Silk Road Gourmet Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Whitehall

My friends and I were very excited to dine here, however we left incredibly angry. Whenever we initially arrived and were seated everything was okay, however then as time passed things got worse. Whenever we placed our order the waitress asked us if we wanted soup OR salad, when the menu said that we should have gotten both. Usually, this would not be a problem considering the mail meal is not typically finished anyways, however with the extreme prices you should expect to get what you're paying for. The only good experience about our dinner was the chef. He was very fun and the food tasted good. However, it was not the best hibachi we have ever had and their noodles were angel hair noodles with soy sauce- average. After we had finished eating, 45 minutes had passed before someone came and helped us again. In order to get the checks we had to ask a bus boy to ask for them considering we had already been waiting for 40 minutes. She came over after being told by the bus boy and tried to give us boxes, however we had already received them from the bus boy. She said she would go get our checks, however she began doing other things again and we were once again not a priority. Once we actually got the check, our waitress did not apologize for the wait and was rather rude. The bus boy apologized for our wait, however our waitress did not. Finally, whenever we received our checks she explained to us that she added a gratuity to each of our 6 checks already. The rule with the gratuity is it should be added on parties of 5, however since we were all paying individually that rule should not have been applied. To make matters worse, she added 30% to each check, not even the standard 20%. In conclusion, our experience was nothing more than average and the service was awful- to match the barely above average food. This place is way too expensive in comparison to other local Chinese/hibachi restaurants and it is needless to say that we will not be returning to...

We have been to Silk Road many times and have always enjoyed the food and service. This past Sunday we went to eat dinner with our family. 6 of us ate dinner and waited quite a bit for our food but didn’t care because we enjoy the food very much. We had to ask for our check (which wasn’t the end of the world but added to the extremely slow service) once we received the check that was given to us by the owner I signed for the amount charged for our bill but did NOT include a tip on my card because we tipped in cash (more than we even thought the service deserved) but still gave him a tip. Today after checking my bank account I noticed my card was charged more than I authorized- I called the the restaurant and they agreed that they added a 15% tip and their reasoning was because I didn’t leave a tip (but we did in cash) regardless of the server deserving a tip or not the restaurant did not have my authorization to add what they thought was deserved for gratuity. It was a fraudulent charge to my account. I called the restaurant to explain my situation and the owner knew who I was and immediately admitted they added the charge 15% to the bill because the server deserved it. I told her we did leave him a tip in cash on the table and she didn’t have my consent to add the additional charge. She kept trying to justify it by saying I didn’t tip - so when I said I did she said no you didn’t. In addition to charging what they felt was deserved they also were calling me a liar. She kept stating that this is how the server makes a living - I get that, believe me I waitressed at a Chinese restaurant for 6 years !!!! I guess because businesses aren’t making the money like they used to due to the economy I am REQUIRED to tip no matter what !!!! Bottom line is this restaurant stole from me and called me a liar - needless to say we will never go there again which is a shame because the food is...

Sept 2022 update - This time I came over for dinner and the experience was much better, so I upgraded them by one star. The service is still exceptionally fast - that remains a plus. Quantities of food for the price are very generous - another major plus when inflation is really hitting everyone these days. In addition, they do NOT charge for tea!!!

I tried the Szechuan String Bean Chicken. It was tasty, but I was hoping for some Szechuan Peppercorns and found Jalapenos. Jalapenos??? Oh well, there is still room for improvement, I guess.

Definitely worth more visits though!

June 2021 update -

They survived COVID - YAY!! And they were open for lunch! Double YAY!!!

Masks are required, but that's a small thing and you only wear them when moving about the restaurant. Service was very quick - as I remembered from my previous visit.

On this visit, I ordered the Ma La Bean Chicken and asked for it to be made "extra spicy". When it came, it was tasty, and it had some Jalapeno slices on it - with seeds even - but it was not spicy, and definitely not "extra spicy!"

The waitress asked me about the heat level, and when I told her it was not spicy at all, she offered to get me some chili oil. While that was nice of her, their chili oil is mostly oil, so I passed on her offer.

2018 - Went there for lunch and had the stir-fried General Tso Chicken. I liked that it was not fried, but did not like the cloyingly sweet sauce, nor the complete absence of any veggies. Also, a charge of 1.50 for Brown rice...