Levant | Restaurant & Lounge

The hookah itself was nothing out of the ordinary. I came here for my birthday and when we asked for water twice, we never got it. There are NO alcoholic drinks and the hookah is quite overpriced. Service takes forever!

This place is terrible. Hookah was overpriced, and came after 25 mins. It took even longer to get a fresh juice. Would not recommend this place what so ever. And oh they think I should have made a reservation before I came, gtfo.

inhospitable waitresses (most important), food and hookah was ok (not even good, just ok. i probably wont go there again just because of the service i was provided.

Highway robbery. No other way to describe this place. How in the world do you not have water? Then make customers pay $ 3 for «sparkling water» which is really just a bottle of deer park. This place is awful …

It is one of the nice middle eastern cafes to come to around Tyson corner .It has a very nice turkish coffee, tea and really nice sitting with a group
It is nice and quite pace

Nice location but a bit too expensive and the wait staff weren’t too responsive.

Hookahs were clean. Our server spoke barely any English. Very difficult to get things right.
In VA, by law, every food establishment, has to provide water free of charge… They refused to serve water without charging, When I asked the waitress, she told me they dont have water to serve unless its bottles. Typically I would have just walked out at this point, but I ran out of charcoal for my sheesha at home.
Food wasnt terrible, Just had the hummos and bourek. Refused to spend more money because of the water «policy».
I am certain I will file a complaint about this.

My first experience at a hooka establishment. Food was delicious. Waitress was very attentive. She suggested appetizer sampler that was not the menu. It was delicious! So was dessert. Shared a chicken and beef dish… So delicious but don’t remember the name. Don’t matter… Going back and trying more dishes with the hubby. We were there for 6 pm dinner. It was very crowded by 8 pm. Seems like a hot spot any 8:30.

I have been to many hookah places in the area, this is the best … Friendly staff, good food, prices are average .
Huge parking lots in the backyard .
Very relaxing and clean couches .
The only putting downs are the reserved tables
Always the best corners are reserved, even when there is no customers !!

This place is a 100% authentic Arab restaurant. For those of you who have been to the Middle East you know what I’m talking about. Service is consistently slow, water is served from a bottle with a straw, prices are high for the portions — while certainly not every Arab restaurant in the Middle East fits that mould, many that I have been to in Jordan, Lebanon and Oman do. But the ambiance — I love it. The servicing dishes. The seating. I feel like I’m not in Virginia any more. Food is not excellent but certainly above average and while everyone has complained of slow service I personally haven’t experienced it here though this is my first time. I will update after a few more visits. And the hookah, its fantastic though very expensive. One last thing, the bread is sub par. Definitely not fresh.
Update: Holy s#it this place is expensive. Probably won’t be back.

Loved the food! the atmosphere and the service! It’s for sure my new favorite spot in town.
One negative comment is about the manager though, we were trying to change where they seated me and my friends but he was very rude about it.

So the place looks nice. But its just a jinned up hookah bar. The food is ridiculously overpriced and the portions are laughably small. The hamburger was literally on par with one you would make at home in a frying pan using dry meat. The shawarma was a couple strips of meat in a tiny sandwich. No tap water, only bottled (just an excuse to make money). Be careful on weekends they have a weird and frankly stupid policy of charging extra per head if its a big group. Not like the place is packed or there is a line anyway. Best to just avoid.

After reading all the horrible reviews I had no expectations. It was late and I was at a point I could eat a human and they were open and had the food I could and like to eat so…
The hookah smoking area looked spacious and quite nice with sofas, low tables with candles and soft light while the non-​smoking section was small looked too bright for my taste, I’d dim the lights a little bit there.
The food selection was pretty impressive. I picked lentil soup and aubergine salad. Liked them both. In fact, the soup was one of the most delicious lentil soups I’ve ever tried. Salad had a perfect combination of crunchy juicy veggies and lightly fried eggplant generously covered with tahini sauce.
There is no alcohol on the menu which is not a big deal to me. What surprised me that water only comes in a plastic bottle and ice tea in a can and the only ice tea they have is flavored (16g of sugar!!!)…I would don’t see why such simple beverages as ice tea and water can’t be served like in other places. An attempt to make more money on water and ice tea? Really?!
The sever was very polite but no more than that. The manager came at the end and asked how the food was and gave a 10% discount card for the next time.
Looks like the restaurant is trying to get it together so don’t see any reason not to come back.

I’ve been to this place a few times now, resin being its conveniently located and offers hookah. The first time we ordered some mezza’s (little Lebanese plates of hommos, falafel, others). The food was below average. I could swear the hommos came from a container, same one you would buy at any grocery store.
We went another time. We were hungry and ordered entrees. Nothing tasted fresh or prepared by a chef. Ok hookah only! Up till now I would’ve given the place a few more stars until I heard this story:
A few of my guy friends (6) to be specific went there and wanted to sit outside. The place wasn’t busy. The waiters asked if they were going to order food or just hookah and said they don’t want 6 people sitting in their restaurant and ordering 1 hookah, how rude. They guys didn’t plan to order one for 6.
One of the guys asked for a glass of water and was told they can serve him a bottle but no glass. He said he just wanted a glass of ice water, the waiter said no. The guy agreed on the bottle till this other guy came out, may be the manager??? And asked if they had a problem. They said no. He said: no I think you have a problem. Finish your hookahs and leave!!! how crazy is that??? Do these owners know what their staff is doing? How do you expect to run a business this way? Seriously no words to express. Of course none of us are ever going back to that place!

