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Silk Road Utrecht Food Identity independently researched
Food Identity independently researched Researched

Silk Road Utrecht

A Central Asian sharing-plates restaurant in a canal-side cellar on the Oudegracht, run as a social enterprise that trains and employs people with refugee backgrounds.

The essentials, at a glance

Documented practices
Independently
researched
Social impact
Plant-forward menu

Style
Casual
Cosy
Cuisine
Asian
International
Good to know
Terrace

The delicious details

Silk Road brings the food of Central Asia and the old trade routes to a cellar on Utrecht's Oudegracht, where family recipes are served as small plates made for sharing. Fresh naan is baked in a clay oven and the kitchen prepares its own lemonade, liqueur and coffee.

The restaurant is part of Stichting Sarban de Toekomst, a social enterprise that trains and employs people with refugee backgrounds and helps them build a career in hospitality. A weekly table is set aside for families on low incomes, and the kitchen also cooks for people facing hardship.

More than half of the menu is plant-based, with a dedicated vegan set menu alongside dishes of lamb, kebab and dumplings. Halal preparation and vegan choices are part of the everyday offer.

Menu
What's on the table, and what's left off

The menu travels along the Silk Road through Central Asian and Middle Eastern cooking, served as around thirty small dishes meant to be ordered together and shared. Plov, fresh naan from the clay oven, samosas, dal, tabbouleh, muhammara and dolmas sit alongside kebab and shrimp dumplings. More than half of the dishes are plant-based, with a dedicated vegan set menu as well as a chef's menu offered in vegetarian and vegan versions.

Cuisine
Asian
International
Dietary options
Vegetarian options
Vegan-friendly
Halal
Allergies & intolerances
How this kitchen handles the EU-14 allergens
Starting point
Public sources suggest only minimal allergen accommodation — confirm directly before booking.
Always confirm your allergy directly with the restaurant when booking.
Researched from public sources · silkroad.nl · not yet confirmed by the restaurant
Impact score
How this restaurant rates
1 - Starting

Silk Road operates as a social enterprise under Stichting Sarban de Toekomst, training and employing people with refugee backgrounds and supporting them towards running their own kitchen. A weekly table is reserved for families on low incomes, and the kitchen cooks for people facing hardship. This work is documented by independent organisations including Instituut Gak, Stichting DOEN and UNHCR Netherlands.

More than half the menu is plant-based, with a dedicated vegan set menu and vegetarian and vegan versions of the chef's menu, making a vegetable-led meal easy to put together.

The impact dimensions
Social impact✓
Plant-forward menu✓

Operates as a social enterprise training and employing people with refugee backgrounds, reserves a weekly table for families on low incomes, and cooks for homeless and vulnerable people.

Silk Road operates under Stichting Sarban de Toekomst, a social enterprise that trains and employs people with refugee backgrounds and offers a franchise route for newcomer entrepreneurs to run their own Central Asian restaurant.

Further documented activity includes a weekly table reserved for families on low incomes and cooking for homeless and vulnerable people. Independent corroboration comes from Instituut Gak, Stichting DOEN, UNHCR Netherlands and ImpactCity.

Strongest sourceinstituutgak.nl

More than half of roughly thirty dishes are plant-based, with a dedicated vegan set menu and vegetarian and vegan versions of the chef's menu.

The menu is strongly plant-forward with more than half of roughly thirty dishes plant-based. Vegan dishes include plov, samosas, dal, tabbouleh, muhammara, dolmas and salads.

Third-party listings corroborate the plant-based classification, identifying 21 vegan and 3 vegetarian dishes.

Strongest sourcesilkroad.nl ↗
Sourcing signals
✓
In-house preparation

Naan is baked fresh in a clay oven and the kitchen makes its own lemonade, liqueur and coffee.

Visit & practical info
Address, price, and more
Address
Oudegracht aan de Werf 159, 3511 AL Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
Open in Google Maps ↗
Price
€€
Format
Thirty small plates for sharing
Hours
MondayClosed
Tuesday17:00–22:00
Wednesday17:00–22:00
Thursday17:00–22:00
Friday17:00–22:00
Saturday17:00–22:00
Sunday17:00–22:00
Not captured during screening; to be backfilled from Google Places. Web sources indicate Tuesday to Sunday 17:00-22:00, closed Monday.
Style
Casual
Cosy
Good to know
Terrace
Web
silkroad.nl
Reserve a table
Reviewed by My Treats
Last reviewed 25 Jul 2026
To website
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How we score
The My Treats impact scale

Every restaurant is assessed against SEERO, our six-dimension sustainability framework — covering sourcing, seasonality, waste, animal products, social impact, and plant-forward cooking. Each finding is weighted by how strongly it is corroborated. The combined result is translated into a planet rating from 1 to 5.

The five levels

SEERO is an acronym for Starting, Engaged, Endorsed, Recognised, Outstanding:

Starting First verified signals of sustainable practice.
This place
Engaged Credible practice across two dimensions.
Endorsed Meaningful practice across three or more dimensions.
Recognised Strong practice across four or more dimensions, with independent corroboration.
Outstanding Top-tier practice, confirmed by recognised third-party audit.

How a level is reached. Each level needs two things together: a minimum number of dimensions covered, and a minimum overall strength of evidence across them. A dimension only counts once its evidence is specific and substantiated — a passing mention doesn't qualify. Meeting only one of the two keeps a restaurant a level lower.

Ratings of four or five planets require human validation and, at the top tier, an external audit. Scores are based on publicly available evidence and restaurant submissions at the time of assessment.

Full methodology→
Impact dimension
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How this dimension works
—
How evidence is weighted
Self-declared Stated by the restaurant on its website, menu or in a submission. Plausible, but not yet independently corroborated.
Researched Found through independent research; one credible third-party source backs the claim.
Vouched Corroborated across more than one independent source. Some gaps may remain.
Audited Fully corroborated across independent sources or by a recognised third-party certification.
What the sourcing checkmarks mean
✓ Full check — independently verified: corroborated across more than one source, or audited / third-party certified (vouched or audited).
✓ Light check — self-declared or from a single source. Not yet independently verified.
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