From Palo Alto Online| March 11, 2025

Walking inside Halal Street Xinjiang Cuisine & BBQ feels like being welcomed into owners Sudai Ma’s and Isaming Deng’s home.

While the downtown Mountain View restaurant is large and can seat 180 people, it still has a cozy, warm and inviting ambiance. A row of traditional home-style tatamis decorated with plush, vibrant pillows sit to the left, a private dining space with karaoke is straight ahead and a bustling dining room can be found at the right. In the back, the owners have plans to transform the outdoor patio into a backyard barbecue area, with additional seating and grills coming soon.

The menu, crafted by Ma herself, highlights comfort foods eaten in her and her husband’s hometown of Xinjiang. This autonomous territory in northwest China has a cuisine featuring a blend of cultural influences —  including Persian, Turkish, Mongolian and Chinese —  which is not easily found along the Peninsula. Prior to Halal Street’s opening, Mrs. Khan in Menlo Park was the only local restaurant specializing in Uyghur cuisine.

A home cook taught by her grandmother, Ma’s dishes do not have MSG, and everything is halal – you won’t find pork or alcohol, and all meat and poultry is treated humanely and slaughtered according to specific guidelines.

Eating halal is very important to Ma, who practices Islam, and she said she hopes her restaurant is a place of inclusivity – where people from all backgrounds, religions and dietary practices can come together over a meal.

“My goal is to let all of the community sit on the same table and eat together,” general manager Ali Omer translated for Ma, who spoke in Mandarin.