Silk Noodles

November 23, 2023

Silk noodles is a Chinese restaurant located in the Shanshui hotel complex. It’s hard to miss it as there is a big sign right at the entrance. Ambience wise the place is nothing to write home about which is PERFECT because it means they’re putting all their focus on the food!

We got started with some chicken dumplings (KSH1,000), I didn’t know that an order of dumplings results in getting 20 of them! I’m so used to the six or so dumplings we get at Japanese restaurants. Knowing this now and also consulting with our server, you can ask for a mix of 10 and 10, that way at least you get to try different dumpling varieties.

That being said - the dumplings are a nice bite size version, making 20 not seem too many after all. They are steamed, not fried and so so good. I always go for pork dumplings but the chicken ones weren’t bad at all, especially with some soy sauce… yum!

We also tried A chicken wing (KSH200) & some pork belly (KSH150). I found it interesting that they charge per wing and per skewer of pork belly but I think it works well so you can decide how many you want instead of getting six wings when you only had space for three you know? That chicken wing was also quite spread out on the skewer, I guess you call it chicken wing choma😅 It was delicious nonetheless, one thing about the Chinese, they don’t play about their fried chicken wings anywhere in this world.

The pork belly comes as cubes on a skewer, it tasted both fried and grilled if that makes sense and it was coated in some spices that really elevated the taste🤤 I’d like to have more of those when I go back.

For the main meal - we had the Silk Noodles (KSH800). Did some research and read that silk noodles (lamian) are actually hand-pulled noodles, which are tedious to make but taste much better than the dried version you find in the supermarket. Now please note, we had eaten quite a bit already. My two friends (knowing the size of these noodle bowls) only ordered one to share, meanwhile I, who was new to all this, got my own bowl… I was not ready for the massive serving of noodles that was brought to me.

A steaming hot bowl of noodles (I chose the small noodles), strips of beef & veggies swimming in the soup filling the bowl. It was raining that day and this was the perfect meal to have because that whole combination really warms your insides! I really ate it up😋 I think I’d have liked it to have a bit more spice to it though, some fresh chilies maybe - just to add a kick. Their chilli mix isn’t as hot, barely hot actually so it didn’t do much for me. The whole presentation kind of looks like ramen but it’s definitely not ramen but it’s still a delicious & very filling dish, I can’t complain.

Service was a bit meh… we weren’t as many in the restaurant but getting someone to the table all the time proved to be a task. What was hilarious was how they presented the bill… all they wrote on it was the word - Food. The waiters’ shift was clearly done and he wasn’t going to spend another extra minute on writing out an entire bill… I appreciate the brevity😅

As my first time here, I really enjoyed my experience. I’d love to go back and try their other meals because I’ve really been looking for good Chinese restaurants in Nairobi & haven’t found one yet so this may be the one.

The complex also has a couple of other Chinese restaurants that I’m excited to go try one by one and if any of you do go try any of them, let me know which ones are worth visiting.