Urban Muslim, a new (to us anyway) blog by an Australian Muslim, has some reviews up of various halal eateries in Melbourne that is worth a look. So far, Biryani House, Bali Bagus, Moroccan Soup Bar, Zam Zam, and La Paella have been reviewed but hopefully more will follow.
Insha’Allah, in the new year, we’ll be publishing some more reviews of our own. Baybers has a fascinating tale to tell about one Melbourne establishment — not listed amongst those reviewed at Urban Muslim — and their innovative but somewhat disgusting use of sanitary napkins for plumbing purposes. Not to be missed!
And, aside from the usual suspects, there are a growing number of outlets selling halal food that don’t advertise themselves to Muslims or even service many Muslim customers. In keeping with the maxim that no good deed should be left unpunished, we’ll be publicising a few of these places here on the site. I’m sure our Muslim readers would be interested to know where they can sit in their thowbs and burqas amongst the genteel and blue-rinsed folk in one of Melbourne’s leafy suburbs and munch on a halal steak sandwich.
In the mean time, for readers interested in dining out over the holiday period, we remind them of the two golden rules of halal dining in Melbourne (and possibly the entire Western world) — particularly in relation to Indian and Pakistani food:
- The quality and taste of the food is inversely proportional to the filthiness of the toilets. Can anyone name an Indian restaurant in Melbourne that serves good quality, authentic food and where the toilets are clean? Exactly.
- Avoid any restaurant that has photos of the Indian cricket team at the front door. This is affectionately referred to as the Rajah Sahib Rule in recognition of the great Rajah Sahib restaurant (non-halal); the entrance of which was famously adorned with photos of various Indian cricketers (amongst others).
12 comments ↓
In his Down And Out in Paris and London, George Orwell noted - from his experience of working in Parisian restaurants - that the price of a piece of Steak was directly proportionately to the amount of human saliva on it. Yum yum!
This is clearly a problem singular to Melbourne. Sydney’s halal establishments are all of the best quality in hygiene.
Have you tried Desi Hut in Lakemba?
God, no. Thankfully, I don’t eat spicy.
Cleanliness is an issue but bad service is another.
The Balhas Lebanese sweet shop on Sydney Rd is in a class of its own. I stood there for 15 minutes waiting to be served while the workers served all their Lebo mates first. When I finally got the attention of the young man behind the counter, he couldn’t speak English and he kept botching up my ice cream order. I’d say mango and he’d scoop almond into the cup. I’d say two scoops and he’d just put one. For a minute I thought I was in one of those TV shows like Candid Camera and this man was just the woggy idiot from central casting and soon Ray Martin would appear from behind the counter with a tray of baclava and tell me I’d just been punk’d.
Sadly though it wasn’t a joke.
Stewart - after reading your comment I can see why they were not particularly keen to serve you.
You obviously have bigger problems then an ice cream with 2 scoops of mango - like failing to understand that the terms ‘Lebo’ and ‘woggy’ are inappropriate and offensive.
I have been to Balhas - it is clean and the food is excellent. The staff are sometimes a bit slow with their service but are always friendly.
I’ve never met a Lebanese person yet who thinks ‘Lebo’ is offensive?
I’ve heard many many people complain about the service at Balhas so I doubt it is something that was particular to Stewart.
@ Sara (#2): Australia doesn’t publicly rate the cleanliness of all restaurants? In S’pore, all restaurants must post a small sign conspicuously that indicates their cleanliness rating (A, B, C).
No, they don’t.
The results of local council health inspections are even kept secret. It would be useful if they published them on their website so we can see, in any locality, which places have had violations or warnings recorded against them.
To begin with, Umm Ammara should probably explain how Stewarts particular word use on this forum has any bearing on the particularly poor service at Balha’s?
Also, he is not the only one with a bone to pick with Balha’s. I can count on an amputated hand the number of times that I have receievd satisfactory service. The service is reasonably better when I am accompanied by an Arab (or Arabic speaking) buddy of mine.
I’ve had similiar experiences as the one described by Stewart.
I’ve been made to wait a bit while Chinese, Italian and Indian customers have been served instantly at a Chinese, Italian and Indian eatery.
It does get annoying. When I was at an Italian Pizzeria waiting for my order to be taken, some other Italians walked in to the shop, kissed cheeks with the guy behind the counter, and walked out 10 mins later with 5 boxes of Pizza.
My order was delivered 10 mins later with my total waiting time being 25 mins.
Eudaemonion - Stewart’s use the racially offensive term ‘Lebo’ may be indicative of his attitude to Lebanese in general and if he isn’t particularly clever at disguising this then he probably just irritated the counter staff hence the poor service.
But as I said in my original comment Balhas is known for slow service. Perhaps he would like to try McDonalds next time - they are much quicker.
Oh, and Fatima - I have met several Lebanese that find the term ‘Lebo’ offensive.
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