A hookah lounge (also called a shisha bar or den, especially in Britain and parts of Canada, or a hookah bar) is an establishment where patrons share shisha (flavoured tobacco) from a communal hookah or from one placed at each table or a bar.

In Western countries, shisha parlors are often owned and operated by people from the Arab world or the Indian subcontinent where use of the hookah is a centuries-old tradition. Many shisha parlors incorporate such elements as Islamic decor and Arabic music or Indian Islamic music and have traditional decor, but some are simply bars without the eastern cultural elements.

In the United States and Europe, shisha parlors are most popular in college towns and urban areas and are regarded by enthusiasts as a novel and chic way to socialize. Certain parlors offer modern hookahs with fruit bowls or other kinds of improvements over smoking hookah at home. Some people of Middle Eastern or South Asian extraction consider them a continuation of their own cultural traditions. However, shisha parlors nowadays often distance themselves from the eastern cultures by offering hookah and alcohol without the cultural elements. These bars differ from other bars only in the fact that they offer hookah. ^{[citation needed]}

Usually a disposable mouthpiece is provided for each user for hygienic reasons. When alcohol is not sold, shisha parlors derive revenue from sales of coffee, tea, soft drinks and snack foods.^{[citation needed]}

Some shisha parlors have well-equipped kitchens and are more akin to bistros. In the broadest sense, any restaurant or nightclub can be considered a shisha parlor or club if it offers patrons hookahs, shisha and a comfortable place to smoke. Some offer Middle Eastern cuisine menu items.

In the United States, due to several state tobacco control laws, many shisha bars have made the transition from offering tobacco shisha to herbal shisha, which is tobacco-free and can legally be smoked indoors in areas that have restrictions on tobacco smoking. Although herbal shisha does not contain tobacco or nicotine, when burned it does produce harmful chemicals, including heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which can cause cancer and heart disease. These harmful chemicals are breathed in both by smokers and bystanders.

The origins of hookah are controversial, even though most agree that it started either in ancient Persia or the Indian subcontinent.

Hookah smoking is common in many European and other countries including: