Halal Restaurants in Barcelona

Barcelona is a highly diversified city.  You may never know how diverse the city really is until you move or spend an extended amount of time here. Upon moving to Barcelona, I was impressed when I saw how easy it was to find a Halal restaurant in the city.  In other big cities in Europe or in other Western-inspired societies, finding easily accessible Halal restaurants is challenging.

In Barcelona, on the contrary, you can find at least one Halal restaurant every 600 feet (a usual measure of a city block). Ethnic dishes from Turkey, Lebanon, Pakistan, Tunisia, India, and Morocco are all present in Barcelona. If you dig deep enough, you may even stumble across a tantalizing Senegalese restaurant that serves Halal meats and foods as well.

What is Halal?

So what exactly does Halal mean? It simply means permissible in Arabic.  Permissible meats, according to Shariah law, are meats that are slaughtered in a religious manner and not struck upon the head or died from shock or a stun gun.  It also means that the blood of the animal was fully drained prior to consumption or fully cooked upon eating.  It doesn’t only pertain to animals, it also refers to vegetables. All edible vegetables are considered Halal, so if you’re on a strictly vegetarian or vegan diet, that’s considered halal too. Some seafood is considered Halal, and others aren’t (like shrimp because of their dietary habits), but that’s an ongoing debate. In simple terms, halal is all about foods that are healthy, sanctified and supporting of man’s long-term survival.  Similar to the Kosher diet of the Jewish people, the Halal diet involves certain treatment of animals prior to slaughtering and consuming.

Halal Restaurants Las Ramblas

Enough of the technical stuff; let’s now dive into where to get well prepared of highly favored Halal dishes in Barcelona. They’re many so take notes!

Our journey begins at Las Ramblas, at Rajah Hindi Restaurant on 1 Career Nou de la Rambla, which serves Halal Pakistani and Indian Tandoori dishes.  There’s also the Pita House that focuses on Middle Eastern Halal dishes and A La Turka that serves Turkish halal dishes as well.

The Turkish Halal Restaurants are one of the first that you or other tourists may notice if you’re walking from North on Las Ramblas. You can spot a highly visible one, right next to H&M on Las Ramblas and several others nearby.

Halal Restaurants throughout the City

Throughout the city, there are many more to choose from. Restaurant Bombay Spicy located on Calle Sant Pau 16-18 is an Indian restaurant that serves Halal dishes. It is important to note that any restaurant that serves an all-vegetarian menu is considered Halal. There’s Abou Khalil, a purely Morrocan Halal joint on Carrer de Santolo 88 and Natural Kebab on Diagonal 3.  One of the few favored Lebanese Halal Restaurants in the city located on Rambla de Sant Josep  75 is Habibi Restaurant & Sisha Bar.  Habibi can also be considered Morrocan cuisine, but it’s also creatively fused slightly differently than traditional Moroccan food.  It’s rumored to have a few Lebanese chefs that add styles of Lebanese cooking to their dishes, thus a fusion of Moroccan/Lebanese dining.  Whatever the true case may be, it’s fantastic food, and it’s Halal. If you have a hot date and you’re interested in something a little fancier with an ambiance of ethnic romance, you can try out Cordoba Restaurant on Avinguda Joan XXIII, 18 in Sant Adria de Besos Badalona.  Another

If you have a hot date and you’re interested in something a little fancier with an ambiance of ethnic romance, you can try out Cordoba Restaurant on Avinguda Joan XXIII, 18 in Sant Adria de Besos, Badalona. Another semi-fancy restaurant is Can Borbo, in Barceloneta, near the beach, on Passeig de Joan Borbo 70. There is a stream of restaurants on that street that are all connected, which sometimes make it difficult to pinpoint the exact one, but they do have a Halal symbol حلال‎ at the entrance of their terraces. They mainly serve sea and Mediterranean food, but with a few halal dishes and drinks to support the religious observant eater. There’s a nice terrace to enjoy the ocean breeze and views on a nice sunny day.  Alcoholic beverages aren’t considered Halal, but rather Haram (not permissible). Despite that, many restaurants that serve Halal dishes do also serve Haram beverages and foods.  This is understandable to some, since these restaurants are being inclusive to all, catering to the public at large.  Whether you prefer to eat Halal for the sake of your animal-sensitive views, you’re a devout Muslim, or simply because you’re trying something new, Barcelona has many options, places, and varieties to delve into it.