Fumari Hookah Lounge

What a great little gem in SD! This place is the perfect go to spot when you just want a semi chill night out. Food, beer, and hookah… what more could you ask for!??
The place is a very small hookah lounge with outdoor seating as an option. Staff members are very warm and welcoming. Ambiance and atmosphere is great and makes it the perfect place to chill.

Best hookah bar in downtown SD! Don’t walk past this place! Very friendly and knowledgeable staff. Thank you to Jake for the hospitality and to Devin for being so knowledgable. He put together a great hookah for us (we were clueless) after asking what we like. The tea was great too!

It was cousins night & my cousin wanted to go to a hookah lounge. I saw this place opened at 7 so I figured we can start there and since we are already downtown after the hookah lounge we can just walk down the street and go elsewhere (club /​bar). We ended up staying the whole night! It was fun they were raffling off prizes, the crowd was nice the staff was friendly, very engaging and also knowledgeable. We ordered 3 hookahs and 1 refill (there were 5 of us) sandwiches and drinks (happy hour) it wasn’t too pricey for all of it we payed 94.00! It was a good time I’ll definitely be returning soon! Thank you Fumari for a fun Saturday night!

This is probably the best lounge in downtown SD. Its not bcz of quality parts because i am not a fan of silver tab coals. Its bcz they take pride in their products, especially their tobaccos, and want people to experience the taste and smoke in purest way possible. I use coconut coals with a funnel bowl when I smoke at my house. However, lot of ppl have prejudice against these silver-​tab coals as if theyre quicklights. These silvertab coals are bamboo wooden coals with magnesium silver coating around it. If used and managed properly, it can produce awesome, clean, tasteful clouds. The coals they use have no nasty odor n sulfur, opposed to circular quicklights. Silver tab coals take about 5 – 10 to light up if using the ember from a used coal or about 2 minutes if u use the burner. Quicklights can fully light up within 30 seconds using a lighter.
My advice on managing these silver-​tab coals although everyone has their own way of doing it is, when they serve the hookah out, they have 3 lit ones placed like a grid in L-​shape. Treat them like quadrants you learn in your math course and assume there are 3 quadrants filled. Place one new piece of silver tab coal on top of a middle lit coal. As you smoke, the new coal u placed on top of the lit coal will slowly light up. Once that coal is fully lit as u smoke, use ur tongs n place the newly lit coals onto an empty quadrant n smoke. Now coals r placed like a grid with all quadrants filled. After few minutes of smoking, place another piece on top of newly lit coal you just placed onto an empty quadrant n smoke until it is fully lit. Now from here, u can remove one of the two coals nxt to it n then place the newly lit coal onto that same spot. Based on what coal u removed, if u removed the coal thats left of the spot u used to light up the coal, u wanna keep repeating the process clockwise while if u removed the coal right of it, u will want to repeat the process in counter-​clockwise. As you remove coals to replace those spots with newly lit coals, lightly blow out ashes from the spot away from the bowl so that you do not place ur new coal over the ash.
This is just the way I manage my coals with these silver tabs. You may use this as a template but everyone has their own way of doing it n as u smoke, you might find a better way of managing coals than this. This is just a method I use with these coals n works out fine. I am just explaining this for people who r not familiar with these coals of how they work. You may ask any of the workers here if you got questions regarding this. The beauty of these coals is that they output low heat, hence not burning out ur bowl fast and at the same time, taste the flavor more.
I personally just use funnel bowl with coconut coals to taste the flavor since funnel bowls hold the juice n coconut coals get big smoke while not needing to keep managing the coals when i smoke in my house for at least 40 minutes before i pop 2^nd round of coals onto the burner. Only downside to this opposed to silver tab coals is, as coconut coals get weaker, smoke gets weaker while for silver tab coals, thick smoke density will always be consistent bcz u are managing n rotating coals constantly. My method will burn out faster opposed to silver tab coals since im using coconut coals. But i am an impatient person when it gets to smoking n my smoking sessions r between 1 – 2 hours opposed to silver tab method, that can go on for several hours if u have enough silver tab coals to keep repeating the process. So i like to get my smoke in quickly n my smoking session is short between 1 – 2 hours.
Workers here are very friendly n chill.
They serve food n drinks also.
I like the fact that they have samples of all flavors in mini tubes for people to smell n decide what they want, opposed to most lounges that just give out menus. Ive had experience in other lounges where i would order some fruit flavor from other brand just over the fact that i like certain fruit, but smoke turns out artificial and nasty. So its thoughtful of them to let ppl smell the flavor first before making their decision.

I thoroughly enjoy Fumari… the employees are tons of fun to be around. They make you feel like family. The atmosphere here is tons of fun and very relaxing. I will definitely make this a regular stop to relax and chill!

Couldn’t decide if it’s a 3 or a 4 star but I went with 4 seeing that I prefer to go to Fumari anytime I’m in SD.
They’ve remodeled the place. New banquettes and tables make it more modern and lounge-​y whereas before it was literally tables and chairs, ala restaurant style.
They serve their brand of tobacco, which is very good quality and what I use at home. Their hookahs are the best in the business — KM (handmade from Egypt). The hoses are also authentic KM. The benefit is not only fit but also its larger gauge which makes for a better draw. Can you tell I know my hookah’s?!
Ok, so why couldn’t I decide between a 3 or a 4 stars? My biggest itch was that I don’t prefer the charcoal they use. Yes, they are the good Japanese charcoals (the silver ones), but I am not one for self lighting charcoals, and where I have to light them myself. See the problem with that is that when you put a non-​lit charcoal on a lit one it will effectively reduce the heat it is producing and reduce its burn time. Should they have someone going around taking care of this for their guests? Yes, absolutely, especially for the price you pay for your session. Can you ask them to bring you more charcoal? Yes and they gladly did when I asked. So 4 stars. BTW the charcoal of choice are Coco Nara’s. They are long lasting and made of coconuts and are not instant start.
Something to note, they charge $ 1 more to put ice in the hookah base. Not sure what thats all about, but I found that you don’t need it as you get a very good session out of the quality tobacco and hookah.
Happy Hookah!

