“Ali Siddique” – The Halal Indian and Pakistani restaurant in Asakusa

Written by Sk. Nishat Abdullah-san

As I am from Bangladesh, I have a natural affinity for eating curries and different spicy food preparations. But as a Muslim, I need the curry restaurant to be Halal. “Ali Siddique” is one of the restaurants which has received Halal certification, serves a huge number of Indian curry with mouthwatering flavor. “Ali Siddique” has around 20 branches scattered in different places in Tokyo. Even in a busy and tourist friendly area like Asakusa, there is a branch of this chain restaurant.
On entering the restaurant “Ali Siddique” in Asakusa, a spicy Flavor stimulated my stomach. Around 50 menus were available there. Difference of taste in different curries depends mainly on cooking technique. For example, there were around 6-8 items of chicken curries. All these chicken curries have different names, different flavors and different appearances. This should be really interesting for those who are not much familiar with curries. But for the curry lovers like me, it is natural. Enjoying more than one or two curries in a meal is a minimum requirement for people in my country. So, I used to visit this restaurant time and again in order to eat different dishes at different times. Along with curries, I sometimes enjoyed their salads, vegetable preparations, kebab etc. Another interesting fact is that, different flavors of rice are also available here. One of such famous rice preparation in south Asian region is “Biryani”. This is typically a dish which comes with rice cooked along with meat. I enjoyed the “biryani” of Ali Siddique also.
The environment was peaceful and suitable for any Muslim people. Interior is decorated with traditional South Asian pictures and themes. People serving in this restaurant as well as the chef are all from South Asian countries. This restaurant does not have any arrangement for saying prayer for the Muslims. But, if the time for prayer arrives while enjoying meal in Ali Siddique, the Asakusa mosque “Dar Al Arqam Masjid” is not very far from here.
A good proportion of Muslim people living in Japan, are from south Asian countries like Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka who have almost similar food habit. People of these countries like to eat rice or naan with a variety of curries as their favorite menu. When these people becomes monotonous of different Japanese foods or their own homemade foods, they feel to dine out somewhere with country flavor. For that, they have to look for Indian restaurants serving Halal foods. I think that “Ali Siddique” can be good and easy option for eating Halal curry and different Indian foods for people elsewhere in Tokyo.
I have seen a lot of Japanese people also like Indian curry. For them, this restaurant has not closed the option for drinking hard drinks as most other Halal restaurants. I hope that the restaurant “Ali Siddique” will be able to fulfill the appetite for Muslims from Asian or Western countries as well as non Muslims who desire to have some different kinds of food occasionally.