South Silk Road Chinese Restaurant

We were craving some Chinese food for our final meal before flying back home after a week of traveling in Alberta/​BC for skiing and sightseeing. Looked up this place on Unilocal and it did not disappoint. We ordered the Yunnan noodles, the special baked fish with lemongrass sauce and the mixed oriental greens. The dishes were flavorful and the servers at the restaurant were very friendly. Would come back the next time we’re in Calgary looking for some legit Chinese food.

Great Chinese food from Yunnan province — its a small establishment and great for all ages. The menu leans to the spicy side and is very flavorful. As another reviewer stated be careful with the number of chillis
The service is not the greatest if you dont know what to order. Great if you know what you want. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea but definitely worth experiencing atleast once.
As for me I love spicy food and the eclectic menu will keep me coming back

This is the only Chinese restaurant I would recommend to other Chinese people.
In other words — its authenticity is undoubtable. We invited our friends on multiple occasions, to great effect. Just recently they renovated their upholstery to soft black booths which increases the sense of privacy. This is definitely one of the more quiet Chinese places. We come whenever we want to excite our tastebuds. Our favourites are the sweet pineapple sticky rice with honey and coconut milk, as well as their mushroom and other spicy meat dishes (such as the house special grilled fish). There are a lot of Chinese dishes you will not find anywhere in Calgary, moreover this side of Canada.
I won’t say that everything on the menu is equally delectable, but the waitresses know the menu front to back and they will be able to identify their best dishes (their recommendations are never off the mark). Yunnan has some of the spiciest food, so maybe be careful and trust those red pepper signs. This is always a baby/​kid friendly place and it’s usually not hard to get a spot for lunch, maybe harder for dinner. Can be more expensive than a HK café because they use some rare ingredients and have dishes that have to be pre-​ordered as they are prepared from scratch by order.
The place is owned by an old couple that just really loves to cook, so it’s just really cute and I would love to try more things on their huge menu.

After 3 weeks in Europe I was dying for some Asian fare. Heading down the 14 St NW hill (down from North Hill Mall) I saw the sign for South Silk Road and decided that this was as good a time as any to try it. Friends of mine had recommended it and I had heard other good comments about it. I slow down and turn right at 7 Av NW but alas all the street parking (about 4 spots) are all taken and all along the other streets are marked by permit parking only. I turn back on to 14 thinking that it’s a pass but just at the end of the block there is a sign saying customer parking for Plaza 14 and in the evening there is lots of parking in there. It’s a bit of a squeeze if you have a truck as the spots are pretty small.
as someone who lived in Singapore and Hong Kong I am delighted by the appearance of more and more restaurants serving Chinese foods from the other ethnic Chinese groups other than Szechuan and Canton. South Silk Road offers Yunnan cuisine so if you think that Ginger Beef is what Chinese food is about then I don’t recommend you go to South Silk. Yunnan is a term that covers the dishes of the over 2 dozen ethnic minorities in China. The cuisine is flavourful and may even, depending on the region, have cheese and yogurt. A distinctive characteristic of many of the dishes is a warm, steady spicy heat, it is gradual and not overly spicy hot and yet it maintains a steady beat through dishes that feature this heat. It is like a warm bass note that just keeps everything together. I found that once I had tried the spice I found dishes that were not spicy almost bland in comparison. They use quite a bit of dried chili but not in the same abundance as authentic Szechuan dishes. Mushrooms are also a very popular item in recipes but very unique types (I don’t know the name of some of them). We had a type of mushroom that looks almost bits of cloth that had accidentally fallen into the dish and yet were delicate and yet with a slight crunch. I’ve been there twice and both times service was excellent and helpful. Portions are generous. It’s a popular haunt and the restaurant is divided into 2 sides, one side is generally full as it has the 2 – 4 seater tables while the 2^nd area has a couple of large tables for big groups and 1 or 2 smaller tables.
I get the impression that the chef tends to try and cook healthy as I ordered dau mew (one of my favourite vegetables) and unlike most places that use a lot of oil and just dump the snow pea leaves in, here they do a quick hot water dunk and then stir fry the veggies. I have had the Griddle Cooked Ribs with Pepper and definitely recommend these if you like ribs. It’s definitely a place I’m going back to try the other dishes.

