When Asma Bayunus moved from a small town in Minnesota to Austin 20 years ago, there were few halal options available to her. “When I got here, I found only three halal restaurant options: Shalimar, Byblos, and Alborz,” she recalls. “Those are gone now, but it seems like now there is an option for almost any craving within a 30-minute drive.”
“The food table is a common denominator – everyone loves to eat – and when I go to places that offer options that I can eat, it feels like they built a bigger table, and I appreciate it.” – Asma Bayunus
Bayunus, who grew up in the Gulf country of Oman, has always eaten exclusively halal food, which includes meat products that are regulated by a set of rules intended to ensure the health of the animal to be slaughtered and conformance to Islamic religious guidelines. This practice is also known as zabihah. “It was something that was very important to my parents. It was always the only option in our home growing up,” she says. Though there are many practices she has not kept from her conservative Muslim upbringing, she has continued to uphold halal food as an important connection to her parents, which she has also passed on to her teenage son. “For me, I was fine when there were only three halal restaurants, but when I had my son, I realized that it was also important for him to have more options. We are lucky that not only are there halal restaurants, but there are also mainstream restaurants that have halal options. The food table is a common denominator – everyone loves to eat – and when I go to places that offer options that I can eat, it feels like they built a bigger table, and I appreciate it.”
While many places with limited halal offerings don’t necessarily advertise that their brisket, burgers, or high-end steaks are halal, there is a loyal community who seeks out halal options and shares that information on the internet, namely via the website Zabihah.com. Founded by former Austinite Shahed Amanullah in the 1990s, Zabihah is the largest site of crowdsourced halal options around the country and the world.
The website led Bayunus to her current favorite spot, the Indo-Chinese fusion restaurant Inchin’s Bamboo Garden in Round Rock. The current franchise owners are a hospitable husband-and-wife team; their chef son-in-law cooks everything fresh in the back. Bayunus’ go-to choices on the Inchin’s menu are the Chicken 65, chicken lettuce wraps, tandoori wings, and Mongolian beef.
Whereas Bayunus has seen a lot of growth in Austin’s halal food scene across two decades, Sana Khan is a Chicago transplant who has lived here since 2019. She grew up eating halal exclusively and says, “In Chicago you could get halal high-end steaks or pretty much anything you wanted.” When she moved to Austin, she went to Instagram to find halal spots to try but did not find much. Relying heavily on Zabihah.com to find what was available, she began documenting her journey exploring her way through Austin’s halal offerings on her Instagram account @AustinHalalEats. She is also an admin for the Halal Food Austin group on Facebook.
What Khan appreciates the most about Austin’s halal offerings is the wide variety. Whereas it is common in Chicago to have lots of options for cuisines originating in Muslim countries, Austin offers more variety with Mexican Pakistani fusion at Urban Turban, Texas-style barebecue at Alzer’s BBQ, and halal chicken and waffles at Longhorn Chicken. What she would love to find is authentic Mexican, Korean, and Hyderabadi Indian food.
In addition to patrons like Bayunus and Khan who are absolute about halal food, others like mother-of-two Nora Altiti prefer to eat halal when it’s available but do not eat it exclusively. Born in Austin, Altiti spent her teenage years living in Jordan with her extended family. When Altiti wants the taste of comfort food from Jordan, she calls in an order to Usta Kababgy: “It is the flavor of family gatherings and time with my tayta [grandmother].” Located in the Lamar/Rundberg area, known as Austin’s international district, Usta Kababgy bills itself as a halal barbecue destination. Though the Arabic term for the way the food is prepared, mashawi, can be translated as barbecue, the food is cooked using a charcoal cooking method more akin to grilling.
Nora’s favorites on the Usta Kababgy menu are the lahmajun (thinly rolled flatbread with a generous layer of well-seasoned ground beef), and Adana and Iraqi kababs (both made with a mix of lamb and beef). Though she generally orders her food to go, when she eats in-restaurant her meal is only finished when she has had a cup of their Turkish coffee. It is a strong coffee that can be enjoyed sweet or unsweet, and with a thin layer of froth on top; the bottom of the cup has a layer of grounds that are to be left in the cup. The food is served casually on paper plates with plasticware, but the Turkish coffee is served beautifully in tiny zamak-encased cups.
Inchin’s Bamboo Garden franchise owner Arfan Ahmed says he has seen a 35% increase in customers at his establishment specifying halal over the last two years, with about half requesting halal currently. “Besides religious reasons, halal meat is cleaner and healthier. We have a growing Muslim population in Austin with fewer halal options compared to big cities like Houston and Dallas, so a halal menu is important for serving the community,” he says. Austin has an estimated Muslim population of greater than 30,000 people. Many of them are preparing for Ramadan (the month of daytime fasting) in April, and the holiday of Eid al-Fitr (celebration of the end of the month of fasting) in May. Ahmed says that he is expecting an increase in both takeout and dine-in orders during this first Ramadan since Austin’s COVID risk guidelines are currently low.
This Ramadan, Bayunus is expecting to patronize several of Austin’s halal spots. As she reflected on the expansion of halal options today compared to when she first arrived in Austin two decades ago, she says, “I feel like there are so many excellent choices in Austin right now. I can call in an order for almost anything I want.”
Five Halal Menu Recommendations in Austin
• Almarah Mezza Platter at Almarah Mediterranean Cuisine (12129 RR 620 N. #450, almarahgrill.com)
• Kabab Adana at Usta Kababgy Halal Barbecue (9717 N. Lamar Ste. C-2, ustakababgy.com)
• Chicken 65 at Inchin’s Bamboo Garden (3107 N. I-35, bamboo-gardens.com/austin-tx-2)
• Chicken Tikka Tacos at Urban Turban (4257 Gattis School Rd., Round Rock, the-urban-turban-halal-restaurant.business.site)
• Meat Eater Pizza at Arpeggio Grill (6619 Airport, arpeggiogrill.com)
This article appears in April 1 • 2022.