Awtash Cafe

The decore and atmosphere is great!
The staff are friendly!
The food is very unique!
But unfortunately the wait time is too long! And the shisha I had wasnt all that good!

My coworkers and I come in here A LOT after work later in the evening, so that we can talk in a relaxed environment around a table. The atmosphere is chill, and the hooka is a bonus — we have always gotten the melon flavor. We tend to spend a lot of money and get a lot of drinks all at once (the mixed cocktails are delicious) so that we can make last call — even though we normally arrive between 12 to 1am and one would assume have plenty of time?
The only negative is that we are always rushed and often left ignored and without service closer to 1:30−2am. We always leave a great tip because we are all service industry folks, so what’s the deal guys? You are open until 2am on Fridays and Saturdays, and we know we are allowed to sit with our drinks for a bit after by law, there are still lots of other tables. Relax, do your clean up while you are waiting for tables to finish, and follow through with good service the whole way through!

Ambiance was nice. Great music and service. Hooka was not very good. Would go back again… minus the hooka.

They have decent variety of shisha and beer; it’s reasonable priced. It’s a nice atmosphere, and the seating is comfortable and relaxing. The service is just okay. However, the washroom smells like a sewer, and looks like one too. They’re making fairly good money here since the shisha isn’t the cheapest and it’s in a prime location, so the least they could do is maintain the washroom.

This place is awesome! Wanted to go out on a Saturday and found this spot. Music is really good, the atmosphere is authentic and the food is great and inexpensive.
I’ll definitely be coming back here… :)

Okay, so me and my friends decided to go out on my friends birthday. As we were walking down college street we saw the sign and said hey. Why not? When we got in and were seated we had to wait approximately one hour in order to get our shishas. And we had to wait another ten minutes just to get our drinks. That’s 70 minutes for one drink. We were planning on having a fun night out but because of awtash’s horrible service our vibes got killed and we did not have fun. I would definitely recommend not coming here it was the worst service I’ve ever received at a restaurant. We expected much more but we were let down immensely. Once again I do not recommend coming to awtash because of the horrible service and the mediocre pizza.

Wait time just to get my beer was an hour.
Food was insanely bland and the service overall just sucked.
They’re lucky gratuity is included in the bill because theres no way they would have got tipped after that.

Horrible service. Waited about one hour for drinks, pizza, and shisha. The shisha was horrible, it only came with one coal, and when we asked for another they looked at us like we were requesting the world.

Meh. This place is pretty over priced considering they can’t be bothered to maintain the furniture or the washrooms. Have you ever seen one of those Saw movies? Well they could very well have been filmed in those washrooms. The chai tea was actually pretty good but I was disappointed, especially given the price, that they didn’t have spiced or saffron sugar cubes. The flavour in the shisha was also underwhelming as it didn’t even last through one coal. I won’t be back again.

Been here three times and on my fourth visit it was horrible. Like any other in this city service is all over the place at best and downright horrible at other times.
So, i rave about this place and decide to make it for my fourth time there. Horrible hostess, horrible loud people drinking on top of the loud music.
I love the setting but all that amounts to nothing when you have bad service.
waitress had the audacity to actually bring the desert before the main meal and justify that since we ordered it here it was! You bring the dessert AFTER the main meal!
AVOID this shit hole and save your money.

As soon as I walked in I thought «this place is sexy,» I wanted to love it so badly! Unfortunately the service was a bit disappointing. Let’s start off with the good
Pros:
Sexy atmosphere
Extremely friendly servers
Unique menu (didn’t try anything)
Comfy couch
Delicious shisha
Cons:
Dark sketchy path to the bathrooms
The people who came after me were served before me
Had to flag down a server
Took way too long to get some shisha
Aside from that this is a good place to come hang with friends, have some shisha, a snack and play cards. I will be back

