Best Halal Food Beijing: Ghanaian Restaurant, Arabic Food, Sturgeon Feast and Lanzhou Beef Noodles

Reposted from the web

Summary: This Beijing halal food guide maps issue 40 of the series, featuring a Ghanaian halal restaurant in Sanlitun, Stone Hearth Grill and Tea, Arabic food, tomato beef flatbread, luosifen hot pot, sturgeon feast, and Saddam Lanzhou Beef Noodles.

Beijing Halal Food Map (40) is presented here as a firsthand travel account in clear English, beginning with this scene: Ramadan has just ended, so we can get back to checking out all kinds of halal food. The account keeps its focus on Beijing Halal Food, Muslim Travel, Middle Eastern Food while preserving the names, places, food, and historical details from the Chinese source.

Ramadan has just ended, so we can get back to checking out all kinds of halal food. The restaurants in this guide are all new, and they each have something special. The first one is a West African Ghanaian halal restaurant, which is very rare in China. It is a big step for Beijing as it works to become a global capital for halal food.

Here is the list of halal restaurants for this guide:

Tribe Garden African Restaurant
Stone Hearth Grill and Tea (Shishangweilu)
Ma Bei’er Bistro
Carthage Arabic Restaurant
Fan Manyu Tomato Beef Flatbread (Paobing)
Stinky Star Snail Rice Noodle (Luosifen) Hot Pot
Mulaixuan Sturgeon Feast
Saddam Lanzhou Beef Noodles
Tribe Garden African Restaurant

A new halal restaurant featuring West African flavors recently opened on the first basement level of Sanlitun SOHO. They specialize in Ghanaian cuisine. The staff are all Black Muslims who speak fluent Chinese, and one young lady from Kenya is especially cute.

Ghana is a country in West Africa where about 15% of the population is Muslim, yet the national banknote features a mosque with a unique style.

Larabanga Mosque

The Larabanga Mosque on the banknote was built between the 14th and 15th centuries. It is the oldest mosque in Ghana. Its architectural style is unique to West Africa, built from yellow mud and wood, making it very iconic.

The restaurant decor also has a strong African vibe, including the wall hangings.

African goat meat mixed rice

African goat meat is a bit tough, but it has no gamey smell. The mixed rice is salty and spicy.

Non-alcoholic mojito and fruit punch

African specialty egusi (egusi)

You eat this dish mixed with the cassava flour paste shown below. Eating the cassava flour paste is just like eating rice cake.

Fufu (fufu)

The white dish is called fufu, which translates to rice flour paste in Chinese. It is a staple food for Ghanaians.

Friday special dish

They have a special dish every day. This Friday special is made with beans and rice, served with some noodles and dipping sauce. It tastes sour, salty, and spicy all at once.

Grilled tilapia

This is an African-style grilled fish. It tastes great. Even though the skin looks charred, the meat inside is white.

A young lady from Kenya recommended this milkshake to us. It is very creamy and delicious. The whole meal cost 530 yuan for four people, which is 130 yuan per person.

Stone Hearth Grill and Tea (Shishangweilu)

This is a newly opened light meal and coffee shop on the ground floor of the West District of Changying Paradise Walk. The owner is a Hui Muslim from Beijing, and we chose to have a small gathering here for Eid al-Fitr.

Thirty of us ate every single item on the menu twice.

They serve light meals during the day. Besides these pretty salads, they also have burgers and pasta.

The M3 beef burger uses a patty hand-pressed by the owner, and all the meat is sourced from Li Wei’s shop in Changying.

This is an Italian-style sandwich, listed on the menu as a panini.

Barbecue is served in the evening. If you want a simple Western-style meal at night, you can call ahead to book. Everyone gave the simple meals and barbecue great reviews. The average cost per person is about 130 yuan.

