The journey of finding halal Japanese food in Malaysia never ends. Whether we're slurping up halal Japanese instant noodles for supper or treating ourselves to Muslim-friendly Japanese meals in Klang Valley, it'll transport our tastebuds to our favourite Japanese city. If there's one Japanese dish we love most, it has to be sushi, and Sushi Mentai in Malaysia is synonymous to it. However, you might be wondering, 'Is Sushi Mentai halal?'. If you're looking for answers, here's everything you need to know.
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What is Sushi Mentai?
With many outlets in Malaysia and Indonesia, Sushi Mentai is a popular franchise that has been serving affordable Japanese sushi since 2011. Partly named after Mentaiko, which is a fish roe dish that's lightly flavoured with sauce, what makes Sushi Mentai special is the use of in-house Mentai sauce to bring out the flavours of their signature sushi.
The brand is also famous for serving affordable conveyer belt sushi that's priced between RM1.80 and RM2.80 per plate. Other menu selections include sashimi, tempura soba, curry udon, and more.
Is Sushi Mentai halal?
On November 2020, we've reached out to Sushi Mentai Group regarding the halal status of the food served. While the restaurant is not halal-certified, all chicken dishes are prepared using halal chicken. They also do not use any pork or lard in their food preparation process.
However, some of their cooked dishes do contain *mirin for taste purpose. According to Sushi Mentai Group, the mirin will evaporate during the cooking process. Additionally, their sushi rice does not contain mirin but it has rice vinegar that follows Japanese traditional rice fermentation purpose.
*Mirin is traditionally a sweet Japanese cooking rice wine that's widely used in Japanese recipes. A lot of dishes like teriyaki chicken, ramen and udon use mirin as it adds an umami flavour to savoury dishes.
We hope this article clarifies some of the questions you have about the halal status of Sushi Mentai! The most assured way to know you're getting halal sushi is by dining in halal-certified or Muslim-owned Japanese restaurants in Malaysia. That includes the halal-certified Sushi King and Nippon Sushi.
If you spot any halal sushi restaurants in Malaysia that are worth visiting, let us know and we'll continue to share it with our community!