A growing number of restaurants in Kyoto, Japan are now offering halal food, giving Muslims around the world, especially from the Middle East, more reasons to visit Kyoto.

One of the must-try Japanese cuisines in Kyoto is the Kyo Kaiseki cuisine, the most refined cuisine in Kyoto dating back over a thousand years ago. The cuisine places emphasis on the use of the freshest seasonal produce delicately presented over several courses.

Recently, Kyoto Muslim Association (KMA) and Kyoto Council for Sharia and Halal Affairs supervised Kyoto-based hotels and restaurants to ensure the required Sharia standards are maintained in all listed restaurants. The restaurants and hotels of all categories have been rigorously checked by the experts of the Council and have been certified according to their categories.

• “Halal” indicates restaurants and coffee houses with halal food only. If no alcoholic beverage is served, the entire place is certified as halal. If not, all food menus are certified as halal, and alcoholic beverages are strictly separated.
• “Muslim Friendly” restaurants provide halal menus with halal logos. In their ordinary menus, non-halal chicken and beef, and alcoholic flavouring may be used.
• “Muslim Welcome” means no pork or pork-related items and no alcoholic flavouring are used in the entire place. However, this category doesn’t offer separate halal menus.
• “Pork-Free” means no pork and no meat. There are no pork and pork-related items, nor is any meat served. Alcoholic flavouring might be used. – TradeArabia News Service