Good Friends - Authentic Chinese

Good Friends - Berlin

address: Kantstraße 30, 10623 Berlin
phone: 030 3132659
​website: www.goodfriends-berlin.de
opening hours: Mon-Sun: 12:00-01:00

Cantonese European cuisine meets Cantonese home cooking.
☯

At Good Friends Berlin you will notice that the menu is divided into different colours.
Here you will find the classic Chinese dishes and a traditional Chinese menu.
We have to tell you right away that you shouldn't be put off by the current interior design. As far as we know, the restaurant is in the middle of a reconstruction phase.
But here you can fully concentrate on your meal and enjoy it.
The restaurant is perfect for groups. Everybody orders what they want and finally can be shared.. No worries everyone gets fed up. There is plenty of rice and we can tell you that almost everything tastes good. In the end, some dishes only depend on you daring to try them, because we are simply not used to certain dishes.

We didn't even consider the classic card, because the traditional one is already huge. To be honest, the decision was very difficult and we decided to have a main course as a starter in addition to a classic starter.
We were struck by the rice pancakes with chicken, vegetables and satay sauce.
Rice pancakes sound totally epi and simply had to be tasted.
We were not disappointed! All dishes are served with different chili sauces: chili with oil, fish sauce, vinegar or dried. There is also a classic soy sauce and chili paste.
The vegetables are fresh and the rice pancake is cut into strips under the rest of the mixture. Definitely recommendable!

As already mentioned, sharing is the way to go here, so that you can try as much as possible.
It is best to choose a round table, so that you can arrange all the food on the rotating disc and thus everyone has access to the food.
From deep-fried to steamed, the menu gives what the Asian loving heart desires.

Of course, authentic Chinese cuisine also includes dishes that the European connoisseur heart does not yet know and very probably does not necessarily laugh at.
It's "try it over study", but we didn't dare to try the quite greasy duck feet.

Instead, we could enjoy the specialty of the house. The steamed dumplings filled with prawns tasted super delicious. Unfortunately this variant was the only one without pork filling, otherwise we would have liked to try every taste.

Overwhelmed by the appetizers we were already very excited about the main courses.
Among other things there were shrimps, which, as it should be, were fleshy instead of watery and also well dressed. There was also beef spiced with anise and an extraordinary sauce. Also whole fish and duck. Unfortunately we were a very large group, so we did not have access to all the dishes. But the most important things we got in front of the lens.

Very important are the scallops. Just one word: Excellent! Rarely eaten such good scallops. Together with fresh green asparagus, this has resulted in a great combination and no fear of not getting enough of it. Because you get plenty!

Then there's the subject of the duck. The traditional variant comes with bone and is accordingly much juicier, also this is completely differently seasoned. The European adapted one comes boneless, but it's not bad, but we can advise you to take the risk with bones. In principle this is nothing else with the duck to the Christmas feast. It also comes with bones and does not cause us any problems.

You simply serve yourself from the large plates. You get a small plate and a small bowl that you can attack and season as you like. By the way, the small versions are very practical, because who doesn't know that sometimes the eye is bigger than the hunger. And so you can gradually try it out without having to fight against your feeling of fullness.

The secret recipe for rice?  - Order and pick up from the Asians.
There is no polished rice in our Epi household, as it has virtually no outstanding nutritional value. However, we have to admit that the rice is simply delicious in Asia and we wouldn't be able to get it that good at home anyway. So you can treat yourself to the side dish from time to time.

As expected, the grilled squid is also recommended. It comes with Asian mushrooms, carrots, peas and spring onions. The mushrooms have a pleasant taste as they do not have a great taste of their own and the octopus is easy to chew as it should be.
After such a good start and main part we couldn't leave the dessert alone and decided for a steamed partial lot with lotus cream. This is reminiscent of a yeast dumpling and, admittedly, is probably anything but epi.
Nevertheless it was tasty and thus a justifiable conclusion of the evening!

The overall conclusion was also influenced by a very important fact.
Do you know this boring aftertaste you have after the usual Chinese restaurants, best of all All-You-Can-Eat-Restaurants?
Not that we missed it, on the contrary! We were totally fascinated that he didn't show up at Good Friends after the restaurant visit.
What does that tell us? FINALLY a good Chinese guy you like to go to again.
Absolutely recommendable and worth a trip to Savignyplatz in Berlin!
By the way, the restaurant was full of Chinese, if that is not an argument for authentic cuisine.

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Much love!
Your Alex & Feli
♡