Silk Road Uyghur Restaurant — Restaurant in Amsterdam

The Worst Dining Experience of My Life – Avoid This Place at All Costs

Service – A Masterclass in Disrespect I don’t think I’ve ever felt so disrespected as a paying customer. From the moment we walked in, it was clear the staff couldn’t care less about our presence. No greeting, no smile, no explanation of how things work – just an impatient grunt and a wave toward a QR code on the table. They don’t take your order. No, you have to figure out their app, and if something goes wrong? That’s on you.

Oh, and good luck getting utensils, plates, or even basic human interaction from these people. Need something? You’ll have to get up and fetch it yourself. They won’t check in on you. They won’t even acknowledge you. Honestly, I’ve had better service from a vending machine.

Food – A Culinary Disgrace

The food? Absolute trash. We were excited to try Uyghur cuisine, but what we got was an insult to both Uyghur food and our taste buds. The chicken kebab was filled with bone shards – we spent more time spitting them out than eating. They managed to take what should be flavorful dishes and turn them into something you could slap together at home when you’re feeling lazy.

Pricing – Highway Robbery For the pitiful quality, the prices here are nothing short of a scam. To add insult to injury, they load your drinks with so much ice that you’re essentially paying for flavored water. Even the cola tasted off, but of course, you have no say in how it’s served since everything is ordered through their precious app.

The Menu – A Nightmare Want to know what you’re ordering? Too bad. The menu is a cryptic list of untranslated names, and unless you’re fluent in the language, you’ll be playing a guessing game with your meal. They don’t bother giving any descriptions, so expect to spend your night frantically Googling dish names just to figure out what’s on your plate. This is 2024 – how hard is it to provide translations or descriptions?

Customer Treatment – Pure Contempt The staff here treats customers like an inconvenience. Special shout out to the man in a yellow t-shirt. He seemed like a disgruntled man disgusted to even do the bare minimum for customers.

And don’t even think about asking for your bill to be split – they flat-out refused to split ours for three people, which is absolutely standard practice in most restaurants. Their attitude throughout was one of disdain, like they couldn’t wait for us to leave.

Ambiance – A Mess The restaurant looks like a sad, abandoned daycare. The décor is disjointed, the tables are poor quality, and there’s zero ambiance. I’m not expecting Michelin-star level here, but I at least want to feel like I’m dining somewhere that cares about its environment. Instead, the restaurant felt like a place where the staff had given up – just like their food and service.

Overall Experience – Don’t Bother This restaurant failed on every single level. From the disrespectful service, the pitiful food, the outrageous prices, and the chaotic environment, it’s clear that they couldn’t care less about their customers.

If you value your time, money, or dignity, stay far away from this place. I’d rather eat instant noodles at home than subject myself to this nightmare again.

It’s safe to say I’ll never step foot in that place again, and I’d advise you to do the same. This place doesn’t deserve a single penny of...

Part of the recent renaissance of great authentic Chinese restaurants in the Amsterdam area.

In the Netherlands we are familiar with the Chinese indisch restaurants that creates a unique Dutch mix of Chinese and Indonesian cuisine. In the 80s there was the rise of the authentic Cantonese dim sum restaurants. Pretty much like what’s served in HK and Singapore. Lately there has been an increase of authentic Chinese restaurants that’s from mainland china. Rotterdam and The Hague had the first such restaurants, but lately Amsterdam seems to have become the center of this Chinese cuisine boom.

Silk Road has been in Amsterdam for a few years already. But They recently moved to this beautiful location in IJburg. Bit far from the amsterdam center, but easily reached by a tram. What makes Silk Road unique is that as an Uyghur restaurant it is Halal. So the clientele is unlike any other Chinese restaurant in NL. its a mix of local moslims , Chinese expats and a sprinkling of locals. The food is nothing like what you expect from a “regular” Chinese restaurant. There specialities are the skewers, handmade noodles and spicy dishes,. IMO the lamb skewers is the best in Amsterdam area. So succulent without any gamey smell. Even my wife who cants stand the gaminess and smell of lamb loves it. These kebabs are served as appetizer without rice or noodles. I would love to eat it with a side dish. Don’t make the mistake to let the kebab cool down. I love the hand made noodles. You can’t taste it in its structure of the noodles. Springy with a good bite to it.

It’s not perfect. It’s quite chaotic and during Ramadan don’t come here after they break the fast. It’s so full. Even though everything was computerized they messed up our order and we had to wait hours for our food. And we order a new one…it was too spicy even though we asked for a non spicy dish. They seem to be understaffed and that can cause chaos and delay. Luckily when the food comes…it s great. But better not come during Muslim holidays as its incredibly busy.

Foodwise its really good. IMO better then the Uyghur restaurant in Düsseldorf that was regarded as the best in Uyghur restaurant. For the unique combination of Kebabs and Noodles….this is a must eat place in Amsterdam. Just writing this reviews makes me want to come back.

Bring a big appetite of come with a large group so you can taste...

Without a doubt, the worst dining experience I've ever had and will remember for the longest time. Everything about our visit was bad. The service was very bad. The man who attended to us just left us alone after asking to scan the QR code on the table. When the food came after 40 minutes, he just dumped it over the table and left. When we asked for drinks, he again pointed at the QR and left. When more food was served, I myself got up to get more silverware. When we were done with the dinner and were ready to pay, the man in yellow refused to split the bill by 3!!

There's a lot I can say about the absolutely grating experience we had here, but I'll let you judge by yourself.

Don't go if you will have trouble understanding the menu. There are no translations and your server will look at you with contempt all...