Adventures in the Silk Road

Diane's a good sport. In my obsession to try restaurants I think might be good, we've gone to places where we were ignored. We've gone to places where many minutes later, we see them bringing frozen fried fish from Safeway to make our meal. We've gone to popular places that served terrible food, and we've gone to empty places that served delightful food. But until last night, we've never gone to a place where a shouting match erupted between customers and the owner, where the customers called 911 requesting police because they claimed to feel threatened.

I'm talking about the Silk Road Cafe, an Afghani restaurant in Kent, at 23609 104th Avenue SE.
The place is tiny, with seating for sixteen, and a small menu, with seven entrees, three sandwiches, a couple of sides, and a couple of home made desserts. It's a one man show, with the owner doing the cooking,  waiting on tables, cashiering , and washing dishes, so if you're expecting fast food, go to McDonald's.
The food is absolutely delicious, amazingly good, and the prices are reasonable. We ordered the bolani, which is a fried, stuffed flatbread, (served with a mint sauce and a yogurt sauce),  we ordered the lamb kebab( served with saffron rice and a cucumber/cilantro/red onion salad), and we ordered an eggplant sandwich(served on their in house baked pita). We also had the home made baklava for dessert. Afghan food is delicious, and the Silk Road Cafe is a good example of how great Afghan food is. You can buy pounds of Afghan raisins and saffron rice there.

So what happened?  While the owner/chef/waiter was taking our order, another party came in and stood at the counter. The owner told them to have a seat, he would get to them in a minute. Then, after they sat down, they shouted their order at him while he was still taking our order. He again told them he would get to them in a minute, which he did.  After he brought the other party their appetizers(the bolani: delicious and addictive), someone in the party mockingly asked him" Why do you seem so frustrated?"
The owner responded that he felt that they were treating him with rudeness and disrespect.
Things escalated from there. They shouted at him that they'd never experienced such poor customer service. He brought them the rest of their order, which was to go, and told them to pay their bill, and "Get the fuck out of here, and don't come back." They started cursing at him, telling him to "shut the fuck up", and called the police, claiming that he was threatening them, that he was wearing gloves, and they didn't know if that was to cover up a crime he was planning.
maybe the owner could have done more to de-escalate the situation, apologized for being the only employee, etc. But who knows? Maybe it was a ruse to get a free meal. Maybe they were just hotheaded twenty somethings. Maybe they were from a different Afghan tribe.

The nice, very large police officer arrived just a few minutes later, and had two of the three in party stand outside while he heard everyone's take, before telling the other customers that the owner has the right to ask them to leave, and that they should pay their bill and just leave, and asked the owner if he wanted to file a "no trespass" order on them. They assured the police officer that it was unnecessary, that they would never return.

Me? I'm going to return. The food is awesome. Chefs have the reputation for being a bit hotheaded, and the owner/chef here lived up to that reputation, even as he was certainly provoked. To us, he was nothing but polite and gracious, and apologetic for the scene. I highly doubt that something like that is likely to happen again.  And, if you are a customer in a restaurant and don't like the service you're getting? Pay the bill, maybe leave a small tip, and don't come back. Write a bad review( which these people did on Yelp.).  Calling the cops? You don't think the police have more important matters to attend to?

Downtown Renton used to have an Afghan restaurant, until it burned down. It's nice to have another, very good Afghan restaurant nearby.