Here’s the thing about not apologizing for screwing up massively: You never know if the one of those diners you’ve disrespected has an iota of real influence, should they, you know, decide to speak to others who actually have influence.
Never before in my life have I experienced what my friend and I experienced at this place last night. First of all, we love shisha, and had both, in fact, been there once before. The service was good that time, as was the food.
Here’s last night’s account: We walk in and were seated in a booth right in front of the bar. We ordered two drinks not long after that. It takes 17 minutes to get those drinks. Whatever. We weren’t in the mood to complain. We were tired and it was Friday. Then, this petite blonde waitress takes our order — a pizza and an appetizer platter (which is comprised of cold items, and needs merely minutes to prepare).
After one hour and 15 minutes of being completely ignored (and keep in mind we consumed our first round of drinks and were never offered more), I decide to signal someone to ask what the hell was up.
This tall, dark, lanky fellow with scraggly facial hair asks me what I ordered. I tell him. He disappears for five minutes, then comes back to tell me it’s in the oven and will be ready in five minutes. Then, he says this (and I quote): «Don’t worry, guys, we’ll do a shot after.» 25 minutes later, our food comes out. When it does, I ask for a discount in a dry, but respectful tone. That same blonde waitress responds with, «Ill get the manager.» No one shows up.
Then, a few minutes later, brown Tom Green shows up again and tells me the second pint I had just ordered is on him. We wonder if he’s the manager, or rather an excuse for one. I remind him of the requested discount. He says, and I quote, «No problem!»
Then, when we get our bill, I decide to rush things and pay at the bar because my friend, who was here visiting me from HAMILTON, had to run back home, as he had to work early the next day. The same dude asks me if I want a shot with a smirk. I give him a look that says, «Really? Really, man? A shot?»
I work as an editor for a major Toronto publication and have had plenty of experience reviewing establishments. I hope the owners know that I have already started spreading the word, to other editor and writer friends across the city with real influence.
I sincerely hope this place goes out of business. And soon. Its mere existence is defamation of the restaurant industry.

Good things–
Ambiance
Desserts
Never too busy
Bad things–
Really bad service– one waiter told us they are very understaffed right now and they closed the day before because there was no one available to work
Average price
I will return.

The décor of this place was very mis-​matched and offset but some how it kinda worked pretty well. The lighting up in this place is terrible. The front of the place is perfect but the back room was just way too dark. I know they were trying to go for a really chillax environment but a little more lighting would definitely help. It was just way too dim-​lit, and my eyes started to hurt after a bit and all of my friends looked like black blobs.
I didn’t really try any of their food yet but we ordered their hummus and it was pretty good. Decent and it hit the spot. Nothing can wrong with hummus and pita bread sticks!
Their drink menu was extensive and the beers were really affordable.
It was my first time at a shisha place so I can’t really judge the shisa quality and taste but it was definitely a new experience for me. I came here for a friend’s birthday and we ended up having a really great time, it was cramped but that’s because we had a lot of people!
They seemed to have a standard selection of shisha flavours but the ones that we ended up getting was rose & peach and the double apple. The flavours were subtle but the double apple did not taste like apple at all. One of my friends thought it tasted like black liquorice and I did agree with him. My other friend thought it tasted like the smell of a Chinese medicine store, haha.
Overall, pretty laid back atmosphere and it’s a place where you can just get food, have a drink, smoke shisha and relax.

Sheesha bar sympa au coin de College et Bathurst. Grandes tables: idéal pour les groupes.
/​/​Sheesha bar at College and Bathurst. The good stuff here are the huge tables for the groups.

Out of all the sheesha bars in Toronto, Awtash is a nice little place.
The positives:
1) The place is big
2) The tables– booths are a great size
3) They have a private seperate seating area in the back
4) They have great drinks and not as expensive as Paeez
5) The small menu they have is good
6) They don’t charge you for extra coal
The cons:
1) Service is terrible
2) Mid price range for sheesha
If you are a regular sheesha smoker, this might not be a regular spot for you. But it’s a good place to bring a unisex crowd and feel safe (compared to some of the other joints with cheaper sheesha is shady areas). It’s great to go before a fun night out on college, a meet up place so to say.

We were in a desperate search for a hookah joint and stumbled upon Awtash. To be honest, I was about to abort the plan — with the loud lounge music and the décor… the place looked kinda douchey.
But we pushed in and after asking to not be seated by the speakers, we were seated in the semi-​private back room. First off, once you’re away from the loud DJ — this place is pretty nice. It’s a laid back Middle Eastern vibe with lots of big tables and couches and pillows. The shisha we had was tasty and the staff was on the ball about replacing our charcoal. The waitresses came by frequently to ask if we needed anything else. All around, the staff was dope.
And we were there on a Friday night and they had $ 4 tall cans of MGD Light. I know — I know — it’s crap beer. But for $ 4 — I’ll drink it.
Not bad at all, will be back.

