Hongdae halal restaurant: gyro platter with 3 falafel, Halal Steaks

Hongdae has so many restaurants, but plenty of unusual ones too. One day I suddenly craved falafel and Halal Guys so badly that I quickly searched for a halal food spot near my place and went — let me introduce Halal Steaks, a halal restaurant near Hongik University Station. (If you've never tried it, you really should — it's delicious!)

How to find Halal Steaks: 5–7 minutes from Hongik Univ. Station Exit 9

Halal Steaks, this Hongik University Station restaurant, is about a 5-7 minute walk from Exit 9, and it's near 943 King's Cross, the café famous for its Harry Potter theme, so it also makes a good meal-then-café course.

Second-floor dining room: kiosk ordering and a window seat for one

Halal Steaks is on the 2nd floor and orders can be placed at the kiosk near the entrance. The store has 2- and 4-person tables plus a solo seat by the window, so I'd recommend it if you're looking for a good solo-dining spot in Hongdae. I came alone too. And of course, delivery is available!

Right across the street was the A-Land building. Thinking back, in the old days the Hongdae A-Land area used to be the hottest spot around, but it doesn't seem quite that way these days. (Getting nostalgic while I'm just here for lunch.) It's quieter than the main Hongdae street or Yeonnam-dong, which made for a really relaxed meal.

Halal Steaks menu: platters and sandwiches

Halal Steaks' menu is broadly split into platters and sandwiches. Platters come in chicken / gyro / combo / falafel, where gyro means beef plus lamb and combo means gyro plus chicken. Sides include falafel, hummus, fries, and more. Personally, if it's your first visit, I'd recommend the platter.

Halal certificate and meat origin labels at Halal Steaks

A halal certificate is posted on the wall, and the origin labels are clearly displayed too. Beef from Australia, lamb from New Zealand — everything imported! This place really uses good ingredients, honestly.

'Halal food' is just a convenient catch-all term for Islamic food, but Halal is Arabic for 'permitted,' and in food terms it refers to what's allowed under Islamic law and how it's prepared and processed. The slaughtering process especially is strict, which is apparently why Muslims are required to eat only meat with a halal certificate.

Ordering the 12,900-won gyro platter and 4,500-won falafel

Halal Steaks gyro platter ₩12,900 (S), Halal Steaks falafel 3pcs ₩4,500. I thought about getting the single set, but since none of the sets came with falafel, I just added the side to a single item.

By the way, gyro is originally a Greek dish — meat is stacked vertically on a rotating spit, roasted, then sliced thin from the outside, kind of like a kebab. But at halal places, gyro usually means it comes with lamb. Not recommended if you don't like the smell of lamb, but for someone like me who loves lamb skewers and that lamb aroma, it's my favorite item.

What comes on the gyro platter, and how it tastes

The platter is one plate with meat, basmati rice (Indian rice), vegetables, and pita bread all together. The sauces are white sauce and hot sauce — and fried rice mixed with sauce could never be bad, haha. The combination of strongly-flavored lamb, sautéed rice, fresh vegetables, all tied together by a white sauce that's both rich and refreshing, was so good. It's also great wrapped up in pita bread like a sandwich.

Falafel is best crumbled into the platter and mixed in

Honestly, falafel isn't that great on its own, so I crumbled it up and mixed it into the platter. Actually, most falafel at Korean restaurants comes from the same frozen product, so it tastes pretty similar everywhere. It's not meat — chickpeas ground up with herbs and other stuff, then fried — so it's not a meatball, it's a pea-ball. But it's beans, deep fried, right? Delicious, right? And the Middle Eastern spices are strong, giving it a distinctive flavor that I personally like, haha.

How does Halal Steaks compare with Halal Guys in New York?

Eating it after a while, it was so good I practically licked the plate clean, haha. I had it in New York a couple years ago too, and while it's not 100% identical, the flavor was similar to the real Halal Guys, which I loved. If you've never tried halal food, you really should give it a try at least once!