Silk Road, Uyghur and Chinese in the Former Happy Family Space in Falls Church - Closed while Searching for a Larger Space

[DonRocks]

The somewhat, erm, "unkempt" Happy Family closed, and the space is now a sparkling clean Silk Road - a somewhat more interesting pillbox of a restaurant. Make sure to look under "Chef's Specialties" if you visit their website.

I thought sure I wrote about Happy Family once, but I can't find it anywhere.

Silk Road is directly across Route 29 from Ramen Factory 42.

[Ericandblueboy]

Any seating in there?  Booze?

[DonRocks]

2 hours ago, Ericandblueboy said:

Any seating in there?  Booze?

I just drove by and saw it on the way to Foxes and Takumi (which remains the best place for sashimi and sushi that I know of in the suburbs).

[arlingtonkabob]

There's limited seating from what I was told. Not sure about the booze

[FranklinDubya]

Originally heard about this place from Tyler Cowen - and later realized it's directly across the street from Takumi in Falls Church. I have yet to eat at that place itself (there's only a few small tables) but gotten delivery from here I think 3 times now since I happen to fall just within the radius.  Delivery has always come in about 30 minutes and the food has been hot / fresh on upon arrival each time.

I'm certainly no expert on Uyghur food but from what I've sampled so far I've really enjoyed it (had it from here and also Eerkin's in Fairfax).  The simplest way I can describe how it tastes to me is a a cross between Chinese and Middle Eastern food - which makes perfect sense when reading about the people / region where the cuisine originates.  Silk Road has an extensive selection of other American-Chinese and other assorted szechuan stuff but I've only ordered off the Chef's Specialties section.

Anyway onto the food!  The main dishes I've had so far are :

1) Chopped Fried Noodles - My personal favorite thing I've had here thus far.  The chopped noodles have a nice thickness and a texture that is soft but also has a nice amount of "bite" to them.  There's also a nice amount of stir-fry vegetables (peppers mostly) in here and some nice pieces of red meat (pretty sure it's beef) as well.  Not exactly sure how to describe the flavor other than that's if very hearty and tasty without being overly heavy .

2) Chili Pepper Chicken (says "Paper Chicken" on their website but is correct on GrubHub) - When I opened this up I thought there were a borderline concerning amount of chili seeds covering the chicken... my concerns were unfounded - this is certainly a spicy dish but not a brutally spicy one.  I was very impressed by the quality of the chicken here - seemed to be all r mostly dark meat (my preference) but very tender and delicious.  I'd love to describe the sauce more but this one I had about a month ago and just remember it being spicy, complex, and very good.

3) Lamb Polo - Very fragrant aromatic rice with some spices, little bits of carrot and topped with chunks of lamb.  I'm not sure the exact type of rice used here but it was a thicker grain that I very much enjoyed.  The lamb was good but not terribly interesting on its own, however the rice was really awesome.

FWIW I definitely think is worth checking out if you're close by.

[weezy]

driving by here this morning on the way to the farmer's market, I noticed their signs were down but no new signs in their place, and about a half a mile away, I saw a Silk Road food truck parked by a house.  I wonder if they're going to use the restaurant space solely to prep for the food truck or if they're really leaving the brick & mortar location.

[DonRocks]

3 hours ago, weezy said:

driving by here this morning on the way to the farmer's market, I noticed their signs were down but no new signs in their place, and about a half a mile away, I saw a Silk Road food truck parked by a house.  I wonder if they're going to use the restaurant space solely to prep for the food truck or if they're really leaving the brick & mortar location.

I called the phone number on the website, and it rolled over to a gentleman's personal cellphone (he answered it, "Hello?") - I asked him about Silk Road, and he said the restaurant had closed because they need a larger space. When I asked where it would be, he said that they're still looking around - he sounded sincere, and I believe him - so, be on the lookout for a "new" Silk Road location, and as weezy said, it's quite possible (and logical) that they'll be using the old space for their food truck in the interim. That old space was untenably small for any sit-down restaurant that didn't do 80% of its business via carryout and delivery.

For now, I'll mark this thread as Closed, but only temporarily - when Silk Road reopens, someone please chime in.