Sahara Nights

What can i say, i’ve been here twice now after drinking a few too many beers at the alehouse up the road. It always seems to be open when we are walking home and need something to fill our drunken bellies.
the staff are super friendly and nice, but the place has always been empty when we’ve been in.
The pizza is really good, but i’ve got to make it back here when sober to make an a valid opinion!

This place used to be really good. It was our go-​to shisha joint, and we eventually made good friends with the owners. The décor was really well done, with middle-​eastern inspired decorations, such as huge ornate rugs and long drapings of fabric strewn across the ceiling. It felt like we were in a harem or palace.
However, I guess times were a little tough and they had to change things — they renovated the bar, started charging a cover fee, changed the focus moreso on the food and removed my beloved ancient arabian palace style decorations!
I am sad to say this place no longer feels like a Sahara night.

When I think of Sahara nights, I think of gathering around a camp fire in an exotic location. There are camels in the dark behind us and a harem of beautiful women are serving me grapes and pouring wine into ornate goblets. Then there is belly dancing and minstrels play exquisite music long into the cool desert night. A lone assassin creeps up on us when we sleep and cuts the throat of our tribal camel caravan chief with a curved dagger. We are forced to chase him into the desert towards the rising sun and eventually run him into a gully where there is a long stand off through the heat of the day. As night falls again, we strike. Daggers in our mouths we stalk the assassin until he is cornered at the base of a large cliff. Not to be murdered, the man drives his own dagger deep into his heart and lies bleeding on the dark sand.
Sahara Nights is not this. It is another bloody pizza restaurant. Yawn.

Located in Brunswick East, Sahara Nights doesn’t know exactly what it wants to be — restaurant, club, shisha bar?
I used to come here before the wood fire oven was put in and before Sahara Nights had transformed itself to focus more on food. Back then, it was where you would go to smoke shisha — my favourite is and will always be the apple shisha. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the price of shisha, but I do remember that it’s affordable and nothing outrageous. Probably around $ 20.
The venue is HUGE — lots of space with tables and lounges to relax. When the wood fire oven opened up I was quite surprised because it used to be place that would turn into some sort of dance club or music establishment — we’d come in around 5 or 6 and be informed that we would have to pay a cover. We usually told them that we’d be gone by the time the music started so we actually never had to pay. Otherwise, I would never come here.
The new menu is Mediterranean inspired with a focus on pizza. The pizzas are quite mediocre, but it’s a great place for a group of friends to smoke shisha and relax. It’s the only one I know of in the area.

Sahara Nights is run by very nice people but I cant help but feeling that it is a restaurant/​bar/​café/​shisha joint/​pizza joint/​live music venue with an identity crisis.
What it does have going for it and the reason we go there is to share a shisha with friends. I don’t know too many shisha bars on the North side of the city and the ones I do tend to have a bit of an attitude about them. Not with the folks at Sahara Nights.
When we were there last, we got a little peckish and ordered one of their Mediterranean style wood-​fired pizzas. The pizzas were ok but nothing to write home about (I think Café Romantica’s around the corner are better, not to mention the likes of DOC, Casa Farro and Red Olive that bit fruther away).
If I was to sample the food again, it would definitely be to see the Egyptian food they have on offer.
I imagine Sahara Nights may do a lot better by focusing on Egyptian cuisine. This would really be a niche that if done well would attract a regular clientele.
For the good service and shisha I’d give it a 3, but I’ve definitely had better pizza.