What MUIS halal certification means
MUIS, the Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura or Islamic Religious Council of Singapore, is the body that issues halal certification in Singapore. For a food premises, certification means MUIS has looked at things like where the ingredients come from, how food is prepared and stored, and how the kitchen is run, and that the premises is checked again over time.
Certified premises display the MUIS certificate. Certificates are issued for a period and can lapse. Certification is also tied to a premises, so one outlet of a business may hold it while another does not. If certification is what you need, the surest way is to check with MUIS directly rather than relying on a sign, a menu or a listing.
What Muslim-owned means
Muslim-owned tells you who owns the business. Many Muslim-owned stalls are family kitchens where the people cooking share the faith of the diners they feed, and many diners are comfortable with that.
What Muslim-owned does not give you is an outside audit. You are trusting the owners and how they run their kitchen. For some diners that is enough. For others, especially when they are buying food for guests or for a religious occasion, it is not, and that is a fair position to take.
Muslim-owned is also not the same as halal-prepared. The first is about ownership, the second is a statement about how the kitchen cooks. We use both words about ourselves, and we use them separately on purpose.
What "no pork, no lard" means
"No pork, no lard" is a description the business gives of its own ingredients. It tells you two things are left out. It is not a religious ruling and it is not a certification.
Halal covers more than pork and lard, for example how meat is slaughtered and sourced, whether alcohol is used in cooking, and how utensils and storage are kept apart. A "no pork, no lard" sign does not speak to those points either way, so if they matter to you, ask.
Where Sabar Menanti stands
We want to say this plainly. Sabar Menanti is a Muslim-owned, halal-prepared kitchen. Our family has cooked nasi padang in Kampong Glam since the 1920s, starting with Haji Marlian Athar and Hajjah Rosmah Mailu, and the business is now run by their grandson, Iszahar Tambunan. You can read the full history on our story page.
We do not hold a MUIS halal certificate. Some of our diners need certification and some do not, and we would rather you make that choice with the full picture than find out later. If you have a question about a particular dish or ingredient, ask us at the counter or on WhatsApp at +65 8891 5262 and we will answer it honestly.
Questions worth asking at any counter
Whichever label a stall uses, a few simple questions will usually tell you what you need to know. These are fair to ask anywhere, including at our counter.
- Do you hold a current MUIS halal certificate for this premises?
- Who owns the business, and who cooks?
- Where does your meat come from?
- Is any alcohol, or any ingredient you are unsure of, used in the cooking?
- For catering: is the food cooked in the same kitchen as your usual counter?
Ordering for an event or a religious occasion
The question matters most when you are ordering for other people, for a tahlil, a kenduri or an office lunch with Muslim colleagues. Our catering is cooked in the same Muslim-owned, halal-prepared kitchen as our counter, from the same family recipes. If your guests or your organisation require MUIS certification, please factor that in before you order, and we will understand completely.
If our kitchen suits your gathering, the full catering set-up is $20 per person for a minimum of 40 people, and bento sets start from $10. See our catering page, or our guides to food for a tahlil or kenduri and office bento lunches.
