Cleopatra Cafe

My fav go to hookah spot… chill atmosphere great staff… the owner Mike is a sweetheart… and the prices are great

Did not like the place and will not recommend it to my friends for following reasons:
–Unfriendly server… bad attitude! («There’s no menu-​I am the menu! What do you want»)
–When we brought the burning of the flavor into his notice, he asked if we had ever smoken a hukka before?!
–Using charcoal instead of regular coal spoiled the experience
–Accepted cash only-​it was inconvenient!

Quiet, laid back relaxed atmosphere. Good owners and the place is very clean and provides decent service.

Unbelievably rude management. My friend went to the bathroom close to closing time and they kept banging on the door to get him to come out. At one point they threatened to call the police. He’d been in there for 5 minutes. When he came out, he started smoking hookah because it was still working and they literally yanked the hose out and took it away without saying a word. I have never been treated this poorly anywhere else. I wish I hadn’t tipped them but it’s not like they gave me any choice. They never came back with the change once we paid the bill.

Went here today for first time, everyone saying the staff isn’t friendly, That wasn’t the case for me and my fiancé. Service was great, so was the tea so yummy! The mint tea that is … We were there for about an hour and 15 minute. As for the hookah it was okay not the best. Pretty loud atmosphere but I guess that’s because it’s summer and the weekend. Weekdays is pretty chill, I’ve passed by many times. Today was my first time inside

Are you a fan of rules? Do you enjoy strict guidelines? Does your idea of a night out include restrictions that even Mubarak himself would think too harsh?
Well do I have a recommendation for you!
Cleopatra café has what every neofascist is looking for…
An empty seating area with a 45 minute smoking time restriction.
A coal refill fee for those who smoke fast enough to finish their coals within the allotted time period.
A star buzz price $ 5 greater than the other 4 or 5 hookah bars in the area.
An owner that will badger you repeatedly every 1.5 minutes after you tell him you’re still deciding what to order until finally he asks you «are you waiting for more people to come or???» and you decide to leave and go to Luxor café.
Did you read this review and think «yes! I’ve been wanting to return to the totalitarian homeland that my parents fled and requested asylum from»?
Well then head on over to cleopatra café!

Good and inexpensive Shisha which really don’t make up for poor service! customers choose to go there to chill not keep up with the rude owner!
Half Unilocal

Ignore the comments about poor service and racism. Those people just weren’t following the rules. It’s a private establishment he can run how he wants. He’s loyal to good customers.
The hookah is below average, but this place is still great due to the price and the mint tea. Great for groups and a chill, relaxed atmosphere. My favorite hookah lounge and comparable to what you’ll find in Astoria.

So far so good. Just wanted a chill hookah spot. Reasonable pricing and drinks. Just wish they had food.

Such a nice place nice music. Not expansive, I always go there. A good place to chill and have a good time. Really great hookah and it last long.

Worst hookah experience ever. Overpriced and it smells really bad like some one pissed everywhere never come here ever

They don’t even deserve one star. I wish I could give negative stars. Customer service was the worst. Dude got irritated because we inquired about having to pay for the coal separately or does it come with the hookah. We bounced.

I went with three other people on a Thursday night for sheesha — though I have to explain that I don’t like sheesha, so I was only there for the company. So we seated ourselves (because no one was in sight), looked at the menu and were ready to order. When the server approached us (who we later found out was the owner… so much worse), the first thing he BARKED at us was that we HAD to order two sheeshas. Why? Because it’s one sheesha per three people — and we were four. I explained that I don’t do sheesha — «It doesn’t matter, you have to order two, now go think about it»…and he walked off. At this point, my friend was fuming and ready to leave. But we stayed. We endured more awkward experiences every time we spoke to the «waiter.» When my husband asked him to fix the sheesha, because it was harsh, the response was «Have you never done sheesha before? I’ve been here since 1994 and no one has ever said it’s harsh.» ERRRRR. We were definitely overcharged for two sheeshas (the second of which was clearly forced on us), two teas, a diet coke and a slice of cheesecake clearly from ShopRite.
I would not recommend this place — SOLELY due to BAD service. If you don’t mind being treated like a horrible pest they can’t wait to get rid of, this place has decent sheesha and green tea.

I seriously only do reviews if I hate a place or love it. Unfortunately, this is not a good review for this place. There were originally supposed to be 12 people in our party, including myself and my best friend. She and I arrived before everyone else, so we decided to go ahead and start without everyone. We didn’t even step through the door before we were stopped by this incredibly rude man on the phone. He asked how many, and we explained SEVERAL times that there were 10 other people coming, but she and I were going to start, and that it would only be us two. He told us to wait outside and would not let us in. After ten minutes of going back and fourth, we left and went somewhere. Please, DO NOT waste your money at this rude, overpriced, unprofessional establishment!

I have never had such TERRIBLE SERVICE and been OVERCHARGED for it!
I went to Cleopatra on a Thursday night with about 9 people for a friend’s going away celebration. As soon as I got there the few people who were there before me told me that we had to have a hookah for every two people and that we weren’t allowed to share. This seemed odd to me but we shared anyway.
The servers were very inattentive and rude when they did talk to us. We ended up getting 6 hookahs at the $ 12+tax charge plus $ 1 each for 2 extra coals. our night ended abruptly when not 15 minutes after getting our extra coals, the hookahs were taken from in front of us. I know my coal was still burning orange and there was still smoke pulling but the man told me they were done. I tried to tell him that we had literally JUST received the extra coals so he decided to shove the top of the hookah in my face saying that it was done, even as I pointed out the fact that it was still burning. After being treated badly all night we decided to leave at this point. We looked at the check and it said $ 98 without any breakdown of the charges. On top of the hookahs we ordered 2 $ 2 waters so our check should have been $ 78, or $ 83.46 with a 7% sales tax. When we tried to ask if they included tip the man said «no tip.» I tried to argue against it but my friends ended up paying the extra money so we could just leave as quickly as possible.
The man even complained that we were at the table for a long time but there were empty tables all night.
Hands down WORST experience and I hope to never go back.

