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Halal Restaurants


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I posted this on Facebook (FB) after reading the list that DC eater put together.  I know there are many wonderful places around the DMV but this initial list consists of places that I thought help make up the landscape of the DMV.  This list is fluid and will be updated as time goes on.  I hope people enjoy it.

Recently DC eater put out a list on identifying some of the best Halal restaurants in the DMV. I applaud DC Eater on taking on this challenge but their list could use some work. The DC Eater list focused primarily on locations within DC and did not highlight the best of the best that the DC area as whole has to offer. Here is my attempt at the list. Feel free to share the post.

Ravi Kabob: I am homer to this place. It holds a special place in my heart. The karahi and choley are Punjabi soul food of the highest order. If Trump were to get elected and brown people are sent to internment camps, I hope they serve Ravi's choley and naan as part of our daily meals. Ravi is unapologetic in its personification of being the best hole in the wall in the DC area for over 15+ years.

Afghan Bistro: This family run restaurant is the new kid on the block for the DC area. This establishment has been open for less than year but is already receiving acclaim from foodies and critics alike (check out their review in Washingtonian Magazine and upcoming review in Washington Post is scheduled for publication). Make sure to check out the daily specials, which contains a lot of gems, from lamb chops, lamb shank, and chicken lawaan.

Tooso Pakistani Kitchen: Located in the heart of Sterling Virginia, this restaurant serves one of the better weekend brunches in the area. Families line up for the halva puri brunch, the nehari, and chicken tandoori are dishes that lead the way. Tooso serves one of the better version of Falooda a cold dessert consisting of rose syrup and vermicelli noodles. The service will transport you back to Pakistan. Simply chaotic.

Marib Restaurant: Yemini cuisine has recently taken off in the Washington DC area and Marib is the current gold standard for Yemini cuisine. Restaurant is named after the capital city of the Ma'rib Governorate, Yemen and was the capital of the Sabaean kingdom, which some scholars believe to be the ancient Sheba of biblical fame. Succulent tender pieces of slow roasted lamb served with rice and sahawiq.

Amina Thai: First thing. Virginians do not like to travel cross the Potomac River into Maryland or be associated with the state of Maryland in any shape or form. Now one of the few reason to ever cross the Potomac, is going to Amina Thai in Silver Spring Maryland. Authentic spicy Kaprow, drunken noodles, and panang curry lead the way at this Thai Muslim restaurant.

Curry Mantra: Located in Fairfax, VA from owner, director, producer Asad Sheikh (I think he secretly wanted to be a bollywood director growing up) who likes to compare himself to Ashok Bajaj (the restrauntuer behind the nationally acclaimed Rasika and Rasika West End in DC). With that said, Curry Mantra is a great lunch spot. Their daily buffet is one of the better lunch buffets in the region. Usually between 15-20 items available daily during lunch. Now, if you venture over during dinner time, Asad and his team serve one of the better goat biryanis in the DMV.

Ya Hala: Located in Vienna, Virginia, this authentic Lebanese cafe serves fresh middle eastern dishes ranging from shawarma, kefta meshwi, and other lebanese classics. All the meat that used comes fro their halal meat market, which is conveniently located next door. Ya Hala also caters and they have very reasonable prices.

Punjabi By Nature: I love hole in the walls. They serve some of the best food and this place is no exception. Located inside at the food court of Lotte Plaza, the Korean super grocery store, this food court stalls serves mouth watering tandoori chicken, along with egg paratha, and daal makahni. Great for people who are doing some grocery shopping and want to grab a bite too. Kids can gallop freely around the food court area while parents eat.

Aldeerah: This Saudi restaurant is the new kid on the block. it has been open for less than two years and makes this inaugural list because frankly it is literally the first Saudi restaurant to open in The DMV in the thirties years that I have lived in this area. Everyone knows that Saudi's love to eat and the furniture is very Saudiesque, over the top. Wide seats are accommodating to people with healthy appetites and who may have shunned working out for a few years. Now the food offered and served are mainly dishes from the central part of Saudi Arabia, known as “Najd." The Saudi version of samasa, potato kibba, and lamb mandi are some go to dishes.

Creekstone Farms: I saved the last spot for fine dining and neighborhood restaurants that serve Creekstone Farms beef, which is halal. I plan on expanding this out and having a top 10 list of places in the DC area that carry Creekstone Farms beef.

