I had been missing good Halal food for a while when a friend discovered Oasis Grill & Pizza in Providence, Rhode Island. After a little insistence, we made the  half-hour trip and I was pleasantly surprised to find an Oasis in Rhode Island (pun intended). After arriving, we were met with a very nice waitress who let us sit where we wanted. It is important to note that Oasis serves Hookah. There is a separate family dining area if you’re trying to escape a smoking atmosphere.

One of the times we went we got boneless buffalo wings as an appetizer; another time we had the hummus. I really liked the hummus and enjoyed the presentation of the dish and was appreciative for an appropriate amount of bread for the amount of hummus given. I hate going to restaurants that give a bunch of hummus and not enough bread, but that’s not a problem at Oasis. The buffalo wings were pretty good but I would recommend the hummus over it.

As for entrées, I’ve tried a bunch of the things on the menu, from the buffalo chicken sandwich to the 1/2 pound burgers, but above all my favorite was definitely the steak & cheese on a sub. They cook the steak to perfection and then oozy cheese (my mouth is watering just typing about it). The buffalo chicken sandwich is a little too buffaloey (hard to describe but as a person who LOVES buffalo chicken, something just seemed off). The buffalo chicken pizza is good and a great item to share amongst friends as you wait for more items.

They have various deserts and teas as well. I prefer going to the store in the back and getting some baklava. The store in the back is great, especially for a poor student like me. They have chicken and beef steaks and a wide variety of essentials needed to cook. The store also sells hookahs and other affiliated items.

Oasis is right across the street from the Islamic Center of Rhode Island.

Pictures

Recommendations

Hummus as an appetizer

Steak & Cheese on a sub – add the fries for only 99 cents more

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Rating

Food: 3.0 – Buffalo Chicken was a little off (too much buffalo sauce)

Value: 4.0 – very reasonably priced

Service: 4.5 – Great service from all the staff, very friendly

Decor: 4.0 – well decorated

Overall - 3.5/5

Halal Rating

Full Halal Menu – Halal Meat store in back of Restaurant

Location

220 Broad St, Providence RI 02903

Contact

Phone: (401)228-6333

Website: http://www.oasisri.com – Website doesn’t work

As for food, based on where Ming III is located (Central MA), it’s a great option for those looking for Halal Chinese. The place is reasonably priced, but could get pricey for students. The average entrée was priced at roughly $15, and was enough for two people to eat from. If you split the cost, it’s a great price for students or anyone else for that matter. The Crispy Chicken with Honey appetizer was by far my favorite appetizer of the night, with the Cauliflower Manchurian coming in second. All the non-noodle entrées came with white jasmine rice but my favorite entrée was definitely the Hakka Noodle Chicken. We had gotten it spicy and boy did it taste good! I initially ordered Chicken in Garlic Sauce for myself (Mild), but found it to be slightly undercooked and not spicy enough; which is probably my fault for getting it Mild instead of Hot.

Desert was beautifully presented; it’s not on the menu and thus they walk around with the deserts and allow you to see what you want before you get it. The presentation of how the deserts were presented definitely helped and they all tasted good. My personal favorite was the mango sorbet in the white chocolate ball.

The service was great with all the waitresses and waiters helping us; we had 20 people come to the dinner. They charged 18% gratuity, something that is automatically included in the bill if you have 5 or more people.

They don’t have formal menus, instead they have laminated papers which act as the menu. It’s only been open for three months, but they seemed to have a steady client base and reservations are recommended.

Pictures

Recommendations

Crispy Chicken w/ Honey sauce

Hakka Noodle Chicken

Sweet & Sour Chicken

Rating

Food: 3.5 – Chicken in Garlic Sauce was slightly undercooked,

Value: 3.0 – average $15 entrées

Service: 4.5 – Great service from all the staff, very friendly

Decor: 4.5 – very well decorated

Overall - 3.5/5

Halal Rating

Full Halal Menu – viewed receipts and received verbal assurances from owner

Location

291 Turnpike Rd., Westborough MA 01581

Contact

Phone: (508)366-0090

Website: http://www.ming3mass.com – Website doesn’t work

Since it was a weekday afternoon, we got just in time for a lunch time for the lunch special. The place is located near bus & subway stops so its easily accessible. After getting seated we were pleasantly greeted with a salty treat as we decided on our order. We decided to get an order of General Toa’s Chicken & Hunan chicken. The meals came with a soup and we both opted for hot & sour soup.

The soups came out very fast and were chunky & thick. The tofu was surprisingly very delicious. Soon after that the both dishes came out. At first sight the portions sizes are big. The hunan chicken was crispy and very tasteful.  The general’s was a bit too sweet for my liking, but the hot sauce did the trick. Overall the food was delicious, cooked to perfection and definably worth the money. So if you get a chance, check it out.

