Yes, and if you live in Pasadena you already know how rarely that sentence gets said around here. Anne Arundel County has been one of the thinnest halal markets in Maryland for years. Most families in Lake Shore, Riviera Beach and Severna Park have made the drive north to Baltimore or west to Columbia for a halal dinner, and made it often. We are on Ritchie Highway now, at 8036 Ritchie Hwy, and the drive is over. Here is what makes hibachi halal, and why ours is.
The three things that decide whether hibachi is halal
Hibachi is a cooking method, not an ingredient. The answer is never about the hibachi. It is about the kitchen behind it. Three things disqualify most hibachi restaurants.
The meat.Chicken, beef and lamb have to come from a halal supplier and be slaughtered to halal standard. Most hibachi restaurants buy commodity meat and have no answer when you ask where it came from.
Pork on the premises.A restaurant serving pork gyoza or bacon fried rice is cooking it on the same flat top as your chicken. Even a kitchen with halal chicken cannot hand you a clean plate when there is pork six inches away on the same steel.
Alcohol in the sauce.This is the one almost nobody checks. Traditional teriyaki, eel sauce and many yum yum recipes are built on mirin or cooking sake. The meat can be perfectly halal and the sauce poured over it is not.
Flame clears all three. Every location serves a 100% halal menu. There is no pork anywhere in the building, so there is nothing on the grill to avoid. Our sauces are made in house rather than bought in, which is what lets us control what goes into them.
Those are also the three questions to ask anywhere else: who supplies your meat, is there pork in the building, and what is in your teriyaki.
At our Pasadena location
We are at 8036 Ritchie Hwy, Suite 1-C, Pasadena, MD 21122, on the main Ritchie Highway run. Marley Station is close. Glen Burnie is about ten minutes south, Severna Park about ten minutes north, and Lake Shore, Riviera Beach and the Fort Smallwood side are all a short drive east. BWI is roughly twenty minutes out if you are coming off a flight.
Hours are Monday through Saturday 11AM to 10PM and Sunday 11AM to 9PM. Holiday hours can shift around Eid and the major public holidays, so the Google Business Profile is worth a look before a long drive.
Worth saying plainly, because it is the reason this store exists: there is very little halal dining in this part of Anne Arundel County. If you have been driving to Baltimore or Columbia for it, you no longer have to.
Getting here, and the towns we serve
Ritchie Highway does most of the work. Lake Shore, Riviera Beach and Green Haven are minutes away. Glen Burnie is about ten minutes south, Severna Park about ten north, and Fort Smallwood, Orchard Beach and the Bay side are a short drive east. Millersville and Crownsville are inside twenty, and BWI is roughly twenty minutes if you are collecting someone off a flight.
Annapolis is about twenty-five minutes down Route 2, which is still a shorter halal drive than most families in this county are used to.
This store draws people from further out than most of ours, simply because there has been so little halal in Anne Arundel County. If you are making a longer drive, order ahead. Everything is cooked fresh when the ticket comes in, so a pre-order means you collect and go rather than arrive and wait.
What to order in Pasadena
Chicken, Beef and Shrimp Combo, $14.85. The family plate. Three proteins, two sides, and enough to share.
Shrimp Hibachi, $10.85. Chesapeake country runs on seafood, and this one sells accordingly.
Buffalo Wings, 10 pieces, $14.99. Fourteen flavors including Old Bay. Halal wings in Anne Arundel County are close to nonexistent otherwise.
Salmon Hibachi, $11.85. Our best-selling item brand-wide.
How the plates are built: every hibachi comes with your choice of any two sides — fried rice, white rice, lo mein noodles or vegetables. Bento boxes arrive loaded already, with hibachi, vegetables, rice or noodles, a 4-piece California Roll, two dumplings and two spring rolls. Extra chicken is $2.95 and extra salmon, beef or shrimp is $3.95, which is usually the cheapest way to stretch one plate across two people. Individual sides run $2.95 to $4.95, and Yum Yum sauce is $0.50.
In Pasadena the weekend pattern is family-size. Two three-protein combos, a wing order and a couple of rolls will comfortably cover four or five people, and it is still a shorter trip than the drive to Baltimore used to be.
Visit us
Halal hibachi on Ritchie Highway. No more driving to Baltimore for it. Flame Japanese Hibachi Pasadena, 8036 Ritchie Hwy, Suite 1-C, Pasadena, MD 21122. 443-628-6850. Mon to Sat 11AM to 10PM, Sun 11AM to 9PM.
