Dandana
“It was pretty smooth and definitely knocked me out and put me into a deep psychosis of bliss along with my over-priced glass of Chianti because we missed happy hour by a few minutes.”
“Music on point all the time with complimentary belly dancers on the wkds.”
“The hummus, baba ghanoush, falafels, and tabbouleh is amazing and clearly fresh.”
Dandana
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Good For Dancing: Yes
Happy Hour: Yes
Smoking: Yes
Outdoor Seating: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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This is one of my go to spots, I've been coming for years. I always get the fried calamari and the hummus, the drinks are good and the hookah never disappoints. It's definitely a good spot to have a relaxed and casual vibe, in a less crowded establishment.
I can definitely feel your anti-Dandana vibe, Yelper denizens, and understand. however, i'd say, when you approach Dandana with a little more Zen, its not a bad joint at all!
Reasons to like Dandana:
1) Summer weeknights are awesome. You get your table on the sidewalk, order a hookah, water and a beer.
2) Service is good and people generally leave you alone while you and your buddy have peace to chat it up. When I say service is good, i mean, they leave you alone, notice when your beer is empty and ask if you'd like another and replace your hookah coals periodically without asking. (mind you, weeknight means fewer customers so more attention to service and tip incentives)
3) the neighborhood is quiet. although this hookah joint is rather expensive in comparison to whats available, i like it because its a quiet sidewalk where you can chat it up. The hookah may be more affordable and of equal or better quality on steinway, but its also noisier on steinway.
4) the bathroom is HUGE and clean.
5) Open mad ass late.
Reasons to DISLIKE Dandana:
1) weekend reaction: wtf? are you a lounge? a club? a hookah joint? please explain to me what youre trying to be, Dandana because I dont understand.
2) Service = 🙁
3) TOO EXPENSIVE! ($20 fresh pineapple hookah with no pineapple crown on the top upon arrival)
4) TINY, MICROSCOPIC beer selection (only 4-5 beers) with NOTHING ON TAP
5) ONLY ONE BATHROOM
So perhaps if you just accept the creature for what Dandana is, perhaps there'd be more lovin'. You cant ask a fish to walk! (and dont give me an example of a jumping-crawling-crazy-ass-only-found-in-g*d-knows-where-in-the-world-possibly-mutant-fish)
Weeknight chat area = good. anything else = ehhhhhhh
So everything from my last review still holds true, but the stars went down because I can no longer come here and get $5 hookah. The regular hookah prices went from $10 to $12, which means during happy hour I pay $7 for regular hookah. Honestly don't think the quality is good enough for me to pay $2 more. Big bummer for me, not sure if I'll be coming as often anymore.
They really do need to update their prices on their menu… I felt like I got cheated paying $5 for a drink!
And when the waitress didn't feel she got enough for tip, she had the nerve to confront us and yell at us. Sorry, if you give shitty service, you get a shitty tip. End of story.
Will never go back.
After much deliberation with Stephy P. that wanted to do hookah a few weekends back, we came here. There is another cheaper option down the block but they have less food and no alcohol. No byob either and I wanted the best of both worlds. Hookah here will run you $15. We went with a mix of Peach and Guava. It was pretty smooth and definitely knocked me out and put me into a deep psychosis of bliss along with my over-priced glass of Chianti because we missed happy hour by a few minutes. I think it ends at 7pm. We sat outside. Sitting outside with a huge thing of hookah is a rarity to me. I don't remember the last time I've seen a place that offered that. The Mediterranean staff is a site for sore eyes and I never stare at waiters but damn. They can serve me all night.
The reason why this place gets 4 stars instead of 3 is that I was pleasantly surprised with how good the food tasted. Drinks could be a bit cheaper here. We split a side of a hummus ($6) – Super fresh and creamy. Tasted made from scratch with a hint of garlic and maybe lemon. Steph went with a cheeseburger ($7) and I went with the crab cake burger ($10). I was impressed with the crab cake because it was both huge and well-seasoned. Only complaint is that the melted American cheese on top was completely unnecessary. Decadent, yes, because it was sandwiched both on top of the bun and an additional slice UNDER the bun. That's how all cheeseburgers should be made. But with the crab cake it was redundant. Just give me some aioli and we'll call it a day. But I appreciated that they had a grilled tomato with its lettuce and onion assembly. French fries decent. French fries are even better when dipped into your leftover hummus spread. I believe they do belly dancing shows here some nights. Bathrooms are down a long flight of stairs and after half a glass of wine and several hookah inhales that flight of stairs seemed like the biggest obstacle of my life.
