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Good Friends
- Price Range:
-
$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Private Lot
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take Away:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
- Noise Level:
- Average
- Has TV:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
11 reviews for Good Friends
11 reviews in English
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Review from Michelle L.
Burnaby, BC
Updated - 1/27/2012
What a hidden gem! From the outside, you would never guess that this palce serves such homey, yummy Korean food. I love all their side dishes as you can tell that they are freshly made daily. I love their kimbap, the best I've tasted in BC. Their soups are delicious. The yukgaejang was pretty good. I would definitely recommend this place.
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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1/20/2012
Food is tasty and it tastes homemade. We ordered yukgaejang, kalgooksoo, fried dumplings, and… Read more »
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Review from C E.
Port Moody, BC
10/5/2011
Nothing we ordered was overwhelming. Every dish was kind of meh.
The Spicy fried Chicken was burnt. I am sure they knew that but sent it out like that anyways. Spicy Pork was ok, Seafood/Green Onion pancake was think and not cooked through..I could go on.
One server to take care of the whole restaurant.
Why bother when Wonjo is across the street?!?! -
Review from Yoony P.
11/2/2010
I ordered the Beef soup with rice lunch special.
Excellent robust flavour and perfectly seasoned side dishes (Acorn jelly, Yum!!)
Highly recommended! -
Review from Marc D.
Vancouver, BC
9/21/2010
* Wide variety of Korean food *
This spot has a very wide variety on its menu including several types of Korean hotpots, lots of varieties of kimbap, various noodle dishes, and even Korean Japanese western dishes like omelette rice and hamburg steak.
The decorations are as eclectic as the menu. Hard to describe other than "not my taste" (all the plastic flowers and random odd patches of wall paper make the spot feel like they took over an old European restaurant started to renovate and never finished, but I don't know the history of the location).
We ordered a half portion of spicy Korean fried chicken, fish cake noodle soup, and a kimbap.
The first to arrive were the banchan, and it was a nice selection compared to the typical ones many other Korean restaurants in the area provide. Some of the highlights included:
- Ojinguh Jut (red chili marinated squid): This one was our favourite of all the banchan, it had a nice heat level combined with the clear taste of the squid. Very nice sidedish.
- Dongchimi (vinegared white radish): This one was really refreshing and had a nice homemade feel to it.
- Kongjaban (sweet beans): These were slightly too hard, but had a very nice flavour to them
- Marinated garlic sprouts (don't know the name of these as I haven't had them before): These were crunchy and had a nice soy flavour to them combined with the garlic overtones.
Moving on to the main dishes.....
- The fish cakes in the noodle soup were those fluffy almost souffle like ones that you don't regularly find around Vancouver. I've only had that type before in Japan. They have a very light and fluffy texture with a nice hint of the fish flavour. Wonderful! The noodles were the right consistency, and the broth was a gentle delicate one. Nice dish, and very reasonable at $6.99.
- The kimbap had the usual fillings, but also had some burdock root mixed in. This gave a nice flavour pop to the kimbap. The kimbap was served in a very large portion (2 rolls) along with some shredded cabbage that had a mild dressing on the side. The added "cabbage salad" was a nice addition. A kimbap plate like that is only $2.99 and quite filling! But with the soup it was only a $2 add-on - so an even better deal!
- The "half portion" of spicy Korean fried chicken clearly came from a chicken that was the biggest one in its kindergarten class! This was a HUGE plate of chicken with about 9 pieces. I'm still not sure how they got so much out of half a chicken, and we were convinced until we got the bill that they had made a mistake and given us a full portion. Nope. The chicken itself was tender and well marinated. The breading was a bit thicker than I normally would like, but with the spicy sauce soaked up that was just a minor inconvenience. It was a very tasty dish overall. Although when I return I likely wouldn't order it again, as I prefer the versions I've had at a few other places. In any case, it was very reasonable as well at $9.99 for the ridiculously large portion.
Service was very friendly and helpful, and we'll definitely return again to try some of their other offerings.Listed in: Vanoodle, Vancouver multicultural fried…, Vancouver Korean Food
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Review from Al R.
New Westminster, BC
Good Friends is located on the site of the former Gu Wol San Restaurant.
I don't easily give any restaurant five stars. And the five stars that I'm giving to this restaurant are strictly based upon the food that my wife and I THOROUGHLY ENJOYED, and not on the decor, which rates somewhere around a not too bad three stars.
If you like kim bap, then Good Friends the THE place to beat. It's been almost 25 years since I returned to Canada after living in Korea, and although I haven't had a lot of kim bap since living here, the bit that I have had has only been just okay. The kim bap at Good Friends is not only big, but it reminded me of the kim bap that I used to be able to find in Korea. This stuff is just outstanding! See the pictures attached to this review for a peek at some awesome kim bap.
I also had a side plate of pan fried mandu, (or 'gyoza' for you Japanese restaurant goers), which consisted of rectangular mandus that looked like they had been pressed on a machine. A rather unusual shape for mandu, but they were pretty good, with a bit of vermicelli added to the mix inside.