 

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TheGut, thank you very much for posting this here. It's an important topic, and one which I hope will receive some participation going forward. Welcome to the website, and thank you for starting of with such a substantive post.

Note that if you click on the "Halal" tag, you'll get a list of known Halal restaurants in the area, which may give people some other ideas for inclusion.

Cheers,
Rocks

---

Afghan Bistro (yesvirginia)
Ravi Kabob (TheGut)

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Maybe I'm in the minority, but I tend to treat Halal restaurants as carry-out, almost exclusively.

For me, and especially for Lady KN, alcohol is the show-stopper. It's just too hard to enjoy an hour or more of sit-down dining without a glass of wine or two.

And at the fear of sounding a little Trump-like, but noting that I am ethnically a Middle Easterner, Halal restaurants tends to be less inclusive in terms of clientele. The counterexamples, like Me Jana in Courthouse or Afghan Bistro in Springfield, draw a decidedly diverse crowd because they offer non-Halal dishes and alcohol.

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6 hours ago, Kibbee Nayee said:

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I tend to treat Halal restaurants as carry-out, almost exclusively.

For me, and especially for Lady KN, alcohol is the show-stopper. It's just too hard to enjoy an hour or more of sit-down dining without a glass of wine or two.

And at the fear of sounding a little Trump-like, but noting that I am ethnically a Middle Easterner, Halal restaurants tends to be less inclusive in terms of clientele. The counterexamples, like Me Jana in Courthouse or Afghan Bistro in Springfield, draw a decidedly diverse crowd because they offer non-Halal dishes and alcohol.

Going to have to disagree with you on halal restaurants not being inclusive.  You can go to many halal places during lunch time and most of the clientele will be non-muslim, non-halal eaters.  Maybe during dinner time the demographics might change but to say these restaurants seem or are not inclusive, is incorrect.

Now, if having a glass of wine is required with dinner, then yes you will be out of luck at most Halal restaurants.

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48 minutes ago, Kibbee Nayee said:

And at the fear of sounding a little Trump-like, but noting that I am ethnically a Middle Easterner, Halal restaurants tends to be less inclusive in terms of clientele. The counterexamples, like Me Jana in Courthouse or Afghan Bistro in Springfield, draw a decidedly diverse crowd because they offer non-Halal dishes and alcohol.

Definitely wouldn't include Amina in this category (haven't been to the Silver Spring location, but I've been going to the Rockville location for a decade).  I think most of the clientele is unaware it's halal - and those that do know probably do because Amina had to explain why they don't offer pork.

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Here is the dialogue I have with my DH on a biweekly basis that illustrates two main problems with the halal restaurants.

"Let's go out for dinner tonight".

"Not the fucking kabob or chicken karahi again."

"Oh come on. It's a restaurant."

"But are the napkins made of cloth?"

I will break it down for you. 

The first problem with halal restaurants is that they operate in a ghetto of their own making, confining themselves to the known.  This is typically the Indopak and the Middle Eastern variety, with little imagination or effort to get creative with other cuisines or thoughts. That's not to say that one doesn't ache for a good karahi at some point, just that it doesn't HAVE to be that way.

The second problem with halal restaurants is that they are *typically* lowbrow, with the majority making ample use of styrofoam containers and paper napkins. There is again nothing wrong with that, but it pigeonholes them into a box where they really have to be. I don't always want to eat in strip malls for the sake of keepin' it zabihah. 

Now the bright sides and happy exceptions, in no particular order:

 - the Iranian-owned restaurants offer *usually* a more refined tradition and approach to dining where one is more likely to find well-composed menus, able service and real utensils

- the same is sometimes true of the Iraqi restaurants but there's fewer of them

- some dishes are worth it. As are some holes in the wall. Jerusalem in Falls Church. Khan Kabob near Dulles does awesome karahi and lamb brain curry.  Kabob Corner in Tysons does dependable Afghan, with vegetable standouts. I'll have some more names tonight.

- random fact that the goat thing at Komi turned out to be halal

On 11/30/2016 at 3:17 PM, TheGut said:

Going to have to disagree with you on halal restaurants not being inclusive.  You can go to many halal places during lunch time and most of the clientele will be non-muslim, non-halal eaters.  Maybe during dinner time the demographics might change but to say these restaurants seem or are not inclusive, is incorrect.

Now, if having a glass of wine is required with dinner, then yes you will be out of luck at most Halal restaurants.

