London’s The Great Chase ‘fine-dining’ for ‘all budgets’ – Rehan

HALAL STATUS Fully Halal

By Rehan Siddiqui

By now you guys know me, I’m always on the hunt for the best Halal food; and on one occasion during my search on Tripadvisor, I came upon The Great Chase in Clerkenwell, London which was and still is rated number 69 out of 17239 restaurants in London!

Oh my God – that rating itself is a reason to try it out. So I booked a table and there was around a 12 week wait! On 3rd July, I took my family for dinner.

Parking there is relatively easy. In fact, there are spaces right outside. Clerkenwell seemed to me to be a quieter area of London.

We were met by the ever so kind and gentle soul, Simon, who is, in fact, one of the partners in the business.

During our visit, Simon explained that the business model for the restaurant was itself completely Islamic and Halal – the building was not mortgaged and the cash injected into the business was not via any loans. What an amazing concept to learn about.

On to where we were seated – for me not ideal. The building is old and small. We weren’t sat front of house, but down about five steps in a smaller back room adjacent to the kitchen.

Our table was right next to the door leading to the toilets; and I didn’t appreciate the odours every time the door was opened.

‘Halal should properly be Tayyab-Halal’

With regards to the food, then the meat that arrives on your plate, which is Halal (permissible according the edicts of Islam), should properly be Tayyab-Halal.

This means that the animal should be treated with the utmost regard and dignity for the duration of its life. Meat which is Tayyab-Halal is, by definition free-range.

Tayyab-Halal meat comes from animals individually slaughtered by hand, and, having not witnessed a single slaughter other than its own, are ignorant to the last of their ultimate fate.

Tayyab-Halal is in many regards the responsible and practical gold-standard for the rearing of animals whose ultimate destination is your plate.

As a group, we had most of what was on the menu. The food is based on contemporary fine-dining cooking, which personally to me isn’t appealing as I like comfort food.

While I don’t like a plate being a minimalist pretty picture, I did, however, have the olive mash and rib eye steak, which was comparable to any other high-end steak restaurant.

The restaurant wants to bring Halal fine-dining to everyone within all budgets. But, in my view, this level of price brings the disadvantages of a lack of opulent surroundings. In actual fact, you could be sitting in any cafe in London.

The reason I’m still giving this restaurant a 10/10 though, is because of Simon and his work ethic, the commitment of The Great Chase towards its the business model, and the fact that they bring very high quality food within reach of everyone.