Halal Indian restaurant newly opened in 2015
Written by Nazra Zahri san
The weather was bad that day and I wasn’t in the mood to go to work. But I had to go anyway so I decided to cheer myself up with some good ol’ southern Indian curry bento for lunch and headed for Milenga.
Milenga, located just 5 minutes from Okayama Station, on the ground floor of Oka Building (岡ビル) is the only restaurant in town that serves halal southern Indian curry. I think there is another Indian restaurant on the west side of the station that serves halal food but they just have the typical northern Indian curry served with nan or rice.
As a Malaysian, I truly miss the southern Indian curry and most importantly, they sell dosa! It never crossed my mind that anyone would be selling this in Japan, especially in a small city like Okayama.
Anyway, I came here for their thali lunch box (of course, you can enjoy the thali there at the restaurant). They have slightly different curries every day but you can only choose either the halal vegetarian or halal non-vegetarian one with a piece of chicken. The lunch box also comes with a small bottle of delicious hot chai tea.
The non-vegetarian lunch box is 710 yen and the vegetarian one is just 580 yen. It’s quite reasonable for a non-Japanese bento that also gives you something to drink as well.
While waiting for your bento, you can shop for some spices, kitchen utensils and scarves too. I have bought their masala chai spice that is quite tasty and easy to use.
They just opened in 2015 so their menu is quite limited for now but they regularly do some changes to it so check out their website and Facebook page for the latest information before you decide to go.
By the way, they also have a prayer room (which is mainly for employees, for the time being) so if you’re looking for a place to pray somewhere around Okayama Station, it wouldn’t hurt to ask if you could use it.
Here’s a link to their website:
http://milenga.themarket.co.jp