Hubby and I were here for the first time on a date while our son was attending Otafest. It smelled really good in here! Many aromatics were being used in the kitchen and a myriad of exotic smells that I couldn’t distinctly identify. There was a lineup at 7:30 pm on a Saturday but we only needed a table for two, so we were seated fairly quickly. Parking on the street is a nightmare, though. Our server was pleasant, efficient and very helpful (the menu is extensive, so we didn’t quite know what to order).
Alas, the teapots aren’t very efficient, they’re the porcelain kind that spills tea all over the table every single time you pour.
BBQ pork hock: very well prepared. Gelatinous, tender, and delicious. It’s a nice change from the Filipino dish, «crispy pata».
Yunnan spicy lamb: stir fried with green peppers, onion and chili peppers. A spicy dish but not overly spicy since we requested all our dishes to be «mild». The lamb was wonderfully seasoned and very tender. Mmmm…
Pineapple coconut rice in hollowed out pineapple: the pineapple chunks are sweet and fresh. I found the rice to be a bit mushy (there was a lot of moisture even for glutinous rice), but it tasted great!
Spicy seafood: a huge dish of shrimp (split lengthwise and shell still on), scallops, star anise, lots of garlic, bay leaves, and aniseeds. I didn’t know what to make of this dish — although the seafood was flavourful, I thought that the shrimp was a tad overcooked and the scallops could have been larger (they were the size of the tip of my thumb).
My hubby kept picking out the many pieces of garlic cloves to eat with his rice!
Here’s my first impression of Yunnan cuisine: after the spices hit your tastebuds during the first few bites, you start to get used to the heat. It’s not like Szechuan cuisine where you experience a numbing feeling in your mouth, it’s more like a comforting warmth. Definitely the ideal place to come to on a cold, rainy day.
We would have liked to have tried more dishes (I kept stealing sidelong glances at neighbouring tables). We will be back!

For cuisine from a specific region in China, this is as good as you are going to get in Calgary. Yunnan fare, and done perfectly, as far as my taste buds are concerned. I go back to any of the lamb dishes and mushroom dishes, any meats made with preserved vegetables/​chili, and the dishes made in a pineapple (one chicken, one rice, as far as I could find). Best ma po tofu in town, and an outstanding range and variety of dishes. Most definitely a deep and valuable vein to mine.
Notes: all from scratch, the in-​house sausage is amazing, and you have to phone ahead for many dishes, as they take so long to make. Don’t worry the menu indicates which ones you have to phone ahead for. Also, it’s almost always packed to the rim, so phone ahead to see if you can reserve. I live very close so we have only eaten in once, the rest as take-​out. Oh yeah, closed Tuesdays.
Enjoy exploring the menu. The size of the menu is up there with Dinesty out on Robson in Vancouver. So many options, yum!

Incredibly helpful and attentive service. We had a seafood allergy in our group and they were very careful and ensured that she didn’t have anything with seafood at all.
The food is delicious, freshly made and authentic. I would absolutely recommend coming here. Will come back.

My opinion — hands down the best Chinese restaurants in Calgary — even better than many of the counterparts in Vancouver (my good friend from Vancouver endorses that statement too). Be warned about two things though: 1) you HAVE TO order the right dish because a wrong one will lead you to believe that this is just another Chinese restaurant; 2) you have to love hot/​spicy cuisine to appreciate their dish because this is where they truly shine. The BBQ pork knuckle (spicy level — suicidal) is a must have.
I give it four stars instead of five because 1) the restaurant is definitely under-​staffed during their peak hours; 2) the environment is mediocre at best.

The best rice noodle restaurant I have ever been, the dish was quite spicy and we ordered the chili fish (forgot the name), and that smells so good!!!

I was so thrilled to discover S. Silk Rd. last night. This restaurant is unique in that it is delicious provincial cuisine rather than Americanized fare. I also loved the atmosphere. It is warm and homey, quiet and welcoming, and prices are reasonable. The owner treats you as if you were in her own home. She even delivered a delicious mushroom salad on the house.
A Calgary gem!

This restaurant is very special. The owner is a lovely woman who takes amazing care of her customers and exposes them to cuisine that cannot otherwise be accessed in Calgary. This is not your standard Americanized Chinese cuisine, so if you want chicken balls and chow mein, look elsewhere. This is a particular provincial cuisine that is delicious! Many dishes are quite spicy so if you are not used to this, it would be wise to talk with the owner and ask for less spice.

