La’ Ziza Lebanese Cuisine & Hookah Lounge

The bad reviews ALMOST scared me away from this place but luckily I gave it a chance, and I am thoroughly impressed. There is a per person charge to be seated on Saturday nights ranging from 25 $-50 $, (and they will continue to tell you, 6 people emphasized that from the time we were seated to the time we ordered) so if this bothers you, stay away from this place. Otherwise, I would recommend. The dishes range from 11 – 22 $ so you will meet the per person minimum if you plan on eating. If you are a hookah hog like me, you too will have no problems spending the minimum 25 $ charge, the hookah is amazing here, 15 $ and you get constant coal refills throughout the night. The smoke was strong but not harsh. They have the basic flavors to choose from. Nothing too exotic. The food was absolutely amazing. I had the lamb chops and my boyfriend had the kofta. Both perfectly cooked and flavorful. For an appetizer we had sampusck. (Basically empanadas but more flavorful). Everything was seasoned to perfection and the food came out in a decent amount of time. I loved the salad. The music selection was good. From suavemente to fetty wap to traditional Lebanese they played it all. I really enjoyed myself. Did I mention this place is BYOB and has a parking lot? Oh ok. That sums it up. I will return!

Only thing good was the hookah and that wasn’t even that good. Ordered beef/​lamb shawarma. Not good, another guest ordered the shrimp. It was undercooked.

Awesome place, I’ve been coming here regularly the last few months! The food is delicious and delicious knafa as well! I love it here.

RUN AS FAR AWAY AS POSSIBLE.
I will make it short. $ 25 per person min on a Saturday night however we could not get our items. Our waitress took our order and never returned. That is not an exaggeration — we never saw her again (except across the restaurant on her phone). Asked a few other servers but they also were no help. The place closes, checks come around to all tables and we were charged the min but never got what we ordered. Scam artists.

This is the only place I go to when I’m in NJ… My favorite food and hookah place. Wish they had more flavors for hookah but by and large they have the most popular…
The food is really good, kofta is amazing! Mint tea is great and I love mint blue mist hookah
Definitely would recommend this place and if I haven’t mentioned, the service is great. and owner is super down to earth and a nice guy

Can’t believe I have not yet reviewed La Ziza’s yet considering it was mine and my families go to spot for the last couple of years. Note: if you go on weekends, there is usually live singer in the downstairs area and there is a 30 minimum per person, so you can choose to eat in the upstairs area which is a 15 minimum order. The business keeps this minimum so that they do not have people ordering just the hookah.
As far as the top floor goes, LOUD. Gets very crowded during the weekends, plays very loud music, almost everyone has hookah and a mix of older and younger crowd and feels almost like a lounge ish atmosphere.
The bottom floor is a bit classier than the top floor. Nicer tables, and more roomier. Does not have the loud music like upstairs, but does have life music on the weekends.
The menu has a variety of Lebanese favorites from tabbouleh, falafel, baba ganoush, hummus, and grilled meat platters. The dips come with free pita bread. The portions are small so the price matches what you are paying for. The platters so not disappoint, the meats have always been tasty. Get the khanafa dessert– it is delicious!
Pro: BYOB!
They give you wine glasses.
Cons: the only water they serve is bottled water, They add gratuity on your bill before you tip, The place is filled with hookah smoke so it is NOT the place to be if you’re concerned about tobacco exposure.
As far as service goes, we have had mixed experiences. My family has had good servers who were attentive, and then times where no one would take our orders for a long time and forget what we had ordered.
Overall, This area is surrounded by so many Lebanese restaurants, I am sure there are restaurants with better cuisine. It is a fun atmosphere although I would not recommend for families with kids.

This place was pretty good except for the service. We made reservations for 6 ppl earlier in the day and this is what happened when we received our bill…
1^st — they tried charging us $ 183, for 2 hookahs, 2 plates of food and a smoothie.
2^nd– when we brought it up to our server, he than tells us we had to buy at least $ 25 minimum of somethings on the menu.
3^rd– After talking to the manager, who was very very rude and said said that he hopes we don’t come back again after arguing the outrageous price.
4^th– the owner eventually dropped it to $ 100 which was reasonable, but should have been that price the whole time.
5^th– The waiter should have told us about the minimum price when we got to our table, not after we ordered everything.
6^th– the manager is a Piece of work and does not know how to speak to his customers.
DON’T RECOMMEND THIS PLACE AT ALL!

