There’s no shortage of interesting food halls in Tokyo, where you can dine on everything from Michelin Bib Gourmand-rated Vietnamese dishes to vegan Japanese comfort food. But this new supermarket and food hall in Yashio city, Saitama stands out for its dedication to halal produce and meals.
Yashio is known for its Pakistani community and the shelves at National Mart reflect this with a range of products from Pakistan and other Asian countries. You’ll find various ingredients, condiments and snacks, including retort curry packs from Indian company MTR Foods and Namkin Pakistani halal chips.
It’s not all about food, either. There’s also a stall where you can buy salwar kameez, a traditional dress for Pakistani women, as well as hijab in various colours and designs.
One of the highlights here is Yataimura (meaning ‘food stall village’ in Japanese), which is a food hall with seven restaurants. The outlets include Siddique for Pakistani dishes, ramen restaurant Naritaya and Red Panda for Chinese cuisine. All of the restaurants serve halal food.
To order, just buy a ticket from the vending machine at the entrance and hand it over to the designated restaurant. There’s shared seating for 54 people in the food hall.
Make sure to also check out the colourful desserts at Sweets and Bakery. A popular choice is laddu, which is a round doughnut-like pastry with a chewy outer layer, sprinkled with nuts to give it a crunchy texture. Look out for gulab jamun, too, which is a sweet milk solid soaked in syrup.
National Mart and Halal Yataimura are open daily from 11am to 10pm. Check out the supermarket's Facebook page for more information.
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