It's not the clientele. The cuisine isn't inclusive. Halal is just a way to butcher meat. It doesn't HAVE to come with a particular way of preparing it. 

The alcohol thing doesn't help, either, but Iranian restaurants are usually a happy, civilized exception. 

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5 minutes ago, Nadya said:

It's not the clientele. The cuisine isn't inclusive. Halal is just a way to butcher meat. It doesn't HAVE to come with a particular way of preparing it. 

The alcohol thing doesn't help, either, but Iranian restaurants are usually a happy, civilized exception. 

I am not following on how the cuisine is not inclusive.  Can you explain what you mean by inclusive?

 

9 minutes ago, Nadya said:

Here is the dialogue I have with my DH on a biweekly basis that illustrates two main problems with the halal restaurants.

"Let's go out for dinner tonight".

"Not the fucking kabob or chicken karahi again."

"Oh come on. It's a restaurant."

"But are the napkins made of cloth?"

I will break it down for you. 

The first problem with halal restaurants is that they operate in a ghetto of their own making, confining themselves to the known.  This is typically the Indopak and the Middle Eastern variety, with little imagination or effort to get creative with other cuisines or thoughts. That's not to say that one doesn't ache for a good karahi at some point, just that it doesn't HAVE to be that way.

The second problem with halal restaurants is that they are *typically* lowbrow, with the majority making ample use of styrofoam containers and paper napkins. There is again nothing wrong with that, but it pigeonholes them into a box where they really have to be. I don't always want to eat in strip malls for the sake of keepin' it zabihah. 

Now the bright sides and happy exceptions, in no particular order:

 - the Iranian-owned restaurants offer *usually* a more refined tradition and approach to dining where one is more likely to find well-composed menus, able service and real utensils

- the same is sometimes true of the Iraqi restaurants but there's fewer of them

- some dishes are worth it. As are some holes in the wall. Jerusalem in Falls Church. Khan Kabob near Dulles does awesome karahi and lamb brain curry.  Kabob Corner in Tysons does dependable Afghan, with vegetable standouts. I'll have some more names tonight.

- random fact that the goat thing at Komi turned out to be halal

 

"The first problem with halal restaurants is that they operate in a ghetto of their own making, confining themselves to the known.  This is typically the Indopak and the Middle Eastern variety, with little imagination or effort to get creative with other cuisines or thoughts."

 

I think people tend to forget who these immigrants are and what they had to go through to open their own establishment. I know from growing up in this area that a lot of the original kabob places that opened were by immigrants who were former taxi drivers.  People who worked maybe two-three jobs to save enough money to open their own place.  So when they do open their own place, of course they are going to trend towards what they know and that is their native cuisine. 

I don't see why if you are a kabob joint that you should now need to serve say pad thai or something along those lines to be inclusive.  You are not going to go to a kosher deli and ask them to make you a nice Italian sub with all pork.

Plus, say a place like Ravi why would you want to change?  They have customers lined up from the minute they open the doors to when they close out night.  It is a business and their customers have seemed to enjoy it for the past twenty years.

"The second problem with halal restaurants is that they are *typically* lowbrow, with the majority making ample use of styrofoam containers and paper napkins. There is again nothing wrong with that, but it pigeonholes them into a box where they really have to be. I don't always want to eat in strip malls for the sake of keepin' it zabihah."

what is wrong with styrofoam containers?  I don't see people complaining or saying these types comments towards say sandwich shops that operate in the DMV.  Or are you expecting them to provide higher quality containers?

 

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25 minutes ago, Nadya said:

Here is the dialogue I have with my DH on a biweekly basis that illustrates two main problems with the halal restaurants.

"Let's go out for dinner tonight".

"Not the fucking kabob or chicken karahi again."

"Oh come on. It's a restaurant."

"But are the napkins made of cloth?"

I will break it down for you. 

The first problem with halal restaurants is that they operate in a ghetto of their own making, confining themselves to the known.  This is typically the Indopak and the Middle Eastern variety, with little imagination or effort to get creative with other cuisines or thoughts. That's not to say that one doesn't ache for a good karahi at some point, just that it doesn't HAVE to be that way.

The second problem with halal restaurants is that they are *typically* lowbrow, with the majority making ample use of styrofoam containers and paper napkins. There is again nothing wrong with that, but it pigeonholes them into a box where they really have to be. I don't always want to eat in strip malls for the sake of keepin' it zabihah. 