Pictures

Recommendations

• Hunan Chicken
• Pepper Steak
• General Toa’s Chicken

Rating

• Food: 4.5 -Best authentic Chinese food around
  
• Value: 4.5 – Great prices, especially if you get the lunch special
• Service: 3.5 – Decent service, could be better.
• Lota-Pani: 3.5 - Clean tables and floors
• Decor: 3.0 – Could be improved, but not the worst

Overall

Halal Rating

• Full Halal

Location

25-25 Broadway, Astoria, NY 11106-3413

Contact

Phone: (718) 278-0080

Website: None

Well, looks like this place closed down
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Forget about olives growing in gardens. Real olives grow on trees, and “Olive Tree” will definitely make you a believer.  As one can tell by the title, Olive Tree is another “fusion style” restaurant. The curve ball here is that it’s the first Halal Indian/Italian fusion restaurant in New York City. Let me be the first to say: Italian and Indian food work incredibly well together, like peanut butter and jelly, toast and butter, Conan O’Brien and NBC (oh wait…).

First off, the decor is top notch. It’s modern and very comfy with dimly lit lights, wall paintings and some snazzy looking tables and chairs. There’s authentic Italian music that’s played and there’s just a very good vibe about the whole place.  It’s very welcoming. The staff was very courteous and friendly as they took our orders. We ordered Potato Croquettes for the appetizer, Grilled Italian Chorizo, Char Grilled Pepper Chicken, Carbonara and Chili Chicken Pastas. We ordered the food to have a little more spice to suit our taste buds, and we were not disappointed.

The croquettes are long pieces of mashed potatoes filled with cheese in the middle and are fried which was served with marinara sauce. It tasted exactly how I described it. It was a decent appetizer. Now onto the main course(s): the chorizo was very good. It was a fresh medium rare sausage with a spicy casing. Pepper chicken was skinless grilled chicken with mild spices, but what makes this dish pretty amazing is the gravy that came with it. Creamy, mildly spicy, and savory; you can dip anything into the gravy and there would be a party in your mouth. After experimenting dipping my napkin into the gravy I moved onto the carbonara and chili chicken pastas.

Now here’s where the fusion thing makes sense. The chefs in the back used their sweet, genius brains to find a way to make an authentic Italian pasta dish have a Desi kick to it without ruining the food. It really works and the pastas were devoured within minutes. This stuff is damn good. So good you’ll kick yourself for not coming up with the idea first. Who knew that alfredo sauce and garam masala were amazing together? It kicks more butt than Vegeta and Goku fused. Yeah, it’s that good.

Finally, onto desert. You won’t find gajar halwa stuffed cannolis here (thank god), but what they did have was Tiramisu. Normally, tiramisu is a layered spongecake drenched in alcohol, but since we were at a halal restaurant, the tiramisu we ordered was free of any intoxications. Excuse my Spanish, but I can say without a doubt in my mind that tiramisu is the stuff. It’s a definite must have at the Olive Tree. Sweet, soft, and a bit chocolaty. Such a dangerous but delicious combo.

The only bad thing I’m going to say about Olive Tree is that the prices were pretty expensive. But that’s to be expected when you’re dining in an elegant restaurant in the beautiful city of New York. Expect to pay around $15 per entree. With that said, I can’t recommend Olive Tree enough. It’s a Halal Italian/Indian fusion restaurant catered to Desis! What more could you want? GO GO GO.

Pictures

Recommendations

• Any Pasta dish and desi-fy it. (Make it spicy)
• Grilled Italian Chorizo. It’s an Italian take on a Spanish dish… but desi styled. How much more “fusion” can you get?
• Tiramisu

Rating

• Food: 5.0 – Everything we had was top notch and we came out more than satisfied.
• Value: 4.0 – Yeah it might be a little expensive, but you’re paying for the decor, the atmosphere, and the delicious food. It’s worth the money.
• Service: 4.5 – Very courteous and friendly. The staff seemed dedicated to the job.
• Lota-Pani: 4.5 – So clean you can eat off the toilet seat.
• Decor: 4.0 – It’s one of the better decorated places we have seen.

Overall

Halal Rating

• Fully Halal
• No Alcohol

Location

182 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10016

Contact

Phone: (212) 447-8706

Website: NA

Overall the restaurant is clean and has a very family-friendly set up. In addition to the sit-down tables in the main areas, there are separate rooms available for small private parties, a prayer area and best of all a special play room for children. The TV and toys in the playroom are a great way to keep young children occupied as you take some time for yourself to enjoy a nice meal.

