As a Muslim, I find it difficult to find places that serve 100% halal food and where my options aren’t limited to a portion of the menu. This being said, I wanted to create a list of five halal food places in Skokie and Morton Grove that are worth the trip. These options are not only halal but also serve excellent food from a variety of cultures.

1. Afghan Kabob

Afghan Kabob is a restaurant on Dempster that specializes in Afghan food. With a focus on traditional elements, they also bring a touch of inspiration from the Middle East into their menu. With everything from Mantu dumplings to hummus, Afghan Kabob has a wide range of menu items for every palate. My recommendations include Mantu dumplings and Kabuli Palaw with Ferni, an Afghan-style pudding for dessert. Mantu is steamed dumplings filled with ground beef, chopped onions and exotic herbs.  It’s topped with meat sauce, drizzled with homemade garlic yogurt sauce and sprinkled with dry mint. It’s a savory dish fit for every occasion, and never too filling. Additionally, Kabuli Palaw is a delicious traditional Afghan dish that contains a seasoned lamb shank with brown basmati rice and garnished with caramelized carrots and raisins.

2. Ya Hala

Ya Hala is a family business that opened in March 2022 on Dempster St.  They serve Middle Eastern cuisine and homemade food of excellent quality. Maryam Hassan, a store employee and daughter of the owner recommends their mixed grill, humus, shawarma sandwich and Fatteh.  The mixed grill is an entree with rice, beef kabob, a skewer of chicken kabob, Arabic salad (finely chopped vegetables with dressing on top) and baba ghanoush (puréed eggplant with tahini and yogurt) on the side.  Hummus is puréed chickpeas served with pita bread, homemade hot sauce, garlic sauce, tahini sauce and yogurt sauce.  Among the sandwiches, she would recommend shawarma, and among appetizers, she would recommend the Fatteh, which is eggplant with yogurt sauce and ground beef.

Their glowing reviews frequently praise not only the quality of the food but also the ambiance of the restaurant and the way the owners strive to make their customers feel at home.

“It’s because it feels like back home in the Middle East. We’re from Jordan, and when you know someone, you treat them like you’ve known them for 20 years. And I feel like we do that at Ya Hala,” Hassan said. “Every new customer we have, we treat them like they are family and we want them to feel at home.”

3. Port of Peri Peri

Port of Peri Peri uses a special chili in their dishes called Bird’s Eye chili, giving it its unique fiery and tangy taste and starring in all of their sauces.  It is around 50,000 to 100,000 Scoville units. To put that into perspective, that is 20 to 40 times hotter than most jalapeños! This chili is imported from West Africa and used to make a variety of sauces for a spectrum of spiciness levels.  When you order anything, you can choose the spice level from “lemon and herbs” to “extra hot.”  This spice-level adaptability makes their cuisine widely accessible and popular with individuals of all spice-tolerance levels.  Their signature dish is flame-grilled chicken, infused with spices and striking a perfect balance between tradition and culinary innovation.  Coming from someone with a relatively high spice tolerance, I really enjoyed the unique flavor of Port of Peri Peri’s chicken and appreciate the authenticity of their cuisine.

4. OMG Grill

OMG Grill is a fast food restaurant that serves mostly American items with a few South Asian foods.  Their main options are burgers, hand-tossed pizzas, burritos/tacos, wings and paratha rolls.  They offer many staples of fast food restaurants while keeping everything halal and accessible to all.