diff --git a/e2e-khairat-lifestyle.cjs b/e2e-khairat-lifestyle.cjs
index 92f5d74..a12b00d 100644
--- a/e2e-khairat-lifestyle.cjs
+++ b/e2e-khairat-lifestyle.cjs
@@ -69,14 +69,25 @@ async function main() {
   const timesInOrder = await page.locator('.times-list').innerText();
   record('Prayer Times: computes all 6 times for Kuala Lumpur', fajrVisible && /Fajr[\s\S]*Sunrise[\s\S]*Dhuhr[\s\S]*Asr[\s\S]*Maghrib[\s\S]*Isha/.test(timesInOrder), timesInOrder.replace(/\n/g, ' '));
 
-  // ── Locate (mosque search via live OpenStreetMap Overpass) ──
+  // ── Locate (mosque + halal search via live OpenStreetMap Overpass) ──
   await gotoTab(page, 'Locate');
   await page.waitForTimeout(500);
   await page.locator('button.btn-primary', { hasText: 'Search nearby' }).click();
-  await page.waitForTimeout(8000); // live Overpass API call
+  await page.waitForTimeout(10000); // live Overpass API call, across mirrors if the first is down
   const locateResultOrEmpty = await page.locator('.results-list, .empty').isVisible().catch(() => false);
   record('Locate: mosque search completes (real results or honest empty state)', locateResultOrEmpty);
 
+  // Halal food specifically: OSM tagging is sparse for this category
+  // globally, but Kuala Lumpur at this test coordinate is known to have
+  // real diet:halal=yes data (~30 results) — asserting a non-zero count
+  // here catches a mirror silently returning an empty-but-"successful"
+  // response, which looks identical to a legitimate empty search otherwise.
+  await page.locator('.category-toggle button', { hasText: 'Halal food' }).click();
+  await page.locator('button.btn-primary', { hasText: 'Search nearby' }).click();
+  await page.waitForTimeout(10000);
+  const halalResultCount = await page.locator('.result-row').count();
+  record('Locate: halal food search returns real results at a known-good test location', halalResultCount > 0, `${halalResultCount} results`);
+
   // ── Quran ──
   await gotoTab(page, 'Quran');
   await page.waitForTimeout(2000);
@@ -136,7 +147,12 @@ async function main() {
   record('Neighbourhood: a second account joining by code sees the same posts', secondSeesPost);
   await secondContext.close();
 
-  record('No uncaught JS console errors during full session', consoleErrors.length === 0, consoleErrors.slice(0, 5).join(' || '));
+  // A 504/429/503 while trying one Overpass mirror before falling through to
+  // the next is the fallback mechanism working as designed, not a bug — the
+  // browser still logs the failed fetch as a console error either way, so
+  // filter those specific expected-noise lines out of this assertion.
+  const realConsoleErrors = consoleErrors.filter(e => !/overpass.*(429|503|504)|Gateway Timeout|Too Many Requests/i.test(e));
+  record('No uncaught JS console errors during full session', realConsoleErrors.length === 0, realConsoleErrors.slice(0, 5).join(' || '));
 
   await browser.close();
   const passCount = results.filter(r => r.pass).length;
diff --git a/src/lib/overpass.js b/src/lib/overpass.js
index c82f083..f7c788c 100644
--- a/src/lib/overpass.js
+++ b/src/lib/overpass.js
@@ -1,7 +1,22 @@
 // Nearby-place search via the public OpenStreetMap Overpass API — free,
 // keyless, real community-sourced data. Deliberately never fabricates
 // listings: an empty result means nothing was found nearby, shown as such.
-const OVERPASS_URL = 'https://overpass-api.de/api/interpreter';
+//
+// The public Overpass instances are individually flaky under load — the
+// same query can return 429 (rate-limited) from one mirror and 200 from
+// another a moment later. A single hardcoded endpoint means any one
+// mirror having a bad minute breaks the feature outright, so this tries
+// a short list of independent public mirrors in order and only reports
+// failure once all of them have failed.
+// overpass.osm.ch was tried here too, but confirmed to return a "successful"
+// 200 with an empty/incomplete result set for queries the other two mirrors
+// answer correctly (e.g. diet:halal=yes near Kuala Lumpur: 0 results vs 30) —
+// worse than an outright failure, since a 200 short-circuits the fallback
+// loop and looks like a legitimate empty search to the user. Dropped.
+const OVERPASS_MIRRORS = [
+  'https://overpass-api.de/api/interpreter',
+  'https://overpass.kumi.systems/api/interpreter'
+];
 
 const QUERIES = {
   mosque: tags => `node["amenity"="place_of_worship"]["religion"="muslim"](around:${tags.radius},${tags.lat},${tags.lon});
@@ -25,18 +40,43 @@ function distanceKm(lat1, lon1, lat2, lon2) {
   return R * 2 * Math.atan2(Math.sqrt(a), Math.sqrt(1 - a));
 }
 
-/** Searches OpenStreetMap for real nearby places in the given category. Returns [] on no results, throws on network/API failure. */
+function fetchWithTimeout(url, options, timeoutMs) {
+  const controller = new AbortController();
+  const timer = setTimeout(() => controller.abort(), timeoutMs);
+  return fetch(url, { ...options, signal: controller.signal }).finally(() => clearTimeout(timer));
+}
+
+/** Searches OpenStreetMap for real nearby places in the given category. Returns [] on no results, throws only if every mirror fails. */
 export async function searchNearby(category, lat, lon, radiusMeters = 5000) {
   const q = QUERIES[category];
   if (!q) throw new Error(`Unknown category: ${category}`);
   const query = `[out:json][timeout:20];(${q({ lat, lon, radius: radiusMeters })});out center 30;`;
-  const res = await fetch(OVERPASS_URL, {
-    method: 'POST',
-    headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded' },
-    body: 'data=' + encodeURIComponent(query)
-  });
-  if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`Overpass API returned ${res.status}`);
-  const data = await res.json();
+  const body = 'data=' + encodeURIComponent(query);
+
+  let lastError = null;
+  let data = null;
+  for (const mirror of OVERPASS_MIRRORS) {
+    try {
+      const res = await fetchWithTimeout(mirror, {
+        method: 'POST',
+        headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded' },
+        body
+      }, 12000);
+      if (res.status === 429 || res.status === 504 || res.status === 503) {
+        // This mirror is overloaded/rate-limited right now — a different
+        // one may not be, so keep trying rather than failing immediately.
+        lastError = new Error(`${mirror} returned ${res.status}`);
+        continue;
+      }
+      if (!res.ok) { lastError = new Error(`${mirror} returned ${res.status}`); continue; }
+      data = await res.json();
+      break;
+    } catch (e) {
+      lastError = e;
+    }
+  }
+  if (!data) throw new Error(`All location-search mirrors are unavailable right now (${lastError?.message || 'unknown error'}). Try again shortly.`);
+
   return (data.elements || [])
     .map(el => {
       const elLat = el.lat ?? el.center?.lat;