*Wanted to last second add that our little plastic germ protectors for our hookah did not fit on the spigget valve thing (whatever you call it). Had I or Steph P. had cooties or were sharing with another person that would have been kind of nasty. Make sure your plastic protector thingies work on your hookahs!
The tried the burger and it was really bad. The burger itself was extremely dry and was super bland.
The service was horrible. Our waitress, Safa had a nasty attitude and was rude. I asked her politely for some water and napkins as soon as we were seated since its allergy season and I really needed some napkins. After waiting for about 15 mins I politely asked Safa again for some napkins and water and told her that I needed them as soon as a possible. The restaurant wasn't busy at this time and she walked past our table many many times and paid no attention to our request. Then I asked a different waiter who was much more polite, he said that he will bring it to her attention and even after he spoke to her, Safa finally gave us water about 30 mins later. When she came to our table she put a piece of napkin under our glass of water to serve as a coaster. When I asked her where the napkins were, she had a disgusting attitude and told me that it's under the glass. I don't underhand how someone can even say something that dumb. I told her that's servings as a coaster and that I asked for some extra napkins. She left with an attitude and continued to be nasty.
There is a button on the wall behind every table to call the server and Safa did not once answer to our call which is why we had to ask a different waiter for the same things we had asked her for twice already. Just to top it off she overcharged us for the food and a different waiter had to adjust the bill so we could pay and leave.
Overall horrible experience with food and service. Will not come back here again.
Cool place to hang out. Love that it has an outdoor area to sit and enjoy the nice, warm weather.
We ordered some food and drinks along with a fee hookahs. The food was good although it doesn't compare to my grandmothers food. But does it ever compare to grandma's food??
The drinks I ordered were very sweet so next time I'm going to end up sticking with water probably. The server (Kevin, I think) was very nice and attentive.
I don't think I have ever been more confident about giving a place 3 stars than I do with Dandana.
My boyfriend and I came last Friday night after we did dinner and drinks with my sister and parents. We left quite buzzed and he wanted to share a cigar but when we walked to our local cigar lounge it was unfortunately closed…the next best thing was hookah and even though my boyfriend owns a really nice 4-pipe hookah, we wanted a lounge-y experience soooooo, hookah lounge it was.
With full bellies, tipsy livers and it being a foggy/damp/misty night we didn't feel like walking 15 blocks to hookah row on Steinway and Dandana is like 2 blocks away from his apartment, plus we've walked by it many times and have always wanted to check it out so it seemed like a perfect time to.
We ordered a cherry hookah with the extra pineapple for flavoring. We didn't order alcohol because we were inebriated enough from our dinner and personally I think drinks looked overpriced. The hookah was $15 and it was $5 extra for the pineapple so it was $20 in total…I suppose this is more than market rate considering places on Steinway's hookah row which averages at $10-15. There are even places in Manhattan's Alphabet City and West Village that provide quality hookah and good service for $8-15 as well…
To be honest I would complain less about $20 for a hookah if it at least would have had the pineapple crown. I mean there was absolutely no indication that anything pineapple-related was even added and the cherry flavor (which at first was delicious, but much more subtle then I generally prefer) really only lasted for about 25-30 minutes.
Our waitress was fantastic and would bring us water if we asked for it and the guys who change the charcoal were very reliable so that wasn't a problem. But my throat started burning even with small pulls and that isn't normal for me at all.
I was disappointed at the quality of the hookah – but the service was great, the manager was nice when he seated us, the music was really run and the belly dancer performer was really awesome, she even balanced a heavy sword on her head as she danced.
The crowd here was also pretty cool and I got chatty with the two girls next to me who also agreed that their hookah wasn't that great, so I was glad to know that it wasn't just us.
I would come back here again because I hear that their food it great and I'm always in the mood for hummus, I would also try the hookah again but not bother paying for the extra pineapple since (as shown in my photos) they don't use a crown (as traditionally done when you add a pineapple) and so it doesn't affect the flavor at all.