The Silk Road

Sorry for being late on the review, both of us have been unwell recently.

Rebecca found The Silk Road somehow ... I really need to find her sources because she keeps finding places to go after my ideas are exhausted. It's making me look bad! I was very pleased to see an extensive gluten free menu.

As we drove past, we were both concerned about the lack of customers. Customer count is often an indicator of how good a place is (look at Hippo Creek) but can sometimes be misleading (Globe). As we moved inside I realised much of it is hidden from view, further into the building. I found the decor very fancy and modern and liked the window into the kitchen.

Service was pretty swift. We ordered some Sang Choy Bao (I'm glad Rebecca actually likes these!) which was done with pork rather than duck or chicken as is more traditional. The waitress indicated to me that they had to modify it a little to be gluten free, or at least the sauce had to be changed.I was a little doubtful about them, and when they came out (four cups) I tried the sauce and found it to have nearly the consistency of oyster sauce - not pleasant on its own. However, when added to the sweeter Pork Sang Choy Bao I found it balanced into sweet and salty at the same time. Personally I prefer the traditional plum sauce, but I still enjoyed this. There was some carrot and celery mixed in with the mince too, a good alternative to adding some crunch to otherwise a potentially smooth dish. This raised my views quickly and began looking forward to mains.

I had chosen the Hong Kong duck on wonton noodles, served with asian greens and a side of chicken and spring onion soup. Unfortunately this did not meet my expectations at all. I started on the soup, and from the first taste I was overpowered with the synthetic taste of instant stock, loaded with MSG. There was little to no 'body' in the soup, it would have done far better with real chicken stock and really lacked onions, celery, carrot and ... effort? Care?

More blandness followed on the noodles. These were overboiled with insufficient salt, probably only in water instead of stock. They were limp and uninviting. There was simply no strength of flavour in these noodles. The Bok Choy was well done though, crunchy and bursting with flavour. The duck was reasonably well prepared, but again lacked that edge of freshness or richness I expect with duck. The dish had a curious thin sauce which tasted and looked like a thin or watered down soy. I really felt that salty was not the correct direction for this dish, plum sauce or Hoisin sauce would have steered it back into what would have been more authentic and enjoyable. Thicker, heavier noodles to a level of vermicelli would have anchored this dish far better.

Although we did have an entree, the bill came to $70 after a discount which I did not feel correspondent to the quality of food. I left feeling unsatisfied.

I can only give this one and a half stars, It would have been been two if the bill came to $50. The saving grace really was the Sang Choy Bao. Once again, flashy decor and swift service cannot overrule what I find most important about a restaurant: the food.