Halal café “Luna Hala” near Tsukiji Fish Market

Writen by Sk. Nishat Abdullah-san

Tsukiji Fish Market is a famous tourist spot in Tokyo. This huge whole selling fish market is not only busy with selling raw fishes, but also a lot of restaurants selling different kinds of foods keep this place lively. As a tourist or visitor, if a Muslim person visit Tsukiji fish market, will find himself hungry at the mouthwatering view of different delicious dishes. But, are they Halal? I am not sure. So, to stay on the safe side, I would prefer to look for a Halal restaurant. Specially, if there is a Halal restaurant just in front of Tsukiji Fish Market, how should a Muslim feel? I felt very safe, secure and relieved. The restaurant located just opposite Tsukiji is named “Luna Hala”. This restaurant sells Halal food. Though the Halal menus they offer, have neither any relation with Tsukiji Fish market, nor nearby restaurants. Usually, the restaurants in and around the Tsukiji Fish market, sell sushi or many other fish preparations. But, “Luna Hala” is not oriented in such manner. The menus available here are tortilla, yakitori, vegetable curries, grilled fish meal etc. I ate yakitori set meal for lunch. The taste of the foods were delicious. The restaurant is located, actually in the entrance of a business hotel just in front of a the front desk. So, the space inside the restaurant is not so wide. But the big wooden counter added the interior a different impression.

All foods are not halal in Luna Hala. To get halal menu, I had to ask the staff about it. I was suprisingly happy to find that the price of the halal and non halal menus were same.There are many other Halal restaurants in Tokyo which sells both halal and non halal menus. But I haven’t seen anyone of them selling pork. I felt a little discomfort to see that some of the non halal menus of Luna Hala contained pork. Actually a Muslim can withstand an environment with non Halal beef or chicken. But, I am not sure how much peacefully a Muslim can eat meal in a restaurant selling even pork meat. I think the owners of the halal restaurants can take a look into this matter. However, all the japanese people, who, not even being Muslim, taking the endeavour to arrange Halal food for the Muslims, deserves praise, gratitude and gratefulness.