Hongdae halal takeout for a team's late-night beers: Halal Steaks

What is Halal Steaks near Hongdae's Red Road like?

Halal Steaks is a halal food restaurant near the Red Road in Hongdae. It's a handy spot to drop into when you're hungry after watching the weekend street performances on the Red Road.

This day I went to a halal restaurant. I honestly didn't know what halal food was. I was vaguely wondering whether it was Mexican or American, and then I finally learned it's food from the Islamic world. During a break from work I was looking for something to take back as a beer snack and thought, why not try halal? It's great for eating alone in Hongdae and great for late-night takeout too! If you're tired of the same old menus, here's your chance to try some different Middle Eastern food!

Halal Steaks menu: platters and sandwiches

The Halal Steaks menu splits into two types: platters and sandwiches. You can pick your meat from chicken, lamb or falafel.

The platter is built on rice, you know, that long, thin, light rice you see a lot in India, cooked with something yellow that looks like turmeric. The sandwich is built on pita bread.

For sides there's basically fries, and if you've never tried falafel, it's a side worth trying at least once.

What I ordered for the team's late-night beer snacks

I ordered one platter and one sandwich to go from Halal Steaks. It was for our team's late-night beer snacks.

As a review event they give free fries, and the meat origins are posted too: beef from Australia, lamb from New Zealand, chicken from Brazil. Meat from all over the world, huh?

Halal Steaks platter: it feels like traveling from the first whiff

This is the Halal Steaks platter. If you like, you can add extra vegetables, extra meat, extra bread and so on. The meat gave off a distinctive exotic smell, and it honestly felt like traveling in the Middle East. Smell can take you somewhere else.

Halal Steaks sandwich: if eating alone, bite in from the end

If you're eating the Halal Steaks sandwich alone, I recommend biting in from the end without unwrapping it. This one was still unopened, because when I opened it...

It all fell apart, haha! I was totally startled. I expected it to hold together like a Subway sandwich, but it scattered and I got to see everything inside, hahaha. We were sharing, so we broke it into pieces and ate it with forks.

What's really addictive about halal food is the sauce: it's blended with a few spices, with a bit of a cumin (zira) taste, and the spicy sauce even reminded me of Mexican-style sauces. A very exotic flavor. If you want to travel but your situation doesn't allow it, going here and pretending to travel while you taste the food isn't a bad idea.

The sandwich has plenty of vegetables too, so the balance was great. Lettuce, tomato, well-seasoned meat and pita bread made a really good combination. I love this kind of mix: vegetable dressing and meat in just the right proportion. I go to Subway very often, but I have a hunch that Halal Steaks will become my second regular spot.

Folded back up it looks like this. If you're eating it all by yourself, bite in from the end. The portion is quite generous. Even people who eat a lot should feel full after just this one.

How do the platter's rice and meat taste?

This is the rice inside the platter. I figured Korean rice wouldn't suit it, and this light, fluffy rice was just perfect for halal food.

The meat was well infused with a smoky grill flavor, and it had an exotic smell you can't get from pork belly or fried chicken, which hit my nose right away.

The sandwich was so full of filling that it wouldn't fully close even when I folded it. It's plenty for a full meal, and a convincing halal option for late-night eating or beer snacks.

The sauce especially was one you really can't taste at most restaurants, a first for me. Seriously addictive!!

Mixing it with a Subway salad: a great combo

We decided to bring a Subway green salad to eat together with the Halal Steaks platter and sandwich. The meat was already in the platter and sandwich, so I just brought back a plain green salad.

White sauce and red sauce

This white sauce and red sauce, I kept dipping into them with my fork. The white sauce isn't mayonnaise and isn't yogurt, but it has great savory depth. The red sauce is really spicy, but the spice aroma kept me dipping in again and again..

A Subway sandwich with a Halal Steaks platter was also a very good combo. I recommend eating it this way too.

Mix the platter ingredients, sauce and vegetables together, pile them on pita bread, wash it down with a beer, and even if it isn't the weekend it turns into Friday night!

It's good eaten separately and good mixed all together. Adding a fair amount of sauce and mixing it up like bibimbap (mixed rice bowl) is a great trick too.

We mixed the whole platter right into the Subway sandwich and tossed it all together, and wow, it was unreal. We switched from beer to somaek (soju mixed with beer). It was really delicious.

Would I recommend Halal Steaks for solo meals and late-night takeout near Hongdae's Red Road?

If you're wondering where to eat alone near the Red Road in Hongdae, come to Halal Steaks. The spicy, savory sauces will keep you company. We're in the middle of construction so we do a lot of late-night takeout, and this was really good as a snack in between. Recommended, recommended!!