My girlfriend and I came here Thursday night and loved it! I think this is going to be my new go-​to shisha place in the city. The décor is perfect. A bit dark, chandeliers everywhere, Persian pillows. The one thing I didn’t appreciate was that there was hockey playing on a big screen TV near the entrance. It was distracting and didn’t really fit with the relaxed Middle Eastern atmosphere.
Our server was really pretty and gave us great service. One thing that was kind of different about this place is that they replace the coals for you. I’m used to having a few coals sitting there and changing them over when it’s time. The quality of the Mint Shisha was great and it was really flavourful.
I tried the Milwaukee beer for the first time ($ 4.5), pretty yum. And I had pita with the spinach dip also really cheap and yummy. They have like eight different kinds of dip on the menu.
Cannot wait to return here!

***4.5 Stars ***
I planned my SO’s birthday surprise here this past weekend. We all had a blast. Awtash Café has online reservations for big groups. We were able to get a cozy corner booth. I love the vibe at this place, so laidback and there is awesome lounge/​techno music playing in the background.
We had tried their 5 dip platter, which was delicious. It came with all the middle eastern dip fare, hummus, baba ganosh (sp?), marinated olives and some warm persian flat bread. Their drinks were reasonably priced, a pitcher of Sangaria for $ 16! We even did a round of shots at $ 6 each.
The main draw to Awtash was the Hookah bar! You can get two flavours for $ 15, it comes with 2 coals. I did not realize how relaxing Hookah was, it was a great pairing with our drinks.
The service did match the vibe at this place. It was very chilled out and they would periodically check in with you if you need anything. Do not expect rush and prompt service if that is what you are looking for.
I will definitely be back for future loungey nights out.

Update! I told you I would return for the food. I finally got the chance.
The food menu is small — basically there is a selection of 5 dips (hummus, etc), a couple salads, a pizza menu and a sandwich menu. Also note that the prices have increased since June (more expensive than quoted in Andrea’s review, but everything is priced reasonably)
The pizza is divided into two types — traditional (Italian) selections (all $ 10), or persian-«fusion» ones ($ 12).
We tried 2 of the pizzas with very mixed results. The pizzas are extremely thin crusted (yay!) and are made with persian flatbread (kind of crunchy with sesame seeds)
Fesenjoon (Chicken breast in walnut and pomegranate stew topped with pineapple) — This one was REALLY good. Slightly sweet from the pomegranate.
Ghormeh Sabzi (Beef & red beans in a mixed herb stew) — This was F*CKING AWFUL. Please do not order it. Really seriously disappointing. It looked pretty but tasted very bland. It had way too many herbs on it, lots of parsley sort of slathered on and looked liked cooked spinach.
The service was really slow. Server was extremely friendly but we had to flag him down a zillion times even though the café was close to empty. The pizzas took a long time to come out.
As beautiful as this place is, I just cannot give it the 5 star upgrade. (–0.5 stars for make-​me-​puke pizza, –0.5 stars for slow service)

Awtash Café really so different from the places I usually frequent!
Yes I love this sexy vibes of this place. And when it is dark, everyone looks 100% more sexy and good looking… (BTW, sucks if you want to take good photos!)
Just love those loungers… Really want to take off my shoes and just laid there. (I really did take off my shoes!)
Nahna Muddled Mint Tea/​Saffron Ice Cream with Faloodeh
— Tea has been sweetened with syrup already so no other sweetener is necessary for me to enhanced the taste
— My first experience with Faloodeh… A-​OK… I might have to try some more in the future (My friend ate most of it…)
Sheesha (Blueberry/​Double Apple)
— Hey I think they are playing a practical joke on me or something. I was given a default hookah and doesn’t matter how hard I suck. until my face was red. nothing happened! At first I thought my lungs were defective!
— I find smoking sheesha a relaxing and social experience. inhale 1−2−3−4, and exhale and look at the smoke coming out…
— Blueberry tasted much better than Double Apple… and some other people wants to steal mine because they like my flavour more!
Now if I can wear some relax clothings and laid on the coach… hmmmm that will be some really smoking, sexy experience! :P CHILL!