How halal works at BHARAT

The honest answer first: BHARAT is halal-friendly, not formally halal-certified. The restaurant itself does not currently hold a CICOT certificate. Here is exactly what that means and what we do every day to keep our food halal-friendly. (For our commercial overview of halal Indian dining in Bangkok, see halal Indian food in Bangkok.)

What "halal-friendly" means at BHARAT

There are two levels of halal in Thailand. There is full restaurant CICOT certification, which involves an audit of the entire kitchen, supply chain, staff training and equipment by the Central Islamic Council of Thailand. And there is halal-friendly sourcing, where a restaurant buys halal-marked ingredients but has not been through the formal restaurant audit. We are in the second category. We are open about that — we would rather you know exactly where we stand than imply something we have not earned.

What we actually do

Our fresh meat, poultry and vegetables are sourced daily from Makro (Siam Makro), Thailand's largest wholesale food retailer. We buy halal-marked product lines, and we keep our purchasing tight enough that we know exactly which packs go into each preparation.

• Chicken: Halal-marked product lines from CP Foods (Charoen Pokphand) and Betagro. Both are major Thai poultry producers with halal product lines that carry the green halal logo on packaging. We pick those packs at Makro every morning.
• Mutton and lamb: Halal-marked product lines from Makro, again identified by the green halal logo on packaging.
• Fish and seafood: Fresh, sourced daily. Most fish is considered halal-acceptable by default in standard Sunni jurisprudence, and we pick suppliers that handle product cleanly.
• Vegetables, fruits, dairy: Fresh from Makro every morning. Grains, spices, and produce are halal by nature.

What you will not find in our kitchen

• No pork. No bacon, no ham, no lard, no pork-based broths. The kitchen has never handled pork since the day we opened, and never will.
• No alcohol in cooking. No wine reductions, no beer batters, no rum-soaked desserts. (We do serve alcohol at the bar for diners who want it — beer, wine, cocktails — but no alcohol ever enters the food, and the bar is on a separate work surface.)
• No mixed equipment with non-halal meat. All meat-handling utensils, cutting boards, pans, and surfaces are used only for the halal-marked products we buy. There is no non-halal meat in the building to cross-contaminate with.

About CICOT certification (the formal kind)

CICOT is the Central Islamic Council of Thailand, the official Thai government-recognized halal certification authority. There are two CICOT marks worth knowing about as a diner:

• Product-level CICOT certification: The green halal logo on packs of CP Foods, Betagro, Saha Farms and similar suppliers. This means the slaughter, processing and packaging of that specific product line was audited by CICOT. This is what we look for at Makro every morning.
• Restaurant-level CICOT certification: A separate, more involved audit of the restaurant's whole kitchen, staff, equipment, and procedures. This is what allows a restaurant to say "we are CICOT-certified." BHARAT does not currently hold this. Pursuing it is something we are looking at, but we have not been through that audit yet.

If full restaurant-level CICOT certification is essential for you, we want you to know that upfront. There are a small number of restaurants in Bangkok that hold the restaurant-level mark; we are not yet one of them.

What you can verify yourself

Walk in and ask any of our staff for the most recent supplier packaging. We keep packs from the morning's delivery available so you can see the green halal logo on the chicken or mutton with your own eyes. If you want, you can independently verify a producer's product-level halal certification at halal.co.th.

Why we take this seriously

Muslim diners — Indian Muslim travelers staying at the nearby hotels, expat families in Bangkok, and Halal Friendly tourists from across Southeast Asia and the Middle East — are an important part of who walks through our door. They have asked, repeatedly, for a place where they can eat North Indian food without compromising on halal sourcing. We built our supply chain around that. We do not, however, want to imply more than we have earned. Halal-friendly is the honest description of where we are today.

For traveling Muslim diners

The whole menu is open to you. The vegetarian section is halal by default (no meat involvement at all). The biryani, kebabs, tandoori dishes, and curries are the most-ordered. We are 2 minutes walk from Grand Mercure Bangkok Atrium and other nearby hotels — see also Indian food in Huai Khwang for the surrounding neighbourhood.

Prayer time accommodation: if you need to step out for prayer during your meal, just tell your server — we can pause your order and keep your food warm for when you return. Several mosques and prayer facilities are within a short distance.