The Halal Guys bring their Culinary Traditions to Pearland

The wonderful adventure of The Halal Guys begins in 1990 with three Egyptian founders. They began with a hot dog cart in New York City, then shifted to providing halal cuisine to Muslim taxi drivers, who had few options for true halal food in the five boroughs at the time.

Three decades later, The Halal Guys is a restaurant chain that is expanding internationally, with multiple Houston locations, including a new site in Pearland.

The Pearland restaurant, located at 10621 Broadway, Suite 109, just east of Texas 288, opened in late November and specializes on The Halal Guys’ specialty of fresh Mediterranean/American halal food.

According to Zuhair Fatany, project manager for the Houston area, including the Pearland restaurant, customers have responded.

“People from all different ethnicities love our food, whether they’re from Pakistani, Asia or the United States,” he said.

Indoor dining, takeout, delivery, online orders, and catering services are offered for specialties such as chicken and beef gyros, falafel platters, and six types of gyro/sandwiches with sides such as falafel, rice, hummus, tahini, olives, and pita bread. The lemon hummus is a seasonal treat, but the restaurant’s in-house baklava and chocolate chip cookies are available all year.

The city of Pearland, which is often listed among the top ten most diverse communities in Texas, was the ideal place for the business to expand its footprint.

Fatany was born in Houston, although his family is from Pakistan and owns the Pearland restaurant. As a child of immigrants, he feels The Halal Guys’ story resonates with people beyond the menu, but it’s the authenticity and freshness of the food that keeps customers coming back.

Halal Guys’ menu is kept simple, and the cuisine is cooked in accordance with halal standards. Halal refers to the standards that govern Muslim food and drink. The cuisine must be free of any component that Muslims are prohibited from consuming under Islamic law, and it must follow specific criteria about the method in which an animal is slaughtered.