Meer Shisha Lounge

Shisha takes me back to a cloudy part of my early twenties when my house mate bought back a giant pipe and twenty packs of double apple from Dubai (or it might have been India, either way it was somewhere hot an exotic that I’ve never been). I’ve had the odd puff at a Hookah joint on the old Kent road and am quite partial to a spot of Lebanese so went it was suggested for a Saturday night I thought, why not?
It’s an interesting place, upon entering I couldn’t work out whether we were in fact at a shisha joint or a strip club before opening hours. The dim lights… the podiums. But as we made our way upstairs and I saw the Aladdin style magic carpets I knew we were in the right place (either that or at theme night of someone with an Arabian Nights fetish)
We were then led into a smaller room off from what I presumed would later become the club area. It was your typical Hookah lounge, the menu was extensive and everything from from our student flavours of choice to shish cut from a fresh pineapple was on offer! The food on the menu was a good price and I was relieved to see my tipsy go to snack of a halluomi cheese based salad (yum), between the large group of us we sampled a variety of shisha including that pineapple bad boy.
It was a friendly environment, the drinks were well priced and I left feeling remarkably chilled out.
At least that is the excuse I gave to being adamant we got an Über instead of the last train, staying out in Cannock until two and waking up with a questionable light head and a collative of god awful sent messages.
Approach at your own risk ;-)

What a strange little place this is… Since I have been in Birmingham this venue has had many uses. Before it became Meer Shisha Lounge, it was (most memorably) a Spearmint Rhino strip club, but way back in the depths of time it must have been a grand theatre.
I have walked past this place (situated between Cherry Reds and the Victoria) many times, but have often been too nervous to set foot in the door. There are normally some tough looking types sitting outside the venue which doesn’t give it the most welcoming vibe for the casual visitor.
A group of four of us (Alex, myself, Jess and Dan) were out and about in the City on Saturday night and after a couple of drinks at Cherry Reds and a hearty meal at Rico Libre, we felt brave enough to step foot in and give it a go. Well, we’re glad we did! We were welcomed upon entry and advised that we could sit downstairs in the booths if we wanted food, but if we wanted to enjoy Shisha; we would have to head to the balcony area upstairs.
Now, to give you an idea of what it’s like downstairs, I shall do my best to paint you a mental picture… Downstairs is all silk canopies, candles and beautiful spaces where you could happily enjoy a bite to eat (I didn’t eat, but the menu looked quite decent and reasonably priced) or a drink and feel a bit like you were in the tent of an Arabian Price (rather than an ex-​strip club in Birmingham).
We wandered up and up the stairs looking for the shisha lounge. Eventually we came to a small corridor and headed inside to a worn, but comfortable area filled with all sorts of people. We grabbed a small table and were quickly greeted by a member of staff who bought us menus to peruse over. Now, I am not a big shisha smoker, but we decided this would be the place to do it and ordered an apple shisha, 3 beers and a cider.
Our shisha was bought out to us within about… 5 minutes or so and was very tasty (and traditional). The venue earned top marks for providing little plastic mouthpieces to each of us (to keep the experience more sanitary). We ended up getting another round of ciders in and watching the guys opposite us play dominoes whilst «admiring» (for want of a better word) the music and the videos on the screen above our heads.
Now, this venue isn’t posh upstairs and I certainly wouldn’t take someone here on a first date, but if you’re looking for a late night venue to grab a shisha and a chilled out beer with a group of friends this venue is recommended. It’s open until very late and a gigantic shisha (that lasted us 2 hours and was still going), 3 beers and 5 ciders was around £10 each — a price that we really didn’t mind paying. Don’t walk on by next time, why not pop in and check this out?

As someone that frequents the bars of John Bright Street, I have walked past this shisha lounge on many occasions; occasionally seeing people sitting around the couple of tables outside. The lack of windows give little indication of what’s inside, a feature presumable inherited from the building’s former days as a strip club.
A friend suggested it after we were thrown out of Cherry Reds the other night (thrown out as it was past 1am and they had closed, not for bad behaviour). Luckily, she had visited the venue before, as I would have never found my way around left to my own devices.
From the street entrance we followed a corridor around to the left before arriving at the glass entrance doors. These led into a large space that looked like a nightclub, only there were no people, not a single person besides one man stood behind the bar to the left of the lowered ‘dance area’. We walked straight past the bar and the empty nightclub space towards a flight of stairs to the back of the room. Once up the stairs we walked along a raised corridor, which led back above the bar. At the end my friend asked a gentleman if they had space for two, confirming they did, he led us through a curtained doorway.
Behind the curtain, is where all of the customers were — around twenty of them. It was their rooftop ‘smoking garden’. Although the fabric covered roof and sides meant that it didn’t feel like we were outdoors at all.
We grabbed a seat on the cushion-​covered seating that lines the perimeter of the space. Again, I was thankful of my friend’s knowledge of the venue, as there wasn’t a menu or list anywhere I could see. Not long after ordering, our shisha pipe arrived (it was smooth & flavourful) along with a raffle ticket. I can’t really compare it to other shishas, as although my housemate at university (long time ago) had a pipe, I’ve never been out to shisha bar.
The atmosphere was relaxed and chilled; men sat around playing backgammon or watching the gyrating semi naked women on what passes for music television these days. The space is dry (although the bar downstairs was fully stocked with booze), so none of the customers were noticeably drunk. Many if not all faiths and backgrounds were represented without stigma.
After finishing our shisha (which was refilled with hot rocks as needed) I was unsure how to go about settling our bill. Once again, my friend knew the drill: we walked back down the raised corridor and down the stairs to the bar in the still completely empty nightclub space, handed the man behind the bar our raffle ticket (which I now realised served as our bill number) and settled accordingly.
It was a rather different style of venue than my usual craft beer /​real ale bar haunts, as such I enjoyed it as a new experience. It’s a great example of our multicultural city working in harmony. I thought the massive empty space downstairs was a little odd, I’m not sure if they use it at other times and I missed the crowd, or it’s just a front for the shisha lounge at the back.

Not what u might expect!
Wow what a place! On a now busy John Bright street, we stumbled in here by accident-​literally. The venue is enormous! We walked through a very large dining area, which (at 10.30 pm) was nearly empty. We were led up stairs to a small room which was decorated in a Moorish style and was very busy. Lots of people chilling our and relaxing.
I didn’t see the food menu, but they had a selection of Baklavas and other sweet pastry’s on offer for £1 each. They don’t’ really promote alcohol here, but I had a large glass of white wine which was £6– didn’t taste too bad!
Not somewhere I would rush back to, but it was nice to go somewhere different!