hookah bar on Saint Denis. Not too bad and not exceptional neither.
There are 2 floors so it’s good if you are looking for a place for a group.
Many flavors to choose from for the hookah.
On top of sodas and tea, I believe you can also order beers and spirits.
It’s a good option if you are in the neighborhood and looking for a hookah bar.
Go early as the place gets quickly packed on Saturdays.

Critique mitigée sur un salon de narguilé.
++: La Sangria est bonne, le thé a la menthe est pas cher et bon (difficile a rater quand même), la shisha vient avec 2 charbons et ils manquent rarement de saveurs. L’ouverture du 2e étage. Le service agréable et le magasin de cigare en bas. Ils prennent la carte aussi, yé !
— bof: Les lumières rouges tamisées qui rendent l’atmosphère super lourd. La musique arabe a un niveau de décibels hallucinant, on peut a peine s’entendre, la chaleur étouffante des nuits d’été, Le fait qu’ils essaient d’installer 120 personnes dans un endroit pouvant en contenir 75. (très mal assis)
En gros, si j’ai vraiment envie de prendre une shisha et que mon endroit préféré est plein ce qui arrive souvent, je vais au Gitana. Ce n’est jamais mon premier choix.

Un salon qui fait honneur au narguilé. Franchement authentique, anatolien, sans aucune doute celui que j’ai le plus fréquenté à Montréal. C’est effectivement mon endroit de prédilection lorsque j’ai envie de fumer tranquillement du bon tabamel. Grande palette de saveurs, allant de l’abricot à la menthe… L’ambiance est extrêmement immersive; ses couleurs chaudes, ses coussins éparpillés sur banquettes et sa musique gitane, moyen-​orientale et méditerranéenne font de ce lieu un café fort fréquenté. Cela dit, essayez d’arriver tôt en soirée si vous souhaitez obtenir les meilleures places, qui, selon moi, sont situées dans le deuxième compartiment, quasi dissimulées. L’hermétisme de celui-​ci vient renforcer cette espèce d’illusion d’opulence sultane exclusive, nimbée d’une odoriférante fumée opaque…
Le seul hic avec ce café est sans contredit son étroitesse. Une fois que tout le monde est attablé ou assoupi, et que les commandes de cafés turques, thés kurdes, thés à la menthe, bières, baklavas, paninis et bien-​sûr narguilés fusent de tous bords tous côtés, les serveurs né savent plus où donner de la tête pour éviter les gaffes… C’est du sport… D’ailleurs, dans le deuxième compartiment, il m’est déjà arrivé de voir une serveuse échapper un plateau complet sur le sol, faute d’espace… Alors, vous êtes avertis; promiscuité garantie, surtout du jeudi au samedi… Patience et compréhension… On relaxe et prend une bonne bouffée…