ERA Cafe and Hookah Lounge

The bouncer at this place is disgusting. He is rude and an a-​hole. my friend was the first one to go through and she stood by the front door waiting for me. I was then interrogated by him. he was asking what was in my tiny purse which literally only held my make up bag and my feminine products… he then questioned me on my feminine products asking me what they were. i guess being a man he had no idea so i had to explain to him what i was carrying. as he was questioning me he then yelled at my friend and told her that she cannot stand there and said DIDNT YOU HAVE TO USE THE BATHROOM??? and she explained that she was waiting for me and he didn’t have it… it was such a turn off his whole demeanor that i told my self EF this place they do not deserve my money nor my friends. I can’t even imagine how rude the staff inside was. and reading past posts proves my point.

First of all, to begin with, the bouncer is kinda gross. Not only does he look like a big ol’ Uncle Ruckus from the Boondocks, he was definitely kind of a creep when it came to searching women and their bags before they entered this f***ing hole in the wall. *Shudder*
Don’t let the appearance fool you. Era has GREAT curb appeal. But once you walk in, be prepared to be gravely disappointed.
Drinks are definitely overpriced. The place is really small. The waitress were rude as f***. Which is stupid on their part because who the f&!@ wants to give up their hard earned cash to someone who keeps darting dirty looks your way?
We came on a Saturday and this place was pretty much dead.
This place will not get another dime of my money.

DJ does his thing. The Hookah is top notch. The service is fast and friendly. The crowd are real people and very chill. I liked it. We’ll definitely return.

$ 100 bottles before midnight, hookah starting at $ 15, and it’s never crazy crowded… YES!

Looks ok but that’s all this place has to offer. It’s always empty, overpriced and the service — so so bad — I ordered food and it came maybe after an hour — cold and dry. The waitress told me they bring it from somewhere else and just serve it there so obviously there was nothing she could do. WOW !!!

I came here years ago when this place first opened and i wasn’t crazy about it.
For the first time in years i came back. I wasn’t looking for a loud packed place, i was looking for somewhere i can have casual conversation with smoking hookah with a beer. I got that here.
Hookah: We got fresh pineapple with peach inside… it was flavorless (they claim to have nicotine free hookah)… but besides that it had absolutely no flavor at all… which was kind of disappointing.
Prices were decent, couldn’t complain about that,
One thing that i really liked was they gave us a button to push whenever we need assistance. And they came fast!
Would i come back? eh maybe.

Worst place ever I don’t really care bout the price but the people there are so rude they take so long and they take forever to bring you UR drinks. Believe me this place ain’t worth to come to. I would pay the double for drinks and hookah some where else I don’t mind but here not even if they were given one free drink and half price.

I always go there. Just love it.
I go there after work: so relaxing. Having a very iced coffee or baileys and smoke hookah… On the weekends later it gets busy.
Easy to park!!!
The waiters and hookah guys are very nice, ready to serve every minute! They have a button on a table to call them.
The hookah are excellent, if you ask for it they can design at the way you want! Right now mine has light cubes in the water :)
Just love it
I’m actually here now again! Awesome

I heard many mixed reviews on this place so I had to test it out for myself. The service was amazing! There was a party going on and my cousin and I were seated immediately. We placed our orders and they even gave us complimentary food because of the party. Our waitress was attentive to us and very friendly. Our orders were also placed and served quickly which was also a plus. There was a DJ and the music was great! There was also a belly dancer! It was like Saturday night fun on a Sunday! I will most definitely come here again!

After we ordered hookah and some drinks the waitress told us the prices were different then on the. Menu. When we questioned why she didn’t tell us before we ordered, she basically told us that’s just the way it is because it’s after 10 and it’s now a «club». Very rude and unprofessional waitstaff. This place has a lot of improving to do.

3.5 Stars for Era Lounge. I came here last weekend with my boyfriend and a couple other friends. This review will not talk about the hookah since I did not get to try it.
The Space:
It’s a small space, especially when it’s packed. There is not enough seating at all. We were standing almost the entire time until another group left and we took their seats. Most of the people doing hookah were standing by the bar. Which really made it hard for other people to get to the bar easily. They should definitely have additional seats, especially for those who plan to sit down and enjoy a good hookah.
Music:
At first they played about 30 mins of just rap. The guys in my group enjoyed the music but the girls and I were just standing there since it’s not our type of music preference. Then they started to play a lot of throwback hip hop and reggeaton songs which was alright, it brought good conversation to our group so it was entertaining. Then the DJ finally played some good Spanish music, which was what I was looking forward to lol. He played Bachata, Merengue, and salsa and they were all good songs. I really did enjoy my time once they had good music going and the dance floor filled up. The dance space is also small but I didn’t really mind– no one was bumping into one another.
Drinks:
Drinks were good. Pretty expensive though. I had a coco loco and it was $ 12. On their website they don’t include the different types of drinks along with their pricing, only what kinds of liquor they have. Also, they accept credits cards, but there has to be at least 3 drinks on the card. We first got 2 drinks and told the bartender we will get more so she left the bill open.
Overall experience was good. Good drinks, and good music (till the end). The crowd I went with made it fun so it all depends on what you make of your night. I don’t believe they have a dress code, I saw a couple guys in sneakers and dress shirts aren’t required. Some ladies were wearing either heels or flats– Era is more of a jeans-​and-​heels kind of lounge, but it all depends on what your style is, when I went it wasn’t casual– it was more trendy.

um this place is nothing special in Astoria
the hookah wasn’t bad, and the drinks were okay, a bit pricy though compared to other spots in Astoria
I think the décor is tacky, they need new furniture.
the waitresses aren’t so friendly, they make it obvious that they don’t wanna do their jobs.
the dj was okay, I cant say hes the best but he isn’t the worst, he plays modern current music you would normally hear on the radio.
would I come back here? maybe if I had a large group or event, but on a regular day no, theres much better in Astoria.

