Hmmm. It’s time I went to another Chinese restaurant.
I’ve been told for many years that Silk Road in Camberwell is one of the best Chinese restaurants around the South East and by chance Miss Money was in the area and wanted to go and eat their food. Think I might as well tag along and see how good it is.
The Chinese name is 新疆风味 (Mando: xin jiang feng wei; Canto: san geung fung mei). It literally means the “Xingjiang Flavour” – the local flavours of Xinjiang which is located in North West China. It isn’t really supposed to be Chinese cuisine; it’s food based from the Uyghur people. Xinjiang’s population is mostly Muslim but I think this restaurant is definitely not for Muslims as they do serve pork.
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| Silk Road Chinese Restaurant 新疆风味 |
As we entered we were asked if we would be finished within an hour and I said yes to Miss Money we would be. In and out business was fine with me.
We had a quick look at the menu and we had the following food.
Handmade Pork and Chive dumplings. Quite plain. They went cold quite quickly.
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| Pork and Chive Dumplings |
This one I think was the Egg, Leek and Shrimp dumplings. I think I liked the pork one more.
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| Egg, Leek and Shrimp Dumplings |
The ultimate dish from Xinjian is this dish. This is the Middle Plate Chicken which is the smaller version of The Big Plate Chicken. It’s basically chicken on the bone with potatoes, chilli and an addition of belt noodles in a sweet chicken broth. This was a good dish and I quite liked this one. ^_^ Belt noodles I think were handmade because they really did taste good. Miss Money thought we shouldn’t drink the broth but I drank it. It wasn’t too spicy. The chillis weren’t even spicy!!
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| Middle Plate Chicken |
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| With flat noodles |
I somehow got the fish skewers but what I really wanted was the ox tripe skewers. Miss Money… did you order this wrongly… Or did the waitress get it wrong?! 😦 I wanted ox tripe… Oh well, the fish was ok. They added a sprinkle of chilli powder which added to the taste. Not bad.
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| Fish skewers |
This last dish was ordered by Miss Money. It’s the Home Style Aubergine. There’s not a lot of aubergine. Mostly tomatoes and chilli pieces. It’s not that spicy but sweet and apparently it’s supposed to be a little salty. ¬,¬” Oh dear. Miss Money wasn’t impressed. She said that the taste of this dish has changed since the last time she changed. We didn’t finish it…
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| Home Style Aubergine |
Overall cost came to £37.50 including two drinks (the waitress gave us 50p back… I’m sure we paid the exact money). Not bad for all the stuff we ate but I think I liked My Old Place in Liverpool Street and the very spicy Chinese restaurant I went to in Paris.
My geeky rating: 4/5
Good points:
– OK service, not the greatest, so don’t expect too much
– Seating arrangements are noodle bar like and you may end up sharing a table
– Middle Plate Chicken (or Big Plate Chicken) is a must try
Bad points:
– Not spicy enough. Been told by old friends that the spicy level has gone downhill.
– Didn’t like the aubergine dish much
– Dumplings went cold too quickly
Address: 49 Camberwell Church Street, London SE5 8TR
Tel: 020 7703 4832
A Simple Geeky Life 