Now the bright sides and happy exceptions, in no particular order:

 - the Iranian-owned restaurants offer *usually* a more refined tradition and approach to dining where one is more likely to find well-composed menus, able service and real utensils

- the same is sometimes true of the Iraqi restaurants but there's fewer of them

- some dishes are worth it. As are some holes in the wall. Jerusalem in Falls Church. Khan Kabob near Dulles does awesome karahi and lamb brain curry.  Kabob Corner in Tysons does dependable Afghan, with vegetable standouts. I'll have some more names tonight.

- random fact that the goat thing at Komi turned out to be halal

It's not the clientele. The cuisine isn't inclusive. Halal is just a way to butcher meat. It doesn't HAVE to come with a particular way of preparing it. 

The alcohol thing doesn't help, either, but Iranian restaurants are usually a happy, civilized exception. 

Its a breath of fresh air reading your post. 

Im a fangirl. 

I think others are as well!

 

Missing the District!!

kat

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I am an immigrant married to an immigrant, and a mother of two children with weird names so they are as good as immigrants. So trust me when I tell you that I have nothing but respect for immigrants, for those who work three jobs, and bust ass to create better lives for their family by opening businesses in a tried-and-true mold.  This isn't the point.

How the cuisine isn't inclusive: Say I'm someone who only eats halal.  Where can I get a fancy French meal? A well-made pizza? Awesome Chinese? A damn burger? A steak?  Why must I be limited to kabobs and karahis? Halal isn't a cuisine. Muslim isn't a cuisine. But the facts on the ground are that those who opt for halal-only diet must necessarily, more often than not, limit themselves to a set of restaurants of a particular origin.  And that doesn't have to be the case. 

There's nothing wrong with styrofoam containers, and with two small kids, I need all the paper napkins I can get. All I'm saying is that I once in a while want to go to a restaurant that has actual cloth napkins and good silverware.  There are very few restaurants that use halal meat and fit this description, compared to other types of restaurants. I don't see how acknowledging this is in any way controversial. 

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1 minute ago, Nadya said:

I am an immigrant married to an immigrant, and a mother of two children with weird names so they are as good as immigrants. So trust me when I tell you that I have nothing but respect for immigrants, for those who work three jobs, and bust ass to create better lives for their family by opening businesses in a tried-and-true mold.  This isn't the point.

How the cuisine isn't inclusive: Say I'm someone who only eats halal.  Where can I get a fancy French meal? A well-made pizza? Awesome Chinese? A damn burger? A steak?  Why must I be limited to kabobs and karahis? Halal isn't a cuisine. Muslim isn't a cuisine. But the facts on the ground are that those who opt for halal-only diet must necessarily, more often than not, limit themselves to a set of restaurants of a particular origin.  And that doesn't have to be the case. 

There's nothing wrong with styrofoam containers, and with two small kids, I need all the paper napkins I can get. All I'm saying is that I once in a while want to go to a restaurant that has actual cloth napkins and good silverware.  There are very few restaurants that use halal meat and fit this description, compared to other types of restaurants. I don't see how acknowledging this is in any way controversial. 

thank you for the clarification. 

There are many places that are fine dining that serve halal meat.  Quick google search on Creekstone Farms will lead people to restaurants that Creekstone Farms beef in the DC area (Del Campo, Blue Duck Tavern, Osteria Morini, RPM Italian...).  People who only eat halal (I  do not eat halal) use the zabihah app, which helps them locate restaurants.

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Just now, Nadya said:

Thanks for the zabhiah tip, that's helpful.

no problem.  Another tip, pretty much all the lamb that comes from New Zealand is halal and it can also be purchased at Trader Joe's too.  So when you see "New Zealand lamb chops" on the menu, good chance it is halal.

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Decided to take advice from Pool Boy and challenge my palet while enjoying the food undistracted. The downside to House of Mandi is, of course, alcohol-free since it is halal.  This is the second time I've been. While I very much enjoyed the first time, I thought last night's dinner was bland (needed salt), under-spiced (and I don't even like things too hot) and our lamb portion more gristle and bone than meat. 

Though under-salted, I very much enjoyed the salta, probably, of course, because of the massive amount of okra (though too many potatoes). The menu on the link below is not the one we were handed last night and I can't recall what the lamb dish was... It was basically roasted lamb and rice. 

I should mention that the rice was fabulous and I have a very refined rice palet. 

http://www.houseofmandi.us/

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