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What is 'following'?Restaurant: Chinese
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Time Out says 7 Users say Rate it
A good-value pioneer of London's trend for branching out into regional Chinese cuisines, Silk Road quietly churns out favourites from the north-west frontier province of Xinjiang.
Dishes can be fiery, but are also balanced with a plethora of spices, a legacy from the Silk Road that ran through the desert area, transporting treasures from east and west. The cuisine of Xinjiang's Turkic Uighur Muslims, the area's largest minority, exhibits many of the hearty traditional standbys found around Central Asia - notably kebabs and dumplings - but with a bold Chinese influence, bringing a spiciness and vibrancy its counterparts elsewhere can lack.
Silk Road's short menu includes Sichuan-style dishes - perhaps an influence of the ethnic Han owners - but skip past these dishes to focus on the Xinjiang specialities. Small, fatty pieces of lamb crusted with ground cumin, chilli and salt grilled on a skewer, are perfectly prepared here. Dumplings - filled with meat or vegetables - are typical northern China staples, although here lamb dominates instead of pork. Priced at about £3 for 10, it would be a shame not to try a few.
But what makes Silk Road a destination worth travelling to is the noodle and stew menu. Our favourite was the 'medium chicken', a wonderfully rich star anise-and-chilli-flavoured broth bobbing with pieces of bird on the bone, plus potatoes. When you near the bottom of the serving bowl, and are approaching fullness, your waiter will bring a heaped pile of superb handmade noodles to dump into the aromatic broth and soak up the rest of the rich flavour.
Salads of kelp or cucumber are a refreshing nod to any health initiatives you may have embarked upon. A can of Coke is 50p, an honest price recalling menus of another era.
Sadly, the kitchen apparently does not extend to a bread oven - Xinjiang is renowned for its naan: baked bread topped with sesame, fennel or other seeds which perfectly complement roast lamb on a stick. The small dining room is cheerful, if functional - benches surround crowded tables, steam rises from bowls of noodles, and carpets hanging on the walls show scenes far more exotic than Camberwell Church Street.
Silk Road details
Follow Silk Road to receive updates on special offers here.
What is 'following'?020 7703 4832
Meal for two with drinks and service: around £30
Silk Road map
Restaurants & cafés near Silk Road
See all restaurants near Silk RoadComments & ratings 4/5 (Average of 7 ratings)
They do not sell packet dumplings as the review below seems to think!
For those of us who have actually visited Xinjiang province...you really can tell how authentic it is!
This is some of the best authentic chinese food you will find in london.. if you wat the fancy standard chinese that you can get anywhere in Chinatown, by all means...If you want a taste of how real chinese eat, Silk Road is for you, amazing prices too!
A nice change from regular Chinese fare but totally overrated.
Xinjiang options are nice to see but also quite limited really. The much vaunted lamb skewers are soggy and slimy. Much better in Chinatown's Empress of Sichuan to name just one option.
Xinjiang noodles tasty but far too salty. Homestyle aubergine quite good but too oily and, as with everything here, plastered in chopped garlic (though that's how it is in China half the time).
Fried dumplings (aka potstickers or guotie) were horrible. Packet ones dumped in a deep fryer and covered in old oil. Not authentic at all. The other dumplings I've had on previous occasions are way better.
Service efficient but sullen. Toilets dreadful.
This place was good about four years ago but has got so used to serving up 'big bowl chicken' to Guardian readers that they've really got lazy and standards are nothing like what they were.
All that said, it can usually be relied on for a good value feed if you're short of options.
Great food, the best chinese restaurant in London. and great value for money
Excellent place. Staff are actually really friendly but not in the normal subservient way you get at most restaurants. Food is amazing and the people I have brought here come back themselves again and again. Timeout have got the rating wrong I'm afraid.
Great atmosphere, easily accessible, fresh & affordable food are all the reasons why Silk Road is as busy as it is! Food is as spicy as it is tasty so expect a mouthwatering experience!!!! And the noodles - wow - they are awesomely long & very thick. Any discrepancies with the staff are due to culture differences as opposed to blatant rudenes...! Seriously fabulous food so grab a crowd & enjoy!
Very accurate review by Time Out, pity the rating does not match it!
Went there the other night and found the pace a true gem.
It reminds me of a Trastevere trattoria, were good manners are not necessarily a good sign ;-)
And the noodles mentioned in the review are truly exceptional: larger than Italian pappardelle and you can see them making them on a table in the kitchen.
Back soon for more!
This is the best restaurant in London! Cheap, delicious, HOT food (try the shredded pork), great friendly service and a nice relaxed atmosphere.
Very good restaurant - genuine Xinjiang food and hand-made noodle. Relaxing place and friendly staff. Just avoid weekend peak time if you want to enjoy it properly.
I have to say (in balance to the earlier post) that I have been 8-9 times over the last 2 months and I find the men and ladies running the place a friendly bunch of staff. I struck up a rapport with them immediately and they are attentive thuogh sometimes need a prod. Admittedly you won't be able to press them for exact timings of food arriving and cannot expect 'silver service' standards but it IS a relaxed and congenial place for good food, make your friends BEFORE coming to the restaurant and bring them with you.
It IS a good restaurant !!
I've been there now a few times and the owner is always quite unfrienly, almost rude. Shame as this could be a good restaurant, if it wasn't for the unfriendliness.
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