Shit’s changed, man.
1) 2 people to a hookah at $ 12+ tax currently. Still cheap but…
2)Staff is now very rude and unwelcoming for the most part.
Time to find a new spot.

Wow, reading all the other reviews, I was worried that I would have a terrible experience. No way, it was solid. I visited with a friend around 11:30pm on a Saturday, and it was packed with groups of students each smoking 2 – 4 hookahs. They played Arabic music in the background, and had those crazy green-​dot laser light beams going which I did find a little irritating.
The sheesha was good, inexpensive, and the mint tea was absolutely wonderful. The manager was very attentive and did keep a good eye on our coals, and changed them periodically. There is only one unisex bathroom for the entire place, and thankfully it was clean when I used it. Big plus.
I had no issue with the management, the service, or the products, and I’ll probably return here in the future. Happy that this place stays open late!

When I first came here about a year ago, I was so excited that Philly finally had a place to smoke high quality, cheap sheesha while enjoying some authentic MIddle Eastern tea. While the décor in Cleopatras is modest, it really reminded me of Horus Café in NYC, which is my favorite hookah place on the East Coast.
The first time we went to Cleopatras was when the café was new. I remember the management being short with their words, but quick to bring free, extra coals and good mint tea. Unfortunately, my friends and I have had a completely different experience since then…
One time we went and ordered 2 hookas for 4 or 5 people. They seemed annoyed we didn’t want a third hookah. When I then asked for tea, the server/​owner gave me an annoyed look and didn’t say anything. One of the guys in our group went to go remind them about the tea for our group because they never brought it. They guy yelled at him to go sit down.
Another time we wanted to sit outside because it was a nice night out, and the owner told us we weren’t allowed to, even though all the seats outside were free. We said, «why can’t we sit outside?» and he yelled that if we didn’t want to sit inside we could leave. Apparently, the outside tables are only reserved for the owner of the restaurant and his old male friends.
Another time we went our friend was leaning against a radiator next to our group of tables. The owner came over and started yelling at him for leaning on the radiator (which wasn’t on, it was summer) saying that he was causing a disruption. My friend asked him to calm down and he would move, but then the owner called him a «black» (which he isn’t, but apparently this was an insult — so racist) and our group left immediately.
The very last time we attempted to go, we had a reservation for an after-​party of about 8 people or so. As soon as we got there, the owner came up to us and started shoving us out the door, saying all the tables were full. We said we had a reservation and we didn’t mind waiting. He starting screaming (like out of control anger) and shoving and getting in the guys’ faces in our group. We left and never went back again.
Also, I’m sure this will get «filtered» like all the other negative comments, but I wouldn’t recommend supporting a business from this man. He is rude, racist, and hostile, and I would not feel safe going back there again.

I really liked this place at first, considering it was
1) open very late, till about 3 am
2) ridiculously cheap at $ 10 for a hookah (can’t find that ANYWHERE in Philly)
3) playing my favorite Arabic music as we smoked
However, I got completely turned off by this place when dealing with the owner, who is an extremely racist, sexist, and entirely awful person. He tried to over-​charge us every time we went, rushed us out of the café so he could smoke with his friends outside, yelled at my friends for «being Bengali», and yelled at us when we showed up for our reservation of over 10 people. While all of this was going on, he was extremely friendly (read touchy feely) with groups of girls that walked in.
Also, as noted by others already, they have filtered out negative reviews to only show positive ones. This place needs new management badly as it could be one of the best hookah bars in Philly with a proper owner who doesn’t treat customers like shit.

Here is the deal, I’ve been a regular customer since the time these guys opened up shop which was almost a year ago. I am a hookah fanatic, and their hookah is the best in Philly, hands down.
But here is the deal, your experience at the place will depend on the mood of this guy, I think his name is Adil or something. When they first opened, it was Adil and Mahamoud. While Mahamoud was around, I had the best customer experience. But the day Mahamoud stopped working there, I’ve had the worst time.
Adil will hit on the women (especially if you are two or more women in the group), and will treat the men like shit. If you do not look like you’re from Saudi, and if you are male, you can only pray that Adil will be in a good mood to treat you like a human being. The later you come to this joint aka after midnight or 1am, the higher your chances are of being treated like crap. He is very very visibly on coke or extremely high, and will often get aggressive with the guys for no reason.
Keep in mind, I’ve been coming here for over a year, and this has happened atleast 5 – 6 times with me, and I’ve seen it countless times with other customers. I have no idea why I chose to ignore it so long. Maybe because their hookah is so good, and I often came in with only a male friend. But whenever I brought other girl friends or a group of mixed gendered people, this ALWAYS happened. It varied in terms of severity. But now I am so embarrassed to recommend this place to any of my friends anymore.
I think the time is approaching when they will be sued. The place has pissed off a lot of people. And btw, I saw a lot of negative reviews a couple of weeks ago about this place, but somehow, very mysteriously, all of them have disappeared. I dont know whats going on here.