The Biz Beat: San Jose restaurant serves Mexican food with halal twist

Chef Hisham Abdelfattah knows the test of a great restaurant is not how it prepares and plates its highest-end menu items, but the care it takes in its everyday foods and side dishes. And at El Halal Amigos, it all comes down to his magnificent rice and beans.

“People ask me what is my best thing,” Abdelfattah told San José Spotlight. “And it’s easy to point out the ribs. But when I started, I decided we would make the best beans and rice anywhere. I am sick of going to Mexican restaurants and being served lackluster food.”

The two dishes are a flavor revelation. The beans, black or pinto, are firm and mildly seasoned. The fluffy rice is infused with chicken broth and garlic, which might tempt you to finish it before you touch anything else on the plate.

Abdelfattah, 30, has been cooking since he was 13 years old. He started by helping his Filipino mother after school by boiling rice and meat. On weekends, while with his Palestinian father, he was tasked with making breakfast and dinner.

“I was making adobo and kare-kare for my mom,” he said. “Then making maqluba and labneh for my dad. I realized I had a knack for cooking and actually liked it.”

Abdelfattah got his first job in a restaurant at 14, washing dishes at an East Side taqueria. He started working the line when he was 16 years old.  He said he hated school and the only time he felt focused was while cooking.

At 17, he was hired at Straits and the Left Bank at Santana Row. At 18, he began attending the Culinary Academy in San Francisco.  At 28 — and 40 restaurants later — he made a life-changing decision to embrace his father’s Muslim faith and the practice of halal, which governs how animals are raised and slaughtered.

“You are not allowed to eat animals that eat other animals, like pigs,” Abdelfattah said. “The animals need to be hormone and antibiotic-free and killed cleanly while being prayed over. And no alcohol, which is very hard to navigate as a chef.” 

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Chef Hisham Abdelfattah, owner of El Halal Amigos, makes us a plate! 🍽️ Learn more about the San Jose restaurant in our latest Biz Beat story on SanJoseSpotlight.com #bayareafoodies #mexicanfood #halal #sanjose #bayarea #bayarearestaurants

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In marrying halal with his passion for Mexican food, he inadvertently bridged a cultural divide, with many halal-eating people telling him it was their first time having Mexican food.

“I realized I was onto something,” Abdelfattah said. “While everyone else was bunkering down with COVID, I was knocking on doors trying to raise money for a food truck and find people to invest in the concept.”

Abdelfattah had been working for Ed Rathmann at Willow Street Pizza and Main Street Burgers, and he was willing to help him finance the food truck.

“Hisham worked for me for quite a while,” Rathmann said. “He’s a rare person in the business. You could tell he was going somewhere; he took ownership and acted like an owner. And he can could cook. He is not the kind of person that you run across every day.”

The truck came from a vendor in Utah and it needed to be brought up to California code — “The worst decision I ever made,” Abdelfattah said — and he hit the social media scene hard.

“Before I even had the food truck,” he said, “I started the El Halal Amigos brand. My dad said, ‘Why are you telling people you’re gonna open?’ I said, ‘I’m creating buzz because we have no capital.’”

He opened the business to a long line of customers in August 2020 and documented every moment on TikTok.

“I go in front of my food truck,” Abdelfattah said, “and I’m reading in Spanish telling people to come and eat. The next day, we had a line two hours before we opened, like they were trying to get into the 49ers.”

After two years, the business was successful enough for Rathmann to offer Abdelfattah the former Main Street Burgers location. He opened on Valentine’s Day 2022, with a 100% scratch kitchen and a 100% halal menu.

“We’re using very high-quality ingredients,” he said. “We stick to authentic styles and cooking techniques while staying trendy with what the masses want. There is an Arab flare, but the food is authentically Mexican.”

Abdelfattah introduced brisket to the menu as a substitute for the forbidden pork, and it figures in one of his most popular dishes, Slow-Cooked Barbacoa Costillas. The dish is made with two tender beef ribs cooked in banana leaves and served on a mound of slow-cooked brisket. The clean flavor of the meat is unmistakable, complimenting the chilies and spices rather than being disguised by them.

Another must-try, perhaps surprisingly, is the sweet potato and fried kale tacos topped with chipotle mayo. The potatoes are soft and chewy, the kale gives a nice sharp crunch and the mayo ties everything together by adding a little heat. The trick to vegan and vegetarian food, Abdelfattah said, is to make everything taste like chicken, and he may have come close — aimed at the vegan crowd, these tacos could satisfy any taste.

The quality of El Halal Amigos is in every bite. Even the nacho cheese is miles away from the gloopy yellow substance people have come to expect from Mexican restaurants. It is smooth and creamy, closer to the texture of a hollandaise sauce, and it has a nice jalapeño burn.

Abdelfattah said he likes the business because it allows him to flex his creativity and work with a team that shares his passions.

“I love being able to mentor them and work with them to create something for the public,” he told San José Spotlight. “I love food because it’s our outlet, like reading, to explore another culture. It’s almost like food is speaking to you.”

Contact Robert Eliason at [email protected].

Editor’s Note: The Biz Beat is a series highlighting local small businesses and restaurants in Silicon Valley. Know a business you’d like to see featured? Let us know at [email protected].