Bubble Lounge

Walked in and the girl seemed annoyed that we were interrupting her «Charmed» marathon. The place is extremely dirty. Wires are exposed everywhere. Couches were ripped and dirty, trash all over the floor. Grossly overpriced hookah ($ 21 for one hose for two people! Rip off!). The entire place is disgusting. Restroom door would not even close, doesn’t lock for privacy. Think «Trainspotting» toilet scene before going into the restroom. Words cannot describe how absolutely filthy this place is. Will never go back.

I’ve been here a couple times cool if you want to come lounge with friends because it’s empty. But with two people might be a little boring

The bubble lounge is one of those hookah lounges that is it’s location. The hookah bowl was packed great, however, the lounge was completely empty_​the guys at the front looked surprised to see me. The first time smoking here a year back, it was filled with 16 year olds looking for a hookah to bum off of. The bubble lounge has the location and potential to become a great spot— if it checked IDs regularly and did more to attract more people. Cheap, good bowl, but boring.

If you check my reviews, I rarely hit a place with the one star as I can generally see some merit in every place and because it’s actually really hard to be that bad. However, some places seem deadset on disgusting the average customer and Bubble Lounge pretty much fits that bill.
I went here once about 5 years ago on New Year’s eve (can’t remember if it went by the same name or if it was run by the same folks) and had a good time. Back then, I still thought smoking hookah was cool and hadn’t given much thought as to how horrible for your health it is— if you’re interested, Google the NY Times story on the health effects from about a year ago.
Anyhow, I came back about two weeks ago, not for the hookah but just to check the place out since I was barhopping with some out-​of-​towners. The bouncer took my ID and we had a regular exchange, no problem. I start heading in, but then I hear him tell my friends — not me!— that there’s a cover. It’s like 10 PM so there shouldn’t be a cover anywhere at this time (at least by NYC standards where everything’s free before 12 and I expect the same here) and I immediately spun in my tracks and said «Are you serious? Does that come with hookah or what?»
Rather than answer my question, the bouncer looks up at me (probably the exact moment when his Napoleon complex kicked in) and said, «You need to get out of my face. You need to learn some etiquette.»
These comments had me more surprised than the supposed $ 10 cover that dude was trying to charge us. I responded in a level-​headed fashion, assuring him that I was nowhere near his face and didn’t need guidance on etiquette. He became argumentative and I said «Eff it, let’s be out, they don’t want our business.»
As we were walking away, the bouncer continued to run his mouth and I everntually had to shout at him «That’s why your business is empty you piece of …»
I stand by those words. If you want a successful business, you don’t create cover charges arbitrarily and you definitely don’t charge them when your place is empty and it’s BEFORE 12. Furthermore, you don’t pick fights with customers based on what you perceive as a slight.
Do yourself a favor, wander further down the strip and find another spot like The Library or the Anodyne where, believe it or not, the bouncers are more civil and you WON’T get charged to get in before 12, if at all.

My wife and a few friends hung out at Bubble Lounge when we were visiting Albuquerque and we really had a fun time there. We lounged on the comfy chairs, got to see a belly dancer perform, played some pool, and got some hookah on! It’s a hopping place with good music pumping and a bit of fog machine even. There is some dancing and some lounging. Most of the crowd was younger than us (you can get in at 16, but lots college age too) and pounding Monster drinks :) I was surprised the hookah and everything really wasn’t that expensive at all, and the staff were great. Definitely check it out. Thanks to Ahmad and Pooneh!