Foodie Friday: Halal Basket

A new restaurant featuring Mediterranean cuisine has opened its doors in San Marcos.

Halal Basket took over what was formerly a Cici’s Pizza on Thorpe Lane. The interior hasn’t changed much, featuring bright and inviting oranges and greens adorning the walls. Although this new San Marcos eatery offers pizza on its menu, most of the items are far different from its predecessor.

Halal is an Arabic word that translates to "permissible.” Halal is a term often used in the Quran to designate categories of subjects that are lawful. Islam often considers foods as halal that are made, produced, manufactured, processed and stored using machinery, equipment, and/or utensils that have been cleaned according to Islamic law. Additionally, foods considered halal are those free from any component Muslims are prohibited from eating according to Islamic law.

Halal Basket describes its menu as “for those with pure food indulgence in mind, come in and sate your desires. We love food and we’re sure you’ll love our food.”

“Halal Basket Mediterranean Restaurant is a family owned restaurant that crafts an authentic Mediterranean cuisine experience right here in San Marcos, Texas,” the restaurant says on its website.

What to get:

During our visit to Halal Basket, we weren’t too ambitious in our selections.

I chose to sample the restaurant’s loaded gyro wrap ($10.49). This gyro wrap came with lettuce, tzatziki sauce, tomatoes and onion. The gyro meat included was nice and tender. Everything paired well with each other with the fluffy pita bread bringing the whole thing together.

My dining companion also chose to sample a wrap. He went with the chicken shawarma ($9.99), which came wrapped inside pita bread alongside lettuce, tomatoes, garlic sauces and onions.

We also went with Halal Basket’s loaded French fries ($3.99). These fries came topped with tzatziki, hot sauce and ketchup.

If you’re in the mood for a wrap, but aren’t wanting a gyro or chicken shawarma version, you can get the loaded chicken wrap ($9.99) served with chicken, lettuce, onions, fries, tomatoes and garlic sauce. You can also get a cheesy beef wrap ($11.99) served with beef, cheese, lettuce, Tahini sauce and tomatoes.

If you’re still not in the mood for a wrap, you can sample one of Halal Basket’s meat plates.

There’s the chicken over rice plate ($9.99), which comes with chicken, rice, hummus, salad and garlic sauce. Halal Basket also has the gyro over rice plate ($10.99) served with hummus, salad and tzatziki. You can get the gyro and chicken over rice place ($11.99), which comes with gyro meat, chicken, hummus, salad, garlic and tzatziki sauce.

If you’re looking for pizzas? Halal Basket has two to try. The eatery offers the veggie garden pizza ($11.99 for a medium and $15.99 for a large), which is a pizza topped with mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes, onions, olives and cheese. You can also sample the Halal Basket special pizza ($15.99 for a medium and $19.99 for a large) topped with your choice of meat — lamb, chicken, gyro or beef — Italian seasonings, mozzarella, cheddar and feta cheese.

Maybe you’re wanting to eat lighter. Halal Basket has several salads to choose from. You can try the Greek salad ($6.99), which comes with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, onions, olives, feta cheese and Greek dressing. You can also get the Garden salad ($5.99) served with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and carrots.

Halal Basket also has a creamy chicken pasta salad ($7.99), which comes with lettuce, tomatoes, pasta, cucumbers, chicken, mayonnaise, sour cream and ranch. You can also sample the creamy chicken, potatoes and peas salad ($5.99) served with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and carrots.

To view the full menu visit: https://smhalalbasket.com/menu.

If you go:

Halal Basket is located at 1101 Thorpe Lane, Suite 107.

The restaurant is open from 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Halal Basket is open Sundays from noon-9 p.m.

Phone: 512-317-1236

Website: https://smhalalbasket.com