My favorite menu item is the Zinger Burger. Battered, seasoned, and fried to prime crispiness, white-meat chicken tenders are slathered with spicy ketchup, topped with fresh coleslaw and surrounded by a toasted, buttered hamburger bun. With the first bite, your mouth is simultaneously hit by the juiciness of the chicken and the crunch from the coleslaw. All that punctuated with the subdued spiciness of the ketchup creates a flavorful bite that’s hard to swallow, only because you want to keep it on your taste buds for a while. This burger is highly recommended.

Another item worth a try is the Karachi Cheeseburger. This burger is your traditional American style cheeseburger: a thick, seasoned beef patty topped with mayo, pickles, onions and cheese, also on a buttered toasted bun. Although the meat is juicy and seasoned very well, my only complaint with this burger is that the name hints at something spicy– something with a little Karachi “chat patti” (spicy/zingy) flavor to it.  But once I got over the initial disappointment in the lack of spice, the rest of the burger just got better and better. As long as you’re not expecting any extra kick to it, you’ll love this one for its traditional American style.

Also worth mentioning are the french fries. As one of my favorite foods, I like to consider myself a connoisseur of all fried potato foods. Karachi Broast’s french fries are really good. Super crispy on the outside, warm and soft on the inside: the perfect way to supplement a great burger.

And now for the bad.  Although it’s in the name of the resturant and should be their signature item, the broast is nothing to get excited about.  Broast is basically a method of cooking chicken in which the chicken is fried under pressure.  Broast in Karachi is made the same way but it traditionally has a spicy flavor to it as well.  However the broast here  is your run-of-the-mill fried chicken, without the spice.  In addition to the broast, stay away from the steak.

If you’ve ever been to Karachi before, don’t come to this resturant expecting spicy broast or burgers topped with chutney.  This place is for all of you who have driven by a McDonald’s or any other burger joint with a pang of sadness, thinking you will never be able to savor a juicy halal cheeseburger.  Karachi Broast has not only made this possible, but it has done so without sacrificing the quality or flavor of the burgers.

Pictures

Recommendations

• Zinger Burger, Karachi Cheese Burger, Chicken Tandoori Burger and the Thai Burger (which is basically a Karachi Burger topped with a sweet and spicy thai peanut sauce)
• Philly Steak and Cheese
• Boti Kabob Platter

Rating

• Food: 4.0 – The food is worth coming back for, as long as you know what to order.
• Value: 4.0 Portion sizes are decent. You can fill yourself up for around $7.
• Service: 4.0 – The staff is very nice and the food comes out fairly quickly.  But in general it is a self-service type of resturant.
• Lota-Pani: 4.5 - The bathroom is pretty clean and even comes lota-equipped!
• Decor: 4.0 - Nothing too fancy, but the place is clean and well organized.

Overall

Halal Rating

Location

Contact

Phone: (678) 291-0101

Website: www.karachibroastandgrill

A few days ago, I was hanging with a friend of mine and we were just talking about life and really getting to know each other better (yes, it was one of those talks). As usual, I had been running around all day and was hungry, since we were in the East Village about to meet up with some friends, I knew I was gonna go to to “Mamoun’s” for a falafel.

Mamoun’s is a very popular place for Middle Eastern food, the specialty being their falafel (which are now priced at $2.50). There are two locations currently, the original one which is on MacDougal St. on the West Side and the more recent one on St. Marks Place (8th Street between 3rd Ave and Ave A in the East Village) which happens to always be buzzing with activity. The area is noted for having many restaurants and shops tucked into every corner; with everything from yakitori joints to tattoo parlors, jewelry stands, pizza shops, yoga studios, indie music vendors, and much more. It’s a great place for people to watch and get some really yummy and affordable food.

While, I could have easily gone to the original Mamouns shop in Greenwich Village, I think it was only fair that I checked this place out since I never went to it. I can honestly say that this location is pretty much the same as the other location on MacDougal Street: It features the same menu, the same setup and even the same seating (not too roomy at all). However, at only $2.50, this falafel sandwich is quite a bargain. The sandwich itself is big, but didn’t seem to have much falafel in it. The falafel pita contains some salad items, and there’s probably around three falafel balls in it. They are flattened and sliced up, so it’s difficult to tell how many you get, but it’s quite delicious. Other than the falafel, they have a very delicious chicken sandwich (which I personally would get with hummus). The chicken has a great charred flavor and is normally very tender and moist. If chicken isn’t your thing, then have the Sharwarma. It one of the best available in the city and has a meaty-salty flavor. Now, the only issue is that a few trusted brothers have brought to my attention that the ownership has changed and the meats aren’t halal anymore, however speaking to the brother at the shop he did confirm to me it was halal, so as prescribed, I will take his word for it. Lastly, Mamoun’s is known for the various awards it has won over years and it’s definitely a great spot to have a quick and cheap bite.

Pictures

Recommendations

• Falafel Sandwich
• Chicken-Kebab with Hummus
• Shawarma with hot sauce
• In the cold months, get the burning hot green tea!

