Citizens' Committee to Study Mid-Priced Restaurants on the Upper West Side

Rating:  

To be honest, I don’t remember a whole lot about Silk Road Palace but I sure do want to go back there.  On the whole a great asset to the community, I say.

one word summary: thin

we decided on tanpura after walking some twenty blocks and deciding that the kosher moroccan place we were kinda heading for was either not midpriced enough or possibly too midpriced. maybe we should have done some more walking. or maybe the crowd at the neighboring japanese place and lack-of-crowd at tanpura should have been a tip-off.

the lassi was the first item brought out and was tasty. the green chutney was good and the tamarind sauce was okay, but watery. after that, things kinda fell downhill quickly. the naan tasted more like a store-bought pita than naan. the samosas were alien to samosas — i think we finally decided that the crust was a cheap pastry crust and the filling was out of a can. if i had eaten one of the samosas blindfolded, i would not know it was a samosa. the less said about the other appetizer the better.

for an entree, i did dhal and vegetable vindaloo. at this point, i decided to try the dhal first, as the vindaloo looked sub-par and i was really hoping i could find something redeeming at the restaurant. no such luck. the dhal was bland at best. the vindaloo was even worse, the vegetables also tasting “fresh” from the can or freezer, and the spice, while present, wasn’t acceptable. i momentarily regretted not getting the vegetable kurma, but one taste made me reverse that decision.

after a substantial wait for the check, i left the table with most of my entrees uneaten. while i regret the waste of food, i don’t regret the decision. despite what menupages has to say, i can’t possibly recommend this venue.

Rating:

Summary: Free wine and OK Chinese food.

Insider’s Tip: Franzia will seek revenge if abused.

No sign of Alec Baldwin­

The essence of the Silk Road Palace is the contradiction between its claim to be a traditional Chinese restaurant, complete with simple decor and unflappable manager, and its generous and continuous offerings of gutter wine. Before you are even seated a glass is filled from a plastic pitcher and handed to you. Perhaps a stranger who waits near you harrumphes that the wine is not very alcoholic, but it hardly matters in such company as the CCSMPRUWS Investigative Task Force, who made sure that nobody shirked their duties in sampling the beverage of choice at Silk Road Palace, for the sake of an informed review. The manager, a soothing man, shrewdly cooed to one of us who was enthusiastically encouraging another, “Don’t force him, please. We don’t want anybody drunk.” Shortly thereafter, someone refilled our carafe.

The food–decent and unremarkable–is a forgettable accessory to the rest of the Silk Road Palanc experience, which this reviewer would highly recommend.