This place is horrible.
1) The managers here are just rude.
2) Service is terrible.
3) Prices are high, 15 bucks per person to enter.
4) Never coming back!

If a place is closing soon i would expect them to have the decensy to let us know rather than sit us down and only let us know after our order has arrived that we only have 20 minutes. The worst part was we were seated at the edge on the property and the staff
lirralyh our hookahs from our mouths.

Their hookah are really good, try house special with pineapple. Pair it with your choice of BYOB drink or get their mint lemonade. Also, Get outdoor seating.
For food, stick with appetizers, because the main entrée are kinda bland.

Good place to smoke hookah (I don’t smoke so I wouldn’t be able to tell you if it is great or not). However, great prices on the hookah compared to other joints I’ve been to (blame the sister-​in-​law), and the added tip is not a bad thing at all. Their BYOB policy is a nice addition to their chicken shish tawook and Mediterranean salad.
FYI: $ 20 minimum per person on the weekends. Not a terrible amount, but feel the need to smoke that hookah to make sure my $ 20 is being spent to its last penny.

The kabab was good, the rice could have been better. Service not bad.
But the management force you to order minimum of $ 20 and also they impose a tip on you even though you are not happy with the service. In other words, when you get the bill, you already have been asked to pay a tip.
So I really wouldn’t recommend this place, particularly when you are done with your meal, by giving you the bill, they ask you to leave.

Great place for excellent hookah and good food.
Every Time I come here for hookah, I’m always satisfied and happy with the quality of it. It lasts several hours and continues to be smooth.
The food here is also SOOO good. Simple but delicious. I dunno what they do to their checking but it’s always so juicy and tender with lots of flavor!
Parking is a bit tight so in a busy night (Friday /​Saturday) you will need to park in the street, which is not too bad.
as for service, it’s also pretty darn great. During dinner, we were asked my multiple waiter and waitresses if everything is alright and if we needed Anything! We did have to send the food back once because they forgot to remove the dressing on my sisters salad, but they quickly changed it and got her another.
Overall, great service, great food, and AMAZING hookah!
Definitely going back!

The food is authentic Lebanese and excellent at that. It reminds me of the home-​cooking of our Lebanese family friend.
On weekends there’s a $ 25 minimum, per person, for hookah + food.
There’s a hookah option for the table which we always get since it’s a ton of fun. The service is really helpful in setting it up too.
You can make a meal out of the appetizers! What to get: fried Kebbeh balls, yogurt cucumber salad or Labneh pairs great with the balls. The tabbouleh, bourak (fried flutes of cheese), babaganoush, hummus, and muhammara (roasted red pepper pasta with herbs) are outstanding! My parents always get the raw Kebbeh (not for me though).
As a main dish: there’s a sampling selection of grilled meats (I forget the name) that needs to be ordered for minimum of 2. A MUST, it’s out of this world. Served on a bed of rice no less. Also, the fattoush salad is super refreshing and a good contrast to the meats.
The atmosphere: it’s a comfortable place and on Friday’s they have live middle eastern music by Sam. Everyone seems in high spirits, especially once that music gets going. It gets crowded, and people get up (respectfully away from others tables) and dance sometimes!
From this description you can probably tell this is not a place for kids.

Great hookahs, awesome mint lemonade, good customer service and it’s BYOB!
the live performance really adds on to the Arabic feel of the place .
They have parking spots available which is really convenient. For larger groups $ 25 is minimum.

Despite the amount of hookah places in this area of NJ, I find myself coming back to this one quite often. I’ll just get straight to it, the best part has to be the food and the atmosphere… OH & the BYOB! Everything else really varies depending on when you go.
The service: I’ve gotten GREAT prompt service at times and other times where you’d swear they’re making the bread from scratch with how ssssloooowww it is.
The hookah: Not too much of a selection & the one’s they offer are pretty basic. My favorite’s are the blue mist mint & watermelon mint.
The food: I think it’s safe to say I’ve tried a majority of their menu items and everything is delicious. Absolutely recommend the shish kabob entrée & if you have room for dessert– the kanafe!

