Travel Dixon Street to Kiroran Silk Road Uygur

There are at least three different  Uygur (or Uighur) restaurants at the northern end of Chinatown's Dixon Street, each similar but with slight differences in appearance and menu subtleties.

It was actually a tweet from Neil Perry that confirmed the name of the restaurant for me a few weeks after I'd eaten there, as the carpet wall hangings, red tablecloths and extreme yellow light were quite unforgettable.

Cucumber with Uygur garlic sauce from Kiroran Silk Road Uygur, Dixon Street, Haymarket

The group order for “20 lamb skewers, please” forced me to the salad and vegetable options pretty hastily, starting with the cucumber salad smothered with a Uygur garlic sauce. It was crunchy and refreshing in a garlicky way; the pungency of which didn't remain on the palate too long.

Braised eggplant with capsicum

There was unanimous agreement on the spicy eggplant dish with capsicum and onion, although it probably was not as healthy as the mere presence of a vegetable might imply.

Most likely deep fried before being smothered in a very mildly spicy brown sauce, the eggplant was comfortingly delicious. Steamed rice would have been perfect but the Turkish style bread more than sufficed as a carbohydrate side.

Chicken hot pot with hand-made noodles, potato and chilli

Faced with the decision of a small or large serve of the chicken hot pot, we thought just two vegetable dishes, in addition to the 20 skewers, between six people would have warranted the large hot pot.

As it turned out, the large was pretty big. The huge flying saucer of a dish was filled to the brim with bone-in chicken pieces, potato chunks and countless whole dried chillies. Submerged beneath the fiery red sauce were flat, thick handmade noodles of a most chewy, al dente texture.

The noodles softened as they soaked in the red chilli sauce, picking up all the flavour and chilli heat – of which there was plenty. The earlier cucumber salad played saviour to our burning tastebuds, as did the BYO wine (no corkage!).

Lamb skewers

But for the feature, and what we were really here for, 10 lamb skewers to a plate – one normal and the other spicy. After the catch-in-your-throat spice of the chicken, I decided to stick with the milder lamb skewer option which was generously covered in cumin and other spices.

Carefully removing the lamb from the not-too-sharp metal skewers, it was impressively tender with a bit of necessary fat and so much fantastic flavour. Any gaminess in the meat was hidden beneath the cloak of spices which itself was a marvel of flavours.

We managed to finish most everything on the table and get away at a very reasonable price per head. While I'm not sure I can tell the difference between Kiroran Silk Road Uygur and the other Uighur restaurants at the same end of Dixon Street, I can tell they're worth the travel, especially if it's good enough for Mr. Bourdain.