Zabihah.com, guide to halal eats

I despise people who put me on their mailing lists, but today I got this interesting link through, well, a mailing list. And I thank him. (Thanks, Art!)

Zabihah.com: It's a guide to halal restaurants, groceries and delis in the USA, Canada, UK, Europe and Russia, East Asia, the Americas, Australasia and the Middle East/Africa. That about covers all the habitable areas of the planet, I should think. It's got user reviews, which I think is very handy, not in the least because there are different grades of acceptance over halal/haram within the Muslim community itself and so it's nice to read feedback from a wide variety of people. I looked up a few restaurants that I know of, and here's a funny review I found of Mawar Restaurant in London:

Me and a fellow brother had a nightmare experience in this place.The setting of the place was dull as the place is hidden within the basement and the staff have not been taught how to smile! The food was not great as the skews tasted raw and the main course was not as expected as the noodles was just buried within tomato soup. Even the orange juice was not up to standard. An expensive meal not recommended.

"Expensive meal"? Mawar is the cheapest place to eat in London! I have no idea what he's talking about there. But he is right about the other things, though.

They also cover airline food where I read the following user review for Virgin Atlantic:

Even after reading all of the reviews on the website we still mistakenly went for the 'muslim' option, the food was not very nice, on the way back we didn't eat anything it was that bad - go for the normal veggie option!

I totally agree. I hate halal food on airlines and always go for vegetarian meals. But then again, I hate Western interpretations of "halal food" in general.