Silk Road Restaurant — Restaurant in Warren Township

I had this place bookmarked for a while and met up with a friend of mine with her friends (Total party of 6) per invite and said let me scratch Afghan food off my to do bucket list. I have to say I was a little nervous but excited at the same time to try something different and new. Silk is everything you want in a casual sit down restaurant: For my first experience their was little to no wait, fair reasonable prices, good portions, EXCEPTIONAL food, and AMAZING CUSTOMER service. The staff for this restaurant are so incredibly warm and friendly and all the wait staff are always checking in on your meal or refilling drinks. If you are new to Afghan food like myself, the menu may be a little different but had some similarities between Indian cuisine such as tandoori meals and Naan etc.. Luckily, each menu item is accompanied by a description so you will find yourself having a difficult time narrowing down your options! My breakdowns below based my companies feedback because I didn't taste everyone's food and of course a:

Appetizers:

"Mantu" steamed dumplings filled with minced beef & leek onions garnished w/ cooked lentils & homemade mint flavored yogurt. They said it was tender and full of flavor. The complimentary bread WOW is all I can say and the 3 sauces it came with all pretty good. My favorite was the white sauce out of the 3. The red was a little spicy not to the point where you needed water but just enough kick.

"Mediterranean Salad" chopped onions, tomatoes, cucumbers and cilantro tossed with lemon & olive oil. For a simple salad that came with the entree it tasted soooooo fresh and perfect seasoning. Everyone loved it hell one person ordered a second one lol.

Entrees:

"Murgh Korma" boneless chicken cooked w/ Afghan spices & tomato sauce with "Chalaw" Afghan Baghlani rice cooked with special Afghan spices. This was what I ordered and Good lord the sauce was seasoned to perfection and meat so tender with combination of the rice that was so light and fluffy with perfect taste and not over seasoned. BASICALLY ORDER IT PERIOD !!!!!!!!!!

"Lamb Shank" marinated and baked lamb on the bone with "Naringe Palaw" rice cooked with saffron, fresh orange peels, almonds and pistachios. Feedback: I was told the meat was amazing and tender but the rice was a little sweet which I did taste from my friend. It was good to e but you can taste a noticeable sweetness to it.

"Choopan Kabab" lamb chops With "Naringe Palaw" rice cooked with saffron, fresh orange peels, almonds and pistachios. Feedback: These Lambchops were popular amongst the group and two people said it was up their with top 5 best lamb chops they ever had. SO IF YOU LIKE LAMBCHOPS A MUST TRY !!!

"Ghusfan Kabob" Chunks Of Lamb with "Naringe Palaw" rice cooked with saffron, fresh orange peels, almonds and pistachios. Feedback: The most juiciest tender chunks of Lamb they possibly ever had and I have to say by the eyeball test since i didn't taste them they looked succulent and melted on the fork they were so tender.

The ambiance is real sexy yet calming if that makes sense lol (I know I suck no interior/ambiance pics because I was so excited to eat) This is a nice place for a intimate date or just nice dinner in general to talk and enjoy a nice quiet setting with good grub. If you have a party of 6 or more they will add a 18% gratuity also they will split the checks as well per request. Also they have a separate Vegetarian section with a total of 6 entrees and also had no trouble accommodating substitution request to accommodate preferred healthy options on certain entrees. You will definitely need use Google Maps because it is located in a little strip area of restaurants. Plenty of parking and they have Wifi although I didn't ask for the code and used my 4G,

My experience was way better than my expectations by far. I would definitely come back again to try other things on the menu. GREAT SERVICE.. CHECK, GREAT FOOD.... CHECK, GREAT QUALITY VS. PORTION COST RATIO..... CHECK. 5 STARS...

