Yi Lan Halal Restaurant

• Cuisine(s): Chinese
  Price: $$
  Payment Types: All Major Credit Cards
• Features: Takeout
  Serving: Dinner, Lunch
  Alcohol: Beer
• Reservations: Accepted
  Parking: Street

Description

Yi Lan Halal is the city's first restaurant to offer the cuisine of northern Chinese Muslims, not to be confused with the restaurants dotting the landscape that reconfigure Cantonese food for Islamic dietary strictures. What that means is lots of cumin-scented lamb; organ meats such as tongue, tripe, and intestines; and Japanese influences, such as the delightfully named "wasabi Arctic surf clams." The odd transformations of tofu are another delight, including "dry bean curd with shrimp" (a very soupy and spongy concoction) and tofu skin with hot pepper, by which they mean very hot! Served family style, hand-teared lamb is a vast bubbling cauldron of soup dotted with tiny red dates. Engagingly, the waitress will replenish the broth as the level descends.