How a Yorkshire town became a halal food destination
Batley is drawing in Muslim diners from across the region, bringing hope for local regeneration
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On a crisp Wednesday morning groups of women gather in a bright cafe surrounded by white wisteria hanging down the walls, as they catch up over a halal breakfast of shakshuka and Spanish lattes.
Some are here solely for the pistachio kunafa French toast, inspired by the viral Dubai chocolate. You’d think Elite Cafe & Patisserie, which caters primarily to Muslim diners with its menu blending Middle Eastern, desi and English dishes, would be found on Manchester’s Curry Mile or Leeds Road in Bradford, not in the West Yorkshire town of Batley.
But the cafe is one of many eateries in Batley drawing in Muslim diners from across the region, turning this market town into a halal food destination.
“We have had Muslims come to us from as far as Newcastle and Liverpool. They all said they’re lacking halal food places in their area,” Elite’s co-founder Rahima Hajat says.
In recent years, halal food blogger Aamir Khan has found himself travelling the eight miles from Bradford to get his fix of halal Italian food at Salt & Crust and Afghan cuisine at Kabuliwala.
“I love this place because it’s real,” he says. “It’s a community that backs its own, where good food brings everyone together. Batley is serving serious flavour. Every new spot that pops up just proves how much this town loves good food. It’s been a long time coming.”
Sitting just south of Bradford and Leeds, Batley, with a population of just over 44,500 people, has borne the scars of a declining high street for years. Like many of the UK’s towns and cities, Batley was badly hit by ripple effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost of living crisis, worsened when Conservative government plans to regenerate the town centre with £12m from its Levelling Up programme were postponed in 2022.
But the opening of a number of halal cafes and restaurants over the past few years has brought hope of regeneration.
“These new food places are 100% going to regenerate Batley,” says Hajat. “We’ve already seen it in the last two years. Everyone’s doing well. I think it’s encouraged people to go out in Batley.”
Batley Plaza shopping centre, for example, opened in 2022 and its 24 cafes, restaurants, dessert parlours and retail units are all Muslim-owned and managed. Residents have become spoiled for choice — from East Asian soul food at Sibu and handcrafted Japanese street food at Sushi Box to chapli kebabs at My Peshawar.
Hollywood Legends Bar, which closed in 2020, was given a new lease of life when Bradford property developer and businessman Mohammed Zahoor purchased the run-down bar and reopened it as Legends Café in 2023. Zahoor, 48, has retained much of the timelessness of the old Art Deco property, but is offering something that Muslim diners don’t come across often — halal traditional English food.
The menu “is a fusion between English and desi”, he tells Hyphen. “On evenings we do curries, but 90% of the time it’s English breakfast and chicken pot pies, which the Muslim community normally couldn’t have because they’re predominantly done by English places which don’t cater for halal. We do a lamb shank, we do steak and eggs. It’s an English concept.”
Legends Café is a favourite with Leeds-based community worker Zainab Aziz, who says Batley is worth the travel for the halal food options.
“Most food places in Batley are family-friendly and hijab-friendly, they’re certified HMC. The owners are creative and welcoming and the prices are reasonable,” she says. “Plus, they don’t serve alcohol and the meat is sourced locally, supporting Muslim businesses.”
Elite Cafe & Patisserie sits just up the road from Legends. It opened in 2022, founded by Hajat, Shenaz Chunara and Shenaz Patel, who moved to Batley from Leicester and London 20 years ago. The friends had always enjoyed going for brunch together but found there were no halal brunch spots in the town and would often have to drive to Leeds or Manchester instead.
Now, the demand for a table at their cafe is so high that they no longer take bookings. They also aim to contribute to Batley’s economy by employing local Muslim women.
“One of our main aims was creating jobs for young women who have just left school and older women whose children are grown up, and women who are passionate about cooking,” Hajat says.
Both Zahoor and Hajat say the popularity of their business is reflective of a new generation of Muslims who prefer going out to eat to cooking at home, which small towns like Batley are happily catering to.
“The dynamics of how people dine out have changed over the years,” says Zahoor. “In my generation we didn’t go out to eat much. Not many places were halal. Fast-forward 25 years, everybody wants to meet outside. Travelling to eat is part of the culture now, part of their dining experience.”
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