We've been to this restaurant 5 times since we moved to Watchung a year ago. Decor is quite nice, and food was consistently delicious. Very family style, not fine dining, but totally appropriate. So we decided to have our sit down dinner party for 35 guest there. Hashim quoted us $3000 set price for 35 guests (price of the most expensive entree is $29) plus tax plus 20% service fee, because Saturday night is his busiest night. I felt it was excessive, but the owner, Abdulah Hashim, assured me that they will give me an unforgettable party. Well, it truly was unforgettable , but for all the wrong reasons. Hashim wanted me to pay him in cash, but I refused. I guess that did not go well with him, because when our party arrived at the set hour, nothing was ready. No plates, no food, no water on the table. They only started cooking at 4 pm!!! Instead of having all appetizers served by 4 pm, they only opened their kitchen at 4. Food was very slow to arrive, servers were totally inadequate, there were never enough plates or glasses and the server-ware was so cheap looking, as if it was a diner. They didn't have tablecloths, they didn't change plates often enough, they were sloppy and unprofessional. The food was good, I will give him that, although I quickly realize that he did not serve everything that I ordered. I tried to beg them to hurry up, but Hashim just looked at me as if I was mad. I realized too late that the concept of quick efficient service is foreign to them. Yes, they will leisurely prepare a fresh kebab for you, but serving food with elegance and style, actually SERVING their guests, is not a concept they are familiar with. Then finally it was time for dessert. What can be simpler than making tea? First, there was not enough tea for everyone, then not enough cups, then I saw them serving my fantastic French bakery special order fruit mousse cakes with just a dinner spoon!!! I thought it cannot get much worse, but I was wrong. Hashim poured tea for my father-in-law and spilled hot water all over old man's hand. He not only never offered to adjust the bill afterwards in view of this horrible experience, he did not offer his apology to my father-in-law until I told him to do so. I felt simply cheated. We paid exuberant fees for little food, served very late, and served badly. I did not want to pay $600 service fee for such horrible service and Hashim told me that he would call the police on me if i don't, that they have videotaped everything and that they saw me drinking too much (all I had was one glass of light white wine) and that he forbids me to ever come to his restaurant ever again. My husband paid the bill in full because he wanted our party to just leave this awful place as soon as possible. Thank you for the unforgettable...

Not sure where all the love for this place comes from. Service good, decor okay, prices very high for small portions of not very good food... I am somewhat of a foodie. I know and look for great food everywhere and on recommendaton and reviews I tried this place. I couldn't have been more disappointed. Started with a small bowl of red lentil soup. I love a good lentil soup, brown, green, red, yellow...this was not tasty. Thin and bland with nothing noticeable to recommend it.. My entree order was meatballs in "savory sauce" with traditional brown rice.. rice was very dry and bland. Needed alot of help from the "savory sauce" to make it even mildly passable. The meatballs were also very dry, with little taste. Like all the fat and flavor were edited out while they were left to overcook in liquid. I specifically ordered that because of the "savory sauce" imagining it would be representative of the cuisine.. if it is, if I'm ever in Afghanistan I'll be cooking my own meals. My date had the chicken kebob, seems that's a she ever gets when she comes there.. I realized that she goes there because she is interested in the manager. I did try the kebob which was better than what I had ordered but not on a par with your average NY street vendor.. Really a waste of my dinner hour. $40.00 and I left hungry. Ordered a bento box from Nagoya to snack on the way home. The place was near empty for dinner. And judging by the Google busy hours I can't see them being in business very long unless there is a marked change in their food. Just read a review where the owner responded that some dishes were not available because everything is "made fresh every morning". (Reminded me that I had ordered something they were out if too.. can't recall what but I made light of it at the time..) Confirms my suspicion that the meatballs were sitting in sauce all day.. point of fact, if I prepare food in the morning and serve it in the evening, it ain't fresh. A more clueless and arrogant statement I haven't heard. How is a restaurant owner going to justify the absence of a menu item because it's made fresh every morning. Dude, you didn't have the food you were offering your patrons because you didn't purchase eniugh ingredients to prepare it for them. The menu is somewhat limited and the place was not busy "before" the dinner hour.. I can only think that if they were out of food by then, then more people would be...