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Do not be too alarmed if you see plumes of smoke coming out of the top deck of a new restaurant in Hanover St, Dunedin.
That is likely going to be a customer smoking a shisha at Middle Eastern restaurant Al Sultan, which opened at the beginning of July.
General manager Rabia Talal said the restaurant offered people an experience with touches of Middle Eastern culture from countries such as Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine and his and owner Mohammad Saad Aldeen’s home country Syria.
"We are not serving food only.
"We are bringing a new experience to Dunedin.
"Similar to what we have back home in Dubai or in Beirut ... this is the type of restaurant there. Open late, serving food, serving shisha upstairs."
People can buy a shisha or a hooka and sit upstairs and smoke together.
It was already popular with Arab students from the University of Otago.
"They always tell me this place reminds them of their restaurants in their countries," Mr Talal said.
Mr Saad Aldeen also owns two barber shops in Dunedin; in Mosgiel and in Princes St.
The new restaurant was able to host an Eid celebration last Saturday.
"During Eid the usual thing to do is visiting friends, visiting relatives, sharing food, buying toys for the children [and] donating money," Mr Talal said.
"Most of the [Arab] students around Dunedin, they live far away from their families. People were having their Eid meal here. I was able to hear it all the time ... people saying ‘Eid Mubarak,’ ‘Eid Mubarak,’ ... where Eid means the celebration, Mubarak means blessed."
Al Sultan gave Arab customers the comforts a restaurant from their home countries would give them, Mr Talal said.
Alternatively, many local customers had been on holiday to Middle Eastern countries and they liked the chance try some of the exotic food again.
"They still remember the name of the dish, they come here [and] open the menu and they will find it.
"It’s authentic original food. We are not trying to change it at all. All the hummus here, they made it inside in the kitchen."
Mr Talal and Mr Saad Aldeen had begun decorating the premises before the lockdown and had hoped to open much earlier in the year.
The lockdown delayed their opening until July 10.