Chinatown cafe which serves pork and beer told by Muis to remove fake halal logo

Lester Wong
The Straits Times
9 March 2017

A cafe in Chinatown that drew online flak for displaying a fake halal logo on its signage has now been told off by the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis).

Home Taste Restaurant, located in South Bridge Road, initially caught the attention of passers-by because a halal logo was displayed next to a banner advertising a beer promotion.

Muis came to know about the matter through a Facebook post on the Halal Cafe & Restaurants in Singapore page on Tuesday (March 7).

"Our Halal Enforcement Team visited the premises on the same day and informed the restaurant to remove the logo immediately," Muis said in a statement.

"The team is following up with enforcement action against the restaurant."

A separate complaint was published on website All Singapore Stuff a day later by a user named "Juliana".

"This is misleading to consumers, especially to Muslim tourists (who) may not know any better," she wrote.

When The Straits Times contacted the restaurant on Thursday (March 9), Home Taste's manager, who refused to be named, said that the logo on the banner was due to a printing error and has since been taken down.

"This was a misunderstanding, we were not aware of what it was before," she said in Mandarin, before referring further queries to her lawyers.