AMAZING customer service, yummy tasting hookah and chill atmosphere. The staff is very kind and on top of their game. If you find yourself in Downtown San Diego and want to smoke hookah, this is the place to go

Definitely didn’t live up to what I had hoped. The name is so legendary you would think it would be phenomenal. but it wasn’t. Staff seemed to be all newbies with some weird way of burning the coals and packing them that all all four of us confused-​who smoke all the time in Vegas and some have worked in lounges before! They were extremely friendly and very courteous but I wouldn’t go back. They also hold your card as well, so make sure you have responsible people in your party so you don’t get charged for them too.
Oh and they also don’t play music, they recently renovated to a smaller lounge style as well. We ended up leaving and went to Pasha. Would recommend them-​especially for hip hop Sunday’s.

Had an absolute blast here. I loved the vibe inside and the hookah pricing isn’t bad. Definitely a solid spot.

They refuse to give you two hoses for the one hookah that costs 25 dollars even though the hookah as an additional hole for a second hose. They do this on the sole purpose you have to purchase a second hookah. And the employees were very rude and short. I would suggest finding a different place to go

A small little place that barely had 2 people, went down the street to Art Hookah instead. Staff was not really friendly and made a huge deal about IDs.

Very cool place, we were here on a Monday night and enjoyed a fumari blend. We would go back again!

I used to come here all the time and absolutely loved it however, I am so upset with the customer service here. I called to ask a question and the lady at the front desk was so rude and she hung up on me. I had asked if a picture of a valid drivers license and a college ID would be sufficient to get in. She instantly said no because it has to be issued by the govt. Keep in mind I do have a valid license but my ID was stolen along with my wallet. Considering I don’t have my birth certificate, this was the best I could do. She continued to talk over me for about 10 seconds. I asked her to please stop talking over me because I was trying to explain my situation. She sounded so shocked that I had asked her this. After this she told me to find another hookah lounge and hung up. So rude.

I have to start this review by saying you have to come experience this place for yourself. I was in San Diego 3 months ago and didn’t come here based on the 3.5 review. I had a friend come out and tell me to come experience for myself and I’m glad I did. I’ve been in San Diego for 4 days and this is my second time in. The doorman Don was very welcoming and made you feel at home. The manager Lauren also constantly came by to see how we were doing. I came on a Friday night and a Monday night and both experiences were outstanding. The people complaining about coals don’t know what they are talking about. Both times we smoked for over two hours and it was smooth the whole time. Flavors are outstanding, and customer service is best I’ve experienced anywhere. A big thanks to both Don and Lauren for making us feel like close friends. One word to describe this place OUTSTANDING!!!

Great hookah; Fantastic service; friendly atmosphere I recommend it to all hookah lovers, and the ice tea was tasty

I was vacationing in San Diego and found out that two of the three biggest names in hookah, Tangiers and Fumari, are based out of the area! Tangiers was closed, so I came to Fumari for some hookah.
It’s a lounge atmosphere, leather couches and alcohol served. They play music hip-​hop music videos. The flavors are actually kept in test tubes so you can smell them before choosing. Pretty cool, but scent doesn’t always translate to what the hookah will actually taste like.
They have a decent selection of craft beer. I grabbed an Arrogant Bastard. For hookah, we opted for the Mandarin Zest. Good flavor, but this place doesn’t offer fruit bowls. They also didn’t offer coal service. Instead, they provided low heat silver coated coals, so we could light them ourselves. If we ran out of coals, we’d have to buy more. Good business strategy, but that’s not what I like in a hookah bar.

Pros:
Hookahs are good.
Coal isn’t the self lighting type.
Service is good.
Con’s:
expensive! $ 22 minimum for first hookah.
Also, they limit you to 7 pieces of coal. What? You’re forced to give up a perfectly good bowl because u run out of coal.

Let me start off by saying I’m a regular smoker. If I’m home, I’m smoking. I was born in Syria and I’ve been smoking it since I was about 9. I was raised in Vegas so now I’m going to compare it to all my favorite lounges out there.
Okay now I think that it is a little too over priced for what they offer. I asked for them to mix 3 flavors together and they thought I was weird for it which I didn’t really care for. The girls were really cool and outgoing!
I wasn’t a fan of how small the place was. Fumari is a pretty big name and I thought it would be much bigger than it was. I’m just glad that we went on a slower day. I’ve seen small lounges that are much bigger.
They use Japanese coals which I hate almost as much as quick lights. I’m very picky and I only like coconut coals like coco nara or black diamond.
Overall, I wasn’t too thrilled about this place. I expected more, seeing as how they’re from San Diego.

This place is small, clean and gets the job done. It’s not very authentic though. I would have loved to hear some Middle Eastern music sprinkled in with the hip hop and rap. Also they don’t use the best charcoal, it’s the self light kind. They give you about 6 – 8 pieces of charcoal and once those have burned out they make you buy another hooka. I understand they are doing it because they are trying to control patrons and keep them from sitting here for hours while spending minimally. However, I asked for one more piece and they wouldn’t give it to me. There is no reason to buy another hooka when the tobacco still hasn’t burned out.

Very good service. I love the waitress in this place. We go there a few times a week. Good quality hookah, I enjoy it. Place gets very busy on weekends like any downtown places.
This place truly deserve 4 stars but no more than that.