I wish I could give this place no stars. The service is terrible. The «manager» constantly questions his waitress/​waitressing staff in front of the customers which is very uncomfortable to watch.
A few friends and I asked for two more chairs on a Sunday night so we could sit outside with a few others and the manager came over and practically told us we were «ruining his plan and causing him trouble» because he thought we only had a certain number of people coming (5 instead of 7 people). Keep in mind this was at 11 PM on a Sunday and the place was practically close to empty. He proceeded to scold us for asking him for chairs and actually told to ladies I was with to shut up and speak only when he is done speaking. I don’t know about you but I don’t think that’s how customer service is supposed to work.
The service there is awful (have been here a few times and always spend more time waiting on the server than actually enjoying hookah and food). The hookahs hardly ever work properly and the manager is a very disrespectful and rude person. He actually makes it seem like he doesn’t want to make his business successful.
I gave this place a few tries and wanted to like it but, me and most of my friends and family will never be coming back. I’ve only heard negative things about this place from numerous people that have been there.
We will NEVER be coming back.

2.75 Stars
What happens when you have a table full of young but cynical Iraqis sitting next to a table of lecherous young Saudi male students gawking at the women in the aforementioned group in a Lebanese fashioned restaurant? I’ll let someone else fill in the blanks. Levant Restaurant and Lounge is a hookah bar that serves light pedestrian provisions with surprisingly good interior space. However, it’s located in a rather uninteresting plaza in a rather uninteresting part of Tyson’s that attracts quite the eclectic mix of characters much in evidence to the fun collection of douche-​mobiles in the parking lot — yellow Dodge Chargers, bright green Camaros, matte-​painted Corvettes, electric blue Challengers with huge spoilers, etc. Give me a break!
Levant trades in ‘Levantine Mezze cuisine’ — a kind of moniker that is often associated with Americanized and watered-​down version of the traditional delicious Lebanese spread you would get in Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, and other parts of the Levant. American Mezzes usually rid themselves of all the delicious and interesting things like lightly seared and salted chicken livers, pan fried calves brains in garlic butter and lemon sauce, thinly sliced lamb tongues accompanied by a panoply of freshly brined pickles, a plate of seared sardines, or a heap of fresh shad roe with scallions — none of that. Instead it’s the usual tedium of canned olives, humus, baba ghanoush, arayas, and some kind of «char-​grilled» protein in a piece of pita bread. Super boring. Even the tea is boring.
I’ve observed that the service is largely lethargic and downright unsatisfactory — too much staff, too little action. It looked like a chadre of middle school simpletons arguing either with customers or in front of customers with other coworkers — AWKWARD! Both the management and the staff need to ditch the churlish behavior, put their phones away, and serve the customers some good food from the heart. With swanky interior space, nice outdoor seating, live traditional Arabesque music, and a good variety of hookahs, this could be a go-​to spot for hookah-​enthusiast.

This place used to be a dump. Like the kind of shisha place you’d find in the back alleys of Cairo where people would stare at you till you finally realized you’re not one of them and would leave. Levant is actually pretty swanky, it’s got a completely redesigned interior and gotta say I like it. It’s more of a restaurant than a hooka lounge however which isn’t a bad thing because most lounges these days think they’re night clubs and play music way too fucking loud and you can’t even have a conversation with the person next to you without shouting. The food is also surprisingly good, our table tried a bunch of things and we were all pretty happy with our orders. One more thing, the waitresses seem to be new to the job but they’re extra kind and attentive which is hard seeing how crowded it can get on a Friday night.
Better than Friends’ kabob, Mint, Babalu, anything else in the Tysons area.

My friend and I stopped by levant to get some dessert to go… Mamoune «the manager» was very kind and generous to us!
We got the katayef filled with nuts. They were DELICIOUS! they make them Fresh. The chocolate cake wasn’t great but okay! I wasn’t crazy about it. Wish I’ve ordered more of katayef instead the cake.
The place it self is pretty nice, simple and cozy.
It’s a hookah place but they have a separate section for a none smokers.
The service was excellent!
Thank you Maamoune for your hospitality! And we can’t wait to come back :)

2.5 ish stars…
Well, the replaced LZ (lebanon zeman) with another hookah bar. The layout is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. I mean this restaurant did a complete 180. The old LZ was wooden chairs and tables, all mismatched, and men crammed inside playing cards and smoking hookah. Now it is a lounge… as in… nice low couches, nice tables with marble tops, aesthetically really pleasing.
I don’t see how people complain about the hookah price, I mean near seminary (where there is a lot of hookah), it’s about 20 $ as well. The only thing that irked me was they charge you for using a disposable hose. You don’t exactly have a choice there… The hookah tasted clean and fresh and not like old stale hookah.
We got the nutella fondue, which was indulgent but not bad. Also, the french fries which were meh.
The service here is horrendous. I mean SERIOUSLY horrendous. Well, the server we had anyway. I think we asked for water 4x before someone finally brought it to us. The front desk host was who saved the crap service. She was really nice and attentive. She basically helped us throughout the night when needed. After the server took our hookah order, he was never to be seen again.
Anywho, maybe I’ll come back. This location is super close to my friends house and a lot more bearable than Friends (hs galore there).

The good: good outdoor seating, separate smoking and non-​smoking sections inside, good décor, more like a lounge instead of a club, clean restrooms, ample parking behind the restaurant, attentive and helpful staff and chef, great non-​Americanized ethnic food, specifically Iraqi Syrian (Levant) cuisine, perfect prices for food quality and presentation, awesome hookah which were also well cleaned.
Our group of six ordered several dishes on the menu and all of them were really good.
The bad: the fries were run of the mill frozen fries that you get from grocery stores which I’m not a fan of, dessert menu was very limited and generic (they should have more ethnic variety options), bread quality needs improvement (should be freshly baked) outdoor seats and tables weren’t as comfortable or good quality as those inside, hookah flavors were limited but they had most of the good stuff, outdoor seating lighting is a little too bright at night.