I’ve been here several times and I’m really a huge fan of this place. It was my friends birthday over the weekend (party of 16) and we were planning to go somewhere else but there was a mix up. La Ziza was able to accommodate us at the last minute and seat all 16 of us upstairs around 830 pm on a Saturday night.
This place is two stories with an outside patio (only open during summer.) It is BYO, but on weekend nights the bottom floor is a minimum of $ 50 per person and plays traditional Lebanese music. The top level is a minimum of $ 25 per person and plays a combination of Lebanese music and house music. It’s a really fun and lively atmosphere, especially for birthday parties.
We sat down and they immediately started opening our wine bottles and serving us hookah. My favorite menu items are: hummus, muhammara, and the tabush (sp?) salad with chicken. Citrus mint and lemon mint hookahs are on point!
For the prices & portions this place is very reasonable. I took off 1 star because of a few issues– 1. Many of us were missing forks and had to ask twice to get them. 2. Many of us ordered rice as a side and the dishes came with french fries instead. Obviously with a party that large you’re not gonna get the best service, but it was still overall pretty good. Also, they don’t rush out out of here like some places. I really like that they let you sit and take your time.

I came here last night for the first time in a while and had a good time. So, I’m updating my bad review to a more positive one. However, I still think La’Ziza used to be a lot better than it is now.
Things you should know before coming here:
1) It’s BYOB!
2) You need to spend a minimum amount of money per person to come here. I forgot what it is exactly but it changes depending on if you’re upstairs, downstairs or outside. I wanna say it’s around $ 20 a person.
3) Make a reservation if it’s a Friday or Saturday night. They are busy until late.
4) Gratuity is always included on the bill, no matter what.
5) Their hookah is pretty sweet. You can opt to get it in a grapefruit or a pineapple bowl if you pay a little extra. I’ve had the pineapple and it’s awesome.
The service is kind of hit or miss. They are really busy a lot of the time so I understand. The food is very good! I LOVE their falafel and hummus. Also, I tried the lebna and pita chips appetizer for the first time last night and thought it was great! The seasoned pita chips were stale though. A for effort though.
The filet mignon that came out with our chef’s platter was excellent. It was a plump piece of meat cooked medium/​medium well. I would’ve preferred medium rare but whatever. It would be cool if they started asking people’s preferences on the meat. Last time I was here, the filet mignon they served was like a flat, lifeless piece of steak. It was terrible. I don’t even think it was filet mignon.
I get the feeling that if you come here later than a certain time, the quality of the food goes down (sometime past 9:30). I think it’s either because at that point they are running out of their quality ingredients or because the crowd is younger, drunker and they don’t care as much about serving them.

Haven’t been here in quite some time but yesterday made me fall in love with this place all over again. By far my favorite Lebanese restaurant in the area. I came here yesterday with my friend for some food and conversation.
This place is BYOB so make sure you stop and get some booze before you go.
We started with an order of hummus, lebne with zatar chips, and falaffel (AMAZING) shortly after the fattoush salad came out that’s one of my favorite things on the menu.
For our entrée we ordered the chefs platter to split but didn’t want the kofta so we paid extra for more filet mignon kabob.
Everything was amazing as usual and I can’t wait to come back and stuff my face some more.

The hookah here is amazing. Lately I’ve been on a hookah kick and I want to try all the different flavors so we came here last night to try it. The waitress recommended the house special– definitely was a good choice… it tasted very refreshing. We got there around 630 and it was quiet but this place got packed. There was live music and people actually got up to dance. It was fun to see. I also got the Shwarma platter to eat for dinner and that was also flavorful. Get the lemonade mint drink— yummy— I saw everyone getting them so I asked what it was and had to try it. BYOB– plus private parking lot– also a plus
They also seem to have an outdoor area– I would like to come back and try that area out.