Silk Kitchen

8 Fitzwilliam Street, Sheffield, S1 4JB

exterior

Silk Kitchen describe themselves variously as having ‘silk road inspired’ and ‘north western Chinese’ dishes, which seems like a lot of hoops to jump through to avoid saying ‘Uyghur cuisine’. Despite being open for little over a month at the time of writing, this restaurant has already garnered much attention from both local press and online tastemakers. Uyghur cuisine is no doubt unfamiliar to many Sheffield diners, something the restaurant has tried to work around by filling the menu out with more well-known dishes such as Kung Pao Chicken and Teriyaki tofu. The restaurant is halal; no pork or cooking wine is used, but it does have a licensed bar.

beef dumplings

Things kicked off with guo tie beef dumplings, more commonly known to Anglophones as potstickers. This was a great start to the meal, the meat had a pronounced cumin flavour and the contrast in textures between the crunchy base and the chewy topping was very enjoyable. These are some of the better dumplings I’ve had in Sheffield, which is a tall order when PBZ operate in the same city.

sesame lamb

This was followed shortly after by sesame lamb. This had an interesting preparation that I was unfamiliar with- the lamb is battered, then fried. Despite the novel presentation this dish was not particularly successful, managing to be both dry and slightly bland. Things picked up with a liberal application of chilli oil, but this had to be requested from the wait staff rather than something that accompanied the dish.

steamed dumpling

The final course was a giant steamed dumpling, this time filled with spiced lamb. This was pleasant enough but ultimately quite unremarkable, and again had to be enlivened with a dash of chilli oil for things to pick up.

Whilst the food here was all quite tasty, there was an over reliance on a certain flavour profile (specifically, lam flavoured with cumin) and a slight lack of variety. That being said, the menu is several pages long and there’s no reason why more of it could not be explored. The total cost here for three courses and two beers was £46 — all in all, a fair cost for a respectable meal.

6/10