Rating

• Food: 4.0 – Good sandwiches, great hummus and pipping not tea
• Value: 5.0 – $2.50 for a falafel sandwiches, you cant be that!
• Service: 4.0 – service with a smile, so no complaints
• Lota-Pani: 3.5 - clean as expected to be; no restrooms
• Decor: 2.5 – wooden benches and outside seating was it!

Overall

Halal Rating

• Verbal halal verification by staff
• Trusted people state otherwise

Location

22 St. Marks Place New York, NY 10003

Contact

Phone: (212) 387-7747

Website: http://www.mamouns.com/

Its not just the historical value either: it’s on every ones mind. Whether it’s celebrities, heads of state or even the average joe; everyone loves this food and many will stand on line for up to an hour to get a plate. The original gyro spot in NYC has become an iconic place. Everyone who is in town always wants to go, but I have a different take on the infamous Godfather. The lamb is the best out of any of the carts in NYC and will definitely fill you up. The generous serving sizes means you probably won’t be able to finish a plate by yourself. Though the chicken is good as well, it just doesn’t stack up to the lamb.  The chicken can be bland at times and dry at other times; whereas the lamb is always the safest bet! I would recommend someone new to get a mix and try it out for themselves. So for six bucks of your hard earned money, you can get a mix platter of chicken, lamb, rice & salad which will feed you for a couple of meals.

Now don’t be fooled, the cart opens up at 7pm and is open until 5 AM only; which means you can make the late night trip. Trust me, when I say it’s worth the trip. For example, during college days we used to make trips down from the University of Massachusetts (some 165 miles away) just for The Godfather. This has become a staple in late night munchies in New York, so definitely do yourself the favor and check it out (if you have been under a rock!).

Pictures

Recommendations

• Lamb and Rice with a lot of white sauce and hot sauce
• Chicken on pita isn’t bad if you don’t want rice
• Be careful of the hot sauce; use with caution!

Rating

• Food: 3.5 – Delicious food, amazing white sauce,  tastes especially great when all is mixed up. The taste of the food has become sub-par at times due to the demand; if you haven’t ever had it is definitely worth the wait!
• Value: 4.5 – Only $6 for a platter that most wont finish in one sitting; you just can’t beat the amount of food. Always has a line, so your time maybe more valuable.
• Service: 1.5 – Time is valuable for these guys, so that smile with the service might take a little while!
• Lota-Pani: 4.0 - The workers do keep the place clean as can be
• Decor: N/A – Street

Overall

Halal Rating

• No debating the Halal food

Location

Corner of 53rd & 6th Ave

Contact

Website: http://www.53rdand6th.com (currently down)

The difference between BabyCakes and all the other cake places is that BabyCakes is primarily vegan. BabyCakes uses coconut oil, date sugar(you know you love that stuff), garbanzo flour, agave nectar, and homemade rice milk sub for gluten, wheat, dairy, refined flour and for certain desserts, even sugar, which ends up resulting in full flavored sweetness (a welcome change from the over-sugary goods peddled by other cupcake-pushers in town).  Another great advantage of BabyCakes is that since most of their cupcakes are available with agave nectar, it is suitable for people who are diabetic (who don’t take insulin shots) to have as well.

The venue is very cozy with little seating, so I wouldn’t recommend taking a bunch of people. The cupcakes are moist and as flavorful as can be with a creme filling that is rich and bold with flavor. Pumpkin Spice muffins especially hold a moist, fruity sincerity and it’s very hard to believe that there isn’t a single drop of sugar in the chocolate chip cookies, though they are a bit brittle. Cupcakes (of course) are the most popular item and due to how the icing is made, it requires speedy eating. You can take them with you, but in the warm weather, the icing will melt. Overall, you really can’t go wrong with this place. It is a bit expensive, but you get what you pay for. I would recommend it to everyone due to the ingredients they use and their consideration towards a healthier lifestyle (remember, just because it’s healthier, doesn’t mean you should have more than your usual intake!).

Pictures

Recommendations

• Definitely get the mocha, vanilla or brownie cupcake.
• Any donuts flavor is also worth trying out.
• Peach muffins

Rating

• Food: 4.0 – Very delicious pastries. Great icing and flavor; all-natural, organic & lastly no by-products
• Value: 3.0 – Pastries are on the expensive end, but figure in the ingredients it’s understandable
• Service: 3.0 – Fair and pleasant service
• Lota-Pani: 4.0 - Clean tables & counters
• Decor: 3.0 – Nice setup; more of a place to “buy and go”

Overall

Halal Grade

• Non-applicable (fully vegan, so technically halal)

Location

248 Broome St New York, NY 10002

Contact

Phone: (212) 677-5047

Website: www.babycakesnyc.com