H&H Brazilian Steakhouse
L.A.’s first Brazilian steakhouse to serve halal beef, lamb and chicken is a modern full-service churrascaria where servers come to the table to display skewers of premium meat cuts and slice off exactly what you want onto your plate. It’s an upscale all-you-caneat, with a salad bar and an a la carte menu.
The seasonal cut of Japanese Wagyu on the menu is not halal, and the steakhouse does serve pork. However, the staff has been trained on the concept of halal meat and uses separate utensils and grills as well.
Owner Henrique Huyer says, “I’m a gaucho, a southern Brazilian cowboy. This is in my DNA.”
He adds that he was raised on a farm in Brazil and that his dad had a butchery business so he “grew up dealing with meat.”
Huyer says the restaurant received numerous calls from potential customers asking if the meat was halal and, after looking into it, he switched in September. He says he is happy to be serving this new customer base.
While there are several dining settings to choose from, each with its own vibe, step into H&H’s autumn-themed openkitchen space to see the cooks preparing the meat across the room.
8500 Beverly Blvd., Suite 113, Los Angeles; also 518 W. 7th St., Los Angeles, (213) 266-8103; hhsteakhouse.com
Cedar’s Tacos
When he was 18 and a biology student at UCLA, Mohamad Nabir Farhat started a halal Mexican food stand in front of his father’s meat market in Bell. If you get to Cedar’s before the eatery sells out for the day, try the birria quesadilla and relish it in all its cheesy glory.
Farhat’s family is from Lebanon, but his father grew up in Colombia before moving to the United States. Farhat was born and raised in South L.A. around Arab and Latin communities, where he picked up on Mexican food culture.
Working with a Latino family at the meat market as a kid, he learned how to marinate, chop and cook meat in traditional Mexican ways and hoped to combine it with Lebanese tradition to bridge the two communities.
“It amazes me when people drive very far to try halal Mexican food,” Farhat says. “I’ve had a customer all the way from the U.K. that saw me on TikTok and came to try my food.”
Cedar’s now offers a fullservice Mexican menu with your choice of meat, and Farhat has plans to open a dine-in restaurant.
4846 Florence Ave., Bell, (323) 771-2400, tiktok.com/@cedarstacos