How we label halal places
Every place tells you what we know, how we know it, and when it was checked. If we don't know something, we say so.
We haven't visited any of these restaurants yet
Everything on this site so far comes from what restaurants publish about themselves and from open data: their own websites, OpenStreetMap, and the Food Standards Agency's hygiene register. Nobody from YepItsHalal has walked into a kitchen, rung a manager or read a certificate. We are starting with what can be gathered honestly at scale, and saying exactly where it came from.
When that changes for a place, you will see it. A listing we have checked ourselves carries a Checked by us badge in search results and on its page, with the date and what we did. No badge means no visit, however confident the label above it looks.
What each label means
- Fully Halal
Strong evidence that all the meat served is halal.
Halal certification we have confirmed, our own check, or the restaurant clearly saying all its meat is halal with nothing on its site suggesting otherwise.
- Halal food available
Halal food is available, but not everything is halal. Check before you order.
The restaurant says it has halal options or a halal menu, or its site mentions halal food alongside pork or non-halal meat.
- Unverified
There are signs this place is halal, but we haven't checked. Ask before you order.
A mention of halal on its website, "halal" in its name, a community tag on OpenStreetMap, or a halal category in public place data.
Unverified never means a place isn't halal. We only show places with a sign of halal food. When a restaurant, or a person who mapped it, says it doesn't serve halal food, we don't show it at all.
Where the evidence comes from
The restaurant's own website
We read what restaurants publish about themselves and quote it, with a link and the date we read it.
Certification
Only shown as certification when it has been confirmed with the certifier. A restaurant saying it is certified is shown as exactly that.
Our own checks
When we have checked a place ourselves, the page says how and when.
OpenStreetMap
Community mappers sometimes tag places as halal. Useful, but it counts as weak evidence.
Public place data
Datasets from the Overture Maps Foundation sometimes categorise places as halal. Also weak evidence.
People who tell us
Owners and customers can send us details. We review every submission, and a listing that rests on one alone stays Unverified until something stronger arrives.
Photos
When a restaurant hasn't sent us its own photos, we show a picture of the kind of food it serves, marked as an example. It is never the restaurant's own dish. Who took each one, and its licence, is on the image credits page.
Somewhere to pray
Mosques and prayer spaces come from OpenStreetMap, the same open source as much of the restaurant data, and none of it touches a halal label: a mosque being near a restaurant says nothing about that restaurant's food. Hardly any of them carry opening times, a mosque listed as open may still be locked, and the doors being open is not the same as jamaat, so ring ahead for a particular prayer. All prayer spaces
Whether a restaurant has somewhere to pray inside comes from the people who go, through the same form as everything else. It shows who told us and when, and it is never confirmed by us unless the page says so. Nobody having told us is shown as exactly that, never as a no.
What a label can't tell you
Standards differ. Some people only eat hand-slaughtered meat, some avoid places that serve alcohol, and restaurants change suppliers. A label is a starting point built from the evidence we can see. The kitchen is the only one who can tell you for certain, so ask them.
Restaurant locations and details come from the Food Standards Agency food hygiene register (Open Government Licence), OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) and the Overture Maps Foundation.
Spotted something wrong, or run a restaurant?