What Is Shisha?

Shisha (also called hookah, narghile or hubbly bubbly) is a way of smoking flavoured tobacco through a water pipe. The tobacco is a sticky, molasses-based mixture — usually tobacco leaf, glycerine, molasses or honey, and flavouring — sold as brands such as Al Fakher, Starbuzz and Savacco. A portion is packed into a clay or silicone bowl, covered with foil or a heat-management device, and heated from above by charcoal rather than burned directly.

When you draw on the hose, hot air passes over the molasses and vaporises the glycerine and flavour along with the tobacco. That smoke travels down the stem, through the water in the base — which cools it and takes the harsh edge off — and up the hose to you. That cooling is why shisha feels smoother than a cigarette, and why a typical session lasts far longer.

Shisha has been a social ritual for around five hundred years, from the courts of Persia and Mughal India to the coffee houses of Istanbul, Cairo and Beirut. It has always been about company as much as smoke — long conversations, mint tea, a table of small plates — which is why a good shisha lounge feels more like a living room than a bar.

Is shisha halal? Shisha molasses contains no alcohol, and it is widely enjoyed across the Muslim world, but Islamic scholars differ on whether smoking of any kind is permissible, so it remains a personal decision. What we can say for certain is the food side: halal options are available on our Mediterranean menu, and mocktails are on the drinks list, so a table can enjoy the garden together whatever each guest chooses.