Aladdin Moukhallalati creates Halal Advisor to promote eating out options for halal food

AN APP that finds cafes and restaurants selling halal food is now available in Australia.

Aladdin Moukhallalati enjoys a meal at Rashays Punchbowl, a restaurant that has 100 per cent halal food. Picture: Melvyn Knipe

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AN APP that finds cafes and restaurants selling halal food is now available in Australia.

With the 2016 Census revealing Australian’s Muslim population had grown, Aladdin Moukhallalati said it cemented his decision to create Halal Advisor.

“I am Muslim and always trying to find halal food to eat when I’m out at work or with friends socialising,” he said.

“Having this app means I don’t have to ring up or walk into a restaurant and ask if there’s anything on the menu I can eat.”

He said he hoped an even larger portion of the 640,000 people who identify as Muslim across Australia would use the app as a way of simplifying the eating out process.

Halal Advisor has more than 3000 cafes and restaurants across Australia that provide halal food to customers. The majority of those are based in Sydney and Melbourne.

When you open the app, it determines your location and shows you cafes and restaurants in the vicinity that sell halal food.

Aladdin said Bankstown Maccas and Flowerdale Rd KFC now have 100 per cent halal food. Picture: Melvyn Knipe

It also tells you if they are halal certified or only a portion of their dishes were halal.

“You can broaden or hone in your search or pick a certain cuisine then decide whether you want to dine in or take away,” Mr Moukhallalati said.

“It’s (Australia) such a multicultural country and the demand for food has risen.

“Having restaurants like Rashays that are selling 100 per cent halal food, that also caters to the general public with burgers and pasta, is great.

“You only have to look at the big chains that now have 100 per cent halal food in Sydney’s south west — Bankstown Maccas and Flowerdale Rd KFC.

“You’re seeing more and more offering halal food.”

He said for those who had nothing but negativity towards him creating the app, he had a few words to say.

“Having more than 600,000 Muslims in Australia is not a small group. When I decided to create the app it was purely a business decision because there was a market for it,” he said.

“We’ve already got Zomato, UberEats and Deliveroo — I don’t want to compete with them. I have a niche and I want to be good at it.”

As good as they are — and they can be up-market too, like this $30 one from Istanbul in Parramatta — there is more to halal food than just halal snack packs. Picture: Peter Kelly

The growth is crazy. Adding and updating content is constantly happening. And the app has already been downloaded 7000 times.

Mr Moukhallalati, who was living in West Hoxton but has just moved to Colebee, is getting 20 to 30 messages on social media a day from food businesses asking to be added to the list.

He said he has a team of people working on aggregating the content, cross referencing opening hours, menu items and halal certification.

“We are constantly updating it so our users have the most up-to-date information possible,” he said.

“I’ve used apps that list a food business at a location and there’s now a sewing shop — it’s not good.”

He said the app had long-term potential for customers to order on it. In the meantime he was in the midst of introducing notifications.

“I’ll be able to send users an alert of a new restaurant or a special discount from a restaurant in their neighbourhood,” he said.

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This next step is how Mr Moukhallalati said he could make some revenue from the app.

The app is available on both Android and iPhone devices.

Mr Moukhallalati is no stranger to creating apps when there’s a gap in the market. He is the mastermind behind Train Social.