Ma Bei’er Bistro

Ma Bei’er is a new brand started by the original management team of Jubao Yuan after they split up. Next to the main Ma Bei’er hot pot (shuanrou) restaurant on Nanheng West Street, there is also a small Ma Bei’er bistro that specializes in Beijing-style stir-fry dishes.

This stir-fry bistro is just as busy as the hot pot restaurant. We tried a few signature dishes and had a good experience. Everything was delicious and worth recommending. The average cost per person is about 100 yuan.

Stir-fried mixed vegetables (chaohecai)

Quick-fried beef tripe with coriander (yanbaosandan)

Deep-fried meatballs (ganzhawanzi)

Braised yellow croaker in northern style (kuadunhuangyu)

Slow-cooked beef (weiniurou)

Scallion pancake (conghuabing)

Carthage Restaurant

This is a Tunisian restaurant. It is owned by the same people as La Medina Tunisian restaurant in Sanlitun. You can find it on the first floor of the Atour X Hotel in Sanlitun.

During Ramadan, they offer an iftar buffet for 120 yuan per person. It includes all the signature dishes you would expect, plus drinks and desserts.

Tunisia is a North African country. Its food habits are a bit different from West Africa, and North African flavors are usually easier for most people to enjoy.

Fan Manyu Tomato Beef Flatbread (Paobing)

A new specialty shop just opened on the basement level of the West Zone at Tongzhou Wanda Plaza. They focus on tomato beef brisket with flatbread (paobing) and various other tomato-based dishes.

The staff uniforms are covered in tomato drawings.

Vinegar-stir-fried egg and meat (culiu muxu)

Lychee-flavored cherry tomatoes

Mapo tofu

Their food is prepared very delicately and tastes great. The environment is clean, the prices are affordable, and the average cost is under 80 yuan per person.

Stinky Star Snail Rice Noodle (Luosifen) Hot Pot

There is a halal snail rice noodle (luosifen) shop on the ground floor of the Golden Street in the West District of Tongzhou Wanda Plaza. The owner is a Hui Muslim from Changchun who used to work at iQIYI before opening this physical shop. The small shop has two floors and mainly serves halal snail rice noodles and clam rice noodles (huaji fen) in small hot pots.

The snail rice noodle hot pot comes with a wide variety of toppings that you can add to the pot to cook together.

This set meal for two costs 78 yuan and is enough for two or three people to eat.

The set includes Guangxi cassava sweet soup (mushu tangshui).

Add all the side dishes to the pot and cook for one minute before you start eating. The taste is quite authentic.

Mulaixuan Sturgeon Feast

Across from the Doudian Mosque in Fangshan, there is a restaurant that specializes in sturgeon (xunlongyu). This place is unique because it has no menu and you cannot order dishes. The owner decides the size of the fish based on how many people are in your group, and all the dishes are made from the fish you choose.

You pick the sturgeon from this fish tank, and they are all quite large. The sturgeon costs 58 yuan per jin, and the smallest fish weigh over five jin, making it perfect for groups.

After picking the fish, you just wait for the owner to serve the food. This is actually nice because it saves you the trouble of ordering.

The standard dishes include salt and pepper fish skin, sweet and sour fish bones, fish offal, fish and radish soup, and stir-fried fish fillets. The main course is sturgeon dumplings. The fish is very fresh, and every dish tastes great.

Saddam Lanzhou Beef Noodles

The long-standing Lanzhou brand Saddam Beef Noodles has expanded into Beijing’s Fengtai District. Known as the Eastern Heretic of the Lanzhou beef noodle world, the shop opened in eastern Lanzhou in the 1990s. It got its name because the owner looked just like Saddam. Other famous shops include the Western Poison Ma Anjun, the Southern Emperor Guobao, the Northern Beggar Cangying, and the Central Master Ma Zilu.

You can tell the beef noodles will be good just by looking at the chili oil, which is fragrant but not too spicy. I tried it and found it very authentic. My friends from Lanzhou would not be disappointed if they came here to eat.