Top Five Halal Restaurants in the Blake Area

Good high quality, family-friendly halal restaurants are difficult to find in this area. Here’s your Blake Beat guide to the top five best halal restaurants in the Blake area. 

Chicken Basket: This family-owned restaurant in the Burtonsville area is the best halal restaurant for the classic American staples. Philly cheesesteaks, fried chicken and buffalo wings are just a few of the amazing options this cozy restaurant has to offer. What sets aside this restaurant from other halal establishments is the fact that it offers Muslims the chance to indulge in American halal food, rather than what other halal establishments usually do, which is serve foods from foreign countries. 

Khana Claypot Grill: “Indian food, simplified,” is this casual, family-owned restaurant’s motto! From traditional chicken biryani to naan pizza, the variety of food this eatery offers includes a number of South Asian twists! Khana, the Hindi word for food, found its way into our area in 2014 and doesn’t appear to be leaving anytime soon! I do recommend ordering ahead of time, though, because they do take some time preparing the food, but that just ensures a quality meal!

Kabob and Karahi: Only a five-minute drive from Blake, Kabob and Kahrahi delivers the best execution of traditional Pakistani food! Kabob and Karahi has been serving our area since 2008 and recently opened up and decorated a new wing to the restaurant. The naan they sell is by far the best naan I’ve ever had! I also recommend the chicken tikka and the chicken karahi. A nice end to your meal is the Kashmiri chai, a pink tea from northern Pakistan. This restaurant is on the pricier side, but it is completely and totally worth it!  

Naz Halal: This restaurant chain, which was originally a food truck in Queens, New York, opened up its first Maryland location in Burtonsville! It’s similar to Halal Guys, but a thousand times better! From the classic chicken or lamb over rice to the cheeseburgers, everything this eatery has to offer you cannot go wrong! This establishment itself is located right across the plaza from Khana Claypot Grill and offers a family-friendly atmosphere inside. Another plus is that one of our very own Blake seniors, Rida Mahmood, works there!

Maiwand Kabob: Maiwand Kabob came to Columbia, Maryland in 1999, and over the past 20 years they have opened up a few more locations all around Maryland! The Afghani chain offers the best kabobs, authentic Afghani rice and rice pudding. Each location varies, but the one in Columbia Crossing deserves a special shout-out! This location offers a more formal feel than the others, and also includes the famous portrait of Sharbat Bibi, a young Afghani refugee, on an entire wall, which is certainly breathtaking! 

Especially with Ramadan coming up, I hope these recommendations make the search for good, tasty halal options a little bit easier!