Silk Road Uzbek Cuisine — Restaurant in Cary

My girl and I went here around 10PM on a Saturday night after a 40-min. drive, and it was our first time tasting Uzbek cuisine. We ordered the 3-piece Beef Samsa as our appetizer, Lagman soup, and the Lamb Chop Shashlik that comes with vegetables and our choice of side: mashed potatoes.

Silkroad is a small indoor restaurant with about ten tables that each sits four; 2 tables outdoors. It has traditional ceramic art-like designs on its walls, reminding us of Uzbekistan's unique charm, thriving craftworks, and what it's famous for: a major producer & exporter of cotton. Silkroad's physical menu looks quite as dull as their choices of sides, with minimal amount of photos unlike the menu on its website.

Here are our thoughts on what we ordered in Silkroad Uzbek Cuisine:

Beef Samsa ($14) - Each order comes with 3 big pieces with diced beef & onion inside the homemade dough with sesame seeds on top. Comes with some kind of tomato sauce. It's fresh with good amount of meat inside, and the sauce adds a marinara-like flavor to each bite.

Lagman Soup ($11) - Spiced soup with handmade noodles, minced beef & veggies. Not spicy but flavorful; would order again. My girl enjoyed this as much as I did.

Lamb Chop Shashlik ($25) - This is the first time we ordered lamb chops in a restaurant, but definitely won't be the last. Comes with 4 lamb chops with smoky flavor, well-seasoned, tender, and perfectly-cooked. However, the side of mashed potatoes and vegetables are quite lackluster for a $25 dish.

The other side choices like fries, white rice, broccoli & Kimchi fried rice are also nothing special. Doesn't Uzbek cuisine have any unique sides that you can't find in a typical American restaurant? We're here to taste something different and all we get is regular mashed potatoes that's not even elevated with garlic or anything that would motivate us to return to order this lamb chops dish again?!

Uzbekistan is known for its warm hospitality, and the friendly customer service of the waiter who served us is a good representation of that. The waiter was kind to give an extra side bowl for us to share the soup.

We didn't regret trying Uzbek cuisine in Silkroad; it wasn't bad for a $50+ dinner for 2 as it still let us taste the unique flavors of Samsa and Lagman Soup. Lamb chops tasted great but we'd rather get a whole rack with more satisfying sides than pay $25 for half-a-rack & un-authentic sides. This is worth trying at least once.

Overall...

Today was my first time here, I drove from 1.5 hour away to test this restaurant. It was lunchtime, so I didn't get to try a whole lot of their menu and will update this review later, when I have had more chances. As a true aficionado and a connoisseur of Uzbeki cuisine, here is my opinion from my very first visit today.

👎Negatives:

A rather disappointing borscht. Very basic in both preparation and flavor, it gave an impression of being an afterthought on the menu, not one of its main stars. I definitely do not recommend it to anyone wanting to try borscht for the first time, nor to anyone who knows what a good one tastes like. Throwing shredded beetroot into a bowl of clear soup right before serving and not even bothering to mix the two together is not my imagination of a proper borscht. No, it's not offensive, but it's nothing beyond marginally acceptable. Thumbs way down.

An even more disappointing honey cake that simply does not taste of honey. Not even a hint of honey. A supremely bland, boring cube of "something sweet", with no character or soul, served pale and naked on a plate. This is not what a good honey cake should look or taste like. As it is, it's just a slice of unnecessary calories with no flavor or texture payoff to show for it. Absolutely not recommended.

The music is terrible. Just terrible. Too loud, too simple, and too annoying.

👍Positives:

Good standards of cleanliness and hygiene both in the dining room and the bathroom - while basic, they in no way offend or make one worried. All plates and silverware are washed to high standards as well. I would suggest providing more than one napkin per guest though.

Fantastically prompt, polite, caring, and most of all personable service from Naile. An absolute sweetheart who definitely enhances the experience of every guest sitting at one of her tables. She made the human connection component of my visit a definite highlight, and I enjoyed watching that everyone who walked in was treated with the same wonderful hospitality. This lady is definitely an asset to...

We got here at 7:50pm and they were super busy, which is fine. The woman who was near the door when we came in was clearly flustered and didn’t know how to handle us or the two other couples that came in behind us. We waited about 15 minutes for a table. It was right in front of the door so every time it opened it was cold but we had jackets so no problem. After seating we ordered pretty much in the first five minutes of sitting down. They were out of a lot which again fine but we ordered the pan fried chicken the carrot salad the noodles the honey cake black tea and the beef samsa. The carrot salad and noodles came out just fine and then we waited. And waited. And waited. I watched as people who came 30 minutes behind me got food before we got the rest of ours. We are splitting what should be my meal at this point. I finally get the black tea and I asked a server to check on our food and all of a sudden they were out of the beef samsa and had been “for a while” even though I checked with our server who said they had them. The server I asked said the chicken was almost done. So now we just want the chicken. Another 10 minutes pass by. Nothing. So we cut our losses and left. When I went to pay and say forget it they were like we are sorry but not sorry enough for our server to apologize. She didn’t even know what was going on because before we said forget it she asked if we wanted dessert. We had to tell her half out food never came out. It sucks we came all the way from Burlington while fasting and we had to go to another restaurant for my husband to get food. I paid for what I ate(and still tipped) and unfortunately we will never come back. Additionally when they brought up my bill I saw they never put in the honey cake or the samsa. This was my first time trying Uzbek food so we were excited but I won’t be coming back and I will share how it went...