It is quite difficult to find a proper Halal meal in Japan. We guess many of Muslims tourists are leaving their footprints in the same restaurants that offer Muslim-friendly meals, however, the restaurant we are going to introduce to you today is totally a new experience for everyone.
The restaurant is called Tokyo Aji Fry (トーキョー アジフライ). Let’s take a look at the features of this new Muslim-friendly restaurant today.
Read this article to know what to choose when can’t find Halal restaurant.
What is Aji Fry?
Aji in Japanese is a Horse Mackerel. It is a very common fish that we can catch almost everywhere in Japan. It is a blue-backed fish, so the smell is relatively strong. This is the reason why it is usually pan-fried in oil and served crispy with the fish meat very fluffy.
Usually, Aji Fry is served along with Tartar sauce, a mayonnaise with chopped onion, boiled egg and parsley or a Japanese unique seasoning called sauce, a Worcestershire sauce like seasoning. As introduced in the article Japanese seasonings, sauce could contain both animal extract and alcohol, so enjoying them with Tartar sauce is our recommendation for Muslims.
What is special about Tokyo Aji Fry?
Tokyo Aji Fry has just opened on 31 March 2023, in front of Yasukuni Shrine. Since the opening, the restaurant is always full of customers.
The interesting thing is that the restaurant often closes earlier than the scheduled time, because number of horse mackerel they can get is so limited. They only use freshest horse mackerel from Nagasaki, and it is not always guaranteed that they get as many as they want. When they run out of the stock, they decline new customers and close earlier than the scheduled time.
As the name indicates, Tokyo Aji Fry specializes in Aji Fry and serves only this dish. What makes their restaurant unique is their 8 types of seasonings. Raw egg yolk especially, is what makes the restaurant famous, because the oozy thick egg yolk matches the freshly fried horse mackerel so much!
Credit: https://tabelog.com/tokyo/
With snow of cheese, the picture is just so perfect.
The rice is also served really fresh. They steam the rice every 30 minutes to ensure the best quality.
So, is the restaurant Halal?
As is often the case with Japanese meal, there is a possibility that the restaurant using alcoholic seasoning, or the worst-case scenario the restaurant is sharing frying oil with meat products.
We got in touch with the restaurant and confirmed that the restaurant does not handle any meat product other than seafood, and the oil is plant based, free from animal-derived ingredients!
Miso soup and soy sauce, however, has ethanol added for preservation purpose. The food cannot be a genuine Halal food for this reason, but if you could accept residual alcohol in the seasoning, then this restaurant is definilty a place you have to pay a visit.
As the restaurant does not accept prior reservation, try to head to the restaurant as early as possible!
Information as of July 2023. The restaurant we have introduced to you is not Halal-certified, so that there is a small risk of contamination, which we cannot be responsible of. Please use your own discretion.
