Re: Whats the importance of `Halal' in Islam?
In the context you are asking arleitter. Halal pertains to meat used for cooking those dishes at those restaurants. In USA also there are many restaurants owned by Hindus who serve non vegetarian dishes made of Halal meat.
Muslims have been mandated to eat only the Halal meat. Now there are some scholarly differences .
For some sects of Muslims meat from a Halal ( permissible to be consumed) animal will not be halal until it is slaughtered in a certain way.
For other sects it is Halal if it is meat of a Halal animal even if it is not slaughtered in that certain way , but it has to be slaughtered by People of Book ( Christians and Jews).