This has got to be the worst Chinese food in the city.
Maybe we didn’t order right. Maybe only the «actual» Chinese dishes are good, because one thing is for sure: If you are looking for Ginger Beef, STEER CLEAR.
It seems, at some point, they must have changed their name, because this location and phone number is under the name of another restaurant on Unilocal (Red House —
) so I am posting this review twice.
The staff seemed friendly, but it was the basically inedible quality of the food that lands this restaurant on the bottom of the list.
I have never had Ginger Beef taste so bad. Not even from a mall. The meat was unbelievably tough (it actually seemed like WAY over-​cooked pork), the «fried» outside was mushy and disgusting, and the flavour was completely flat. All around, just BAD.
It would take a lot to get me to come back here. Once was more than enough.

My co-​workers and I went here for lunch last week. We had no idea of reputation before going, so we were very pleasantly surprised with how great it was!
As they say «good things come to those who wait.» We were warned when we arrived that the food takes a little longer because they cook everything fresh, unlike other Chinese food restaurants where the food is pre-​prepared, and then just served. Having said that however, we did not find the wait to be all that long. We were provided with three different menus — the one with dishes that one would order at any North American Chinese restaurant, the traditional fare menu (in English and Mandarin), and the lunch menu.
The food was, as they said, very fresh. I found it quite spicy, but not in a bad way. My lunch was delicious. I had ginger beef with steamed rice and fresh vegetables. The portions were just right. It was so nice to be able to have Chinese food without all that dough and deep fried, sugary food.
The service was friendly and professional. I would definitely go here again.

Excellent food and great service. A warning, It’s a little bit on the spicy side! On another note, at the entrance you’ll notice a moustache vending machine… Moustache dinner party anyone?

Ate dinner at South Silk Road today. It’s Yunnan cuisine = SPICY!
We ordered Chicken Soup in Clay Pot with Gastrodia Tuber — small chopped up chicken with the bone-​in in a clear broth with goji berries and red dates. Very refreshing soup. You know what they say, chicken soup is always good for you! The next 3 dishes we ordered were:
— Grilled Fish with Lemongrass and Chilies — The whole fish grilled on foil paper. The fish is split open and laid flat on the foil paper and then smeared with a wonderful rub of lemongrass and chili paste. There’s also red cut Thai chillies & chopped up cilantro for garnish as well! Very fresh Tilapia fish — no fishy smell. The rub is a lovely accompaniment to the bland fish adding volumes of flavour to the fish dish.
— Beef Stew (spicy) — beef is tender and soft but the sauce is dangerously hot and spicy. After the first spoonful of the sauce, you can feel it rippling on your tongue!
— Asparagus vege dish with bamboo pith — not the correct name on the menu but that is what comes in the dish. No hot stuff so a nice compliment to the hot and spicy dishes we ordered.
Eat above dishes with steam rice. You can get a whole pot of rice like in Chinese restaurants with refills and she still charges $ 1.50/person.
Service: a little slow.
Parking: a little difficult to park; parking at back of building or on the street.
Environment: for all that spicy food, I hope they will have air-​con or some fans in the future at least. Sweat fest!
Interesting dishes for the not-​faint-​of-​heart — pig’s feet, braised pork hock, pig’s ears. Apparently, the braised pork hock takes 6 hours to cook so pre-​order ahead if you want to eat it!
The lady at the restaurant told us that all these dishes originated in the Yunnan province of China and that the sauces are the actual sauces from back home.
Will definitely be back for more spicy dishes!

I had lunch here today– I got the rice cake which came with assorted veggies, a sort of air-​dried pork that tasted a bit like prosciutto, and scrambled egg and a tonne of chilies. It was delicious and an ample portion. The menu isn’t for sissies: this is nothing remotely like the «Chinese and Western» place it replaces; it’s a loud, spicy cuisine that partakes of some of the tastes of Thailand (there’s lemongrass all over the menu) and lots of bone-​in meats like hacked chicken, pig’s feet and ears and other delicacies. I can’t wait to try more.
Service was friendly, efficient, intelligent and helpful. There is a small «western» menu but if you want to real stuff, the entire traditional menu is provided in both Mandarin and English.
I hope a place like these, which had been a neighbourhood Italian place for many years, can find a welcome in this location far from Chinatown or Calgary’s north end Chinese ethnoburbs. Give it a try.