Silk Road Restaurant
4055 Carling Ave., Unit 3, 613-270-8866, carling.silkroadkabobhouse.com
Hours: Monday to Friday 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday noon to to 9 p.m., closed Sunday
Prices: Mains $12.99 to $22.99
Access: No steps to front door or washrooms
Let’s begin the new year by delving into a new cuisine — or, at least, one that’s new to me.
I’ve had my eyes and palate opened thanks to the intriguing food at Silk Road Restaurant, a Persian eatery that’s very modest of setting but ambitious of menu.
The no-frills 40-seater, which in appearance is just a step up from a fast food counter, has been in business for more than three years in a Kanata strip mall where Carling Avenue meets March Road. It’s the younger and smaller sibling of the six-year-old, more easterly Silk Road on Cyrville Road. Both are owned by Rostam and Hamid Mehdipour, an Iranian uncle-and-nephew partnership, and the restaurants are unrelated to the Silk Roads Afghan restaurants that operated in Ottawa in the 1980s and 1990s.
Given that I can count every Iranian meal I’ve had on one hand, and they have all been at the Kanata Silk Road, I can’t say how well the food there represents its homeland’s storied cuisine. But over three visits, what I’ve eaten has struck me as consistently tasty, conscientiously made, and served with knowledgeable, friendly flair.
Iran borders Afghanistan and, not surprisingly, some of Silk Road’s dishes will remind you of fare at, say, Ottawa’s Afghan kabob houses, although the level of spiciness is generally more muted.
Indeed, Silk Road’s website brands it as a kabob house, and it repeatedly served us commendably tender and flavourful cubes of beef, chicken and lamb, all halal. Whether ordered as single-plate dinners or family-style ($69.99 for an array of kabobs plus side dishes meant to serve five), kabob dishes came with mammoth servings of basmati rice, enhanced at its centre with saffron, and basic but fresh salad.
A family pack of kebabs at Silk Road restaurant.
Plates of steamed beef-and-lamb mantu dumplings ($7.99) and bowls of chicken qorma stew ($5.99) were solid and satisfying, comparable to their equivalents at Ottawa Afghan restaurants I’ve tried and liked.
Mantu dumplings at Silk Road restaurant
Chicken Qorma at Silk Road restaurant.
So far, so familiar. But it paid off to sample the specialties on Silk Road’s extensive menu, which delivered some tart, sour and herbal hits among their distinctive, yet accessible, flavours.
For example, of Silk Road’s half-dozen or so beef kabobs, we tried and enjoyed the Torsh Kabob ($19.99), with its undertones of sweet and sour thanks to its pomegranate juice and walnut marinade.
Torsh Kabob at Silk Road restaurant.
Another worthwhile splurge was the delectable, yogurt-marinated lamb rack, which, while not fancied up in appearance, yielded four toothsome, well-seasoned chops plus the ubiquitous rice and salad ($22.99).
Lamb rack at Silk Road restaurant.
Two warm eggplant-based dips — the smokier mirza ghasemi and the creamy, yogurt-enriched halim bademjan, both $6.99 — served with piping hot, crisp flatbread were winners. Zitoon parvardeh ($6.99) was a salty-sour cold appetizer of green olives, pomegranate molasses, walnuts and herbs.
Mirza ghasemi at Silk Road restaurant.
Pomegranate paste and walnuts were paired with pieces of chicken breast in fesemjoon ($15.99), one of several stews. Our table was hard-pressed to pick a favourite between the fesemjoon, the green and assertively herbal ghormeh sabzi that also featured pieces of beef and lamb and kidney beans ($13.99), and the gheimeh ($11.99), a concoction thick with yellow split peas and beef, flavoured with dried lemon.
Fesenjoon at Silk Road restaurant.
Ghormeh Sabzi at Silk Road restaurant.
Gheimeh stew at Silk Road restaurant.
Silk Road also makes meatless versions of these stews, and further woos vegetarians with several tofu dishes. It also extends the unthreatening options of chicken fingers and meatballs with spaghetti on its kids’ menu, and for that matter, delivers to Kanata, Crystal Beach and Bells Corners.
To end meals, we’ve had baklava ($1.99), firnee ($2.99), a comforting milk-based pudding, and, best of all, made-in-house saffron-and-pistachio ice cream ($4.99).
Saffron ice cream at Silk Road restaurant.
Our experiences at Silk Road were quite positive, leaving me curious to return and go deeper into Iranian cuisine. Anyone else up for some ash-e reshteh (bean-and-noodle soup), torshi-e seer (garlic pickled in red vinegar), or Silk Road’s supplemental zereshk (wild barberry) to add more tangy sourness to the rice with any dish?
peterhum@ottawacitizen.com
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