AVOID AVOID AVOID. Hidden prices not listed on menu, nasty staff, rude and condescending manager. Our bill came out to be twice what it should have been, and when we questioned our waitress, she and her manager were not only unapologetic but actually offensive.
If I could give Era negative stars, I would. I’d honestly prefer to eat at a restaurant serving undercooked meat.

I really like this place. I have been here a couple of times the environment is great and the staff is wonderful.
The hookah is better then most places the drinks are strong not watered down like most places. If its crowded or barely empty the atmosphere is great.
The music is in the top 40 on the weekends. This is a place u must come try.

Must we really give a star to a location we would rather leave at no stars with? AVOID this place at all costs! This is not Plan A… hell this isn’t even worthy of Plan Z, Z, as in the last letter of the alphabet.
Environment: Tight, claustrophobic, very unkept. Nothing appealing to it, not even the entrance was attractive (ugh why did I ever let my cousin-​in-​law decide where we would go?). The sound system is terrible.
Crowd: The male to female ratio was… look to my right: men, look to my left: men, look behind me: men, if I looked below me, I’d probably find a man! The only females there were the bottle girls, the bartenders (we’ll talk about them in a few), and the group of girls whose weaves flew off while duty-​wining. Again, I’m telling you AVOID!!!
Service: I could really sum it up in two words… IT SUCKED! But it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t go into detail right? Okay, so we have bartenders that are too focused on flirting with the lesbians (b/​c you know the few females that were there were masculine lesbians), more focused on getting shouted out by the DJs, and basically everything that wasn’t going on behind the bar, haha… that’s what bartenders are for! :D
Drinks & hookah: Nothing exceptional. My date spent over $ 100 for watered down drinks and burnt out hookah.
My cousin-​in-​law called it a night possibly an hour after getting into this place. I left with my date an hour or so afterwards, and found it more fun to hang at a café down the street…
I usually would NEVER trash out a location, but… AVOID, AVOID, AVOID! After all it’s Astoria there are plenty of locations where you can go to and enjoy your night.

I went to this place earlier this month, and I will never, ever, everrr go back. The bottle girl was rude, when we told her we were waiting for the person who was buying the bottle to get there before we order, (since they would order what they wanted) she said if anyone came before they got here, she would remove us from the table and send us to the bar. We had to lie and tell her we would get 2 bottles if she left us alone, then we sent off to fetch us a hookah. We smoked all the hookah and when we asked for a different flavor as a refill, she tried to swindle us by sending a whole new hookah (obviously more costly). She isn’t even my biggest complaint–
The head bar tender/​manager or whoever this muscle head thinks he is, had an attitude, automatically added gratuity to my single drink orders (even though we had a table with a bottle, no respect-​) and then would not give me a glass of water at no charge, and tried to make me pay for bottled water. When I refused and went back to my table, I saw that the bus boy, or whoever, had removed our half-​full bottle of grey goose– I then proceeded to go back to the bar and take those three bottles of water, for free–
Everyone in this place is rude the music was sub par and the only thing fun was my friends and some people we met there.
SUCKSSS. It was better when it was ZONE–
=)

I stopped by this past wknd with friends & for the most part had a decent time.
The place is pretty small & it gets packed which is not fun to deal w since its hard to even stand in one place more or less dance but of course every one tries to dance where they stand & that’s cause for a lot of bumping around hard to get into a song when ya gotta keep moving around every two seconds.
I can certainly do w out the hookah’s not a big fan in the first place but for a place to be so small it’s even harder to have these huge things out specially right on the dammm bar .I mean really? Come on !!
Anyways prices r decent & the music was not bad decent mix of everything from Merengue to House.
Main reason for the 3 stars is because I had a nice time w friends but the place is ok overall.

While I usually avoided this place, due to the seedy looking crowd (along the with bouncer?) I usually see loitering around the door on the weekend, the lady and I decided to give this place a shot on a weeknight, after grabbing some drinks earlier from a bar up the block.
All in all, a solid experience. Our friendly waitress gave us one of the couches in the back and we decided to go with some peach hookah, which really hit the spot. Regrettably, we also went with the pitcher of margarita, which was sour to the point that it became a bit undrinkable and gave us stomach aches (this from a person who can slam some El Rey Taco Truck and go straight to bed). The hookah was good; the magarita, clientele, music and vibe of the joint — not so much. If it wasn’t for me and the lady coming here 4 – 5 drinks deep already, along with having an abnormally comfy couch and me zoning out to Sportscenter Espanol, I don’t think I would of stuck around for too long.
Not a bad spot to grab a drink or two and some hookah on a weeknight. Avoid the weekends though and the margarita pitcher specials. In most situations, you’re better off going to someplace up on Steinway for hookah.

I’ll second this comment.
INCONSIDERATE to their neighbors. Loud music played almost nightly til 3 and 4 AM that flows out their back patio and into our residential neighborhood. It’s impossible to sleep at night and then get up early the next day for work and school.

I really like this place! I have been here twice, both on weeknights. Very cozy with comfy couch-​like seating & pillows in the back.
Pretty empty, but I enjoyed it quiet. Hookah was really nice and smooth. The 1^st time I went, we ordered a margarita pitcher. Solid margarita! The waitress is really friendly too! Forgot her name but she was there both times I was there.