My wife had a side bowl of dwenjang soup, which was very flavorful, but a bit too salty. I probably could take a half star off for this, but as it was the only non-positive, I'm going to let it slide.
As a side note, I'm very sensitive to MSG, and tend to get nasty headaches if there's a lot of it in the food that I eat. I forgot to inquire about this when at Good Friends, but I note that I am headache free at the moment, so I doubt they use much MSG, if any.
One thing that I don't want to forget (see picture) are the ban chan side dishes. Most Korean restaurants do a decent, if mediocre job of giving the customers passable side dishes; Good Friends give their customers outstanding side dishes. We had two rounds of free side dishes, and the potato dish was prepared in a way that I rarely see at a restaurant. Instead of cutting the potatoes up into cubes, they did them as only very slightly cooked shoe string cut pieces, and they were to die for! The kimchi was great, and not too fresh, so it had that nice sourness that I usually miss at most Korean restaurants. The zucchini kimchi was superb, as were all of the other dishes. I'm actually looking forward to going back just to have the side dishes with a bowl of rice. It'll be a simple and nutritious meal.
As another reviewer has commented, the menu is a bit on the eclectic side, which in my book is a plus, as so many of the Korean restaurants in greater Vancouver have so much of the same 'safe' items on the menu.
I was a bit disappointed that the only Korean beer they had was Hite, which in my opinion is Korea's most flavorless beer, but I guess that's all they seem to be able to get in Canada these days, as far as Korean beer goes.
The tables have bench seats, which remind me of the seats in an old pickup truck. They are not permanently fixed to the floor, so you can slide them forward or back to suit your preference for closeness to the table, while the coziness of having a semi-private booth is maintained.
I had a chat with the owner, Jin Sung Ha, and learned that he and his wife hail from Pusan, and I believe that this has a lot to do with why the food at Good Friends is so tasty. I remember that the food in that part of Korea as being particularly tasty. Mr. Jin seems to be a very personable guy, and came over to out table and chatted with my wife and me for a few minutes, before going back to the kitchen to work his Korean cooking magic.
Good Friends is a great little find, and I'm happy to have discovered it. And a shout out to the other reviewers who rated it here on Yelp. I probably would not have bothered to check out Good Friends if not for your reviews, and I would have missed out on something wonderful.
Good Friends is an unpretentious little Korean restaurant, with a warm atmosphere and decent service, but especially with GREAT KOREAN FOOD. If you really like Korean food, then do yourself a favor and pay them a visit; your stomach and taste buds will thank you.
A note to those who can read Korean: sorry, I typed all of the food item names in Korean, along with the English, but Yelp's database wiped them out when I saved the review, so you're stuck reading only romanized stuff.Listed in: Places I LIKE!
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Review from Simon K.
Another Korean restaurant, in the vicinity of the Burnaby and Coquitlam border, like all the rest are located, and I've come to a place with an interesting name. What makes this place stand out, it's not congested in the area of North Road and Lougheed Highway, but just a bit north of there across from Burquitlam Plaza. This place on the outside looks like a little house, and when you get in, it feels like a little charming Ikea style pad. Nicely furnished and cozy on the inside, I was surprised, as the outside gives no impression of what the inside would look, and feel like.
Looking at the menu, they have some pretty good weekday lunch specials, and not just Korean authentic dishes, but some Western themed dishes like chicken steak, etc. The prices here were cheaper than the other places I have been to in the area. On this day we ordered the Bee Bim Bop, and the Spicy Beef Soup with Rice. Before our main dishes arrived, we were presented the Korean side dishes before the meal, and they were pretty good, ranging from sesame oil bean sprouts, kimchi, spicy dried bean curd, and a dish that was like sweet pine nuts. A nice assortment, and different from other places.
We eventually had our main dishes, and the first thing I would have to say about them is "Spicy". I can eat spicy, but I sweat afterwards, and I was sweating on the back of my neck, and due to the fact we were sitting on the non-busy side, we didn't get many refills of water. The Bee Bim Bop was pretty good, the only downside was that it was not cooked in the traditional stone pot, with the nice crispy rice on the bottom. It was served in a metal salad bowl, the good part of this is that you can mix it with the sauce and all the fixings inside quite well.
I would definately come back to this place, as the food quality is good, the menu is vast in selection, and the decor is nice, and cofortable. -
Review from Josephine G.
Coquitlam, BC
10/16/2011
Friendly staff, big portion for affordable prices and open till late compared to other restaurants in the area!
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Review from Peter W.
Vancouver, BC
12/29/2011
4.5 stars - minus half star for slow services, well to be honest, there was only one waitress working the whole floor that hour, so I should not be too picky ,, this place like other reviews said - friendly, good portion, inexpensive, etc; thank everyone for recommending this to me..... my like is the taste, every dish we ordered has its own taste, unlike other Korean restaurants that every dishes tasted "kimchi" - we had beef kimbap (exccellent), bibimbap lunch special (basic ingredients but it got heavy dose of sesame oil) and bulgogi (which was bit oily by my taste, as compared to House of Tofu I had earlier). Soup that came with was not salty and with fair amount of ingredients .... definitely would go back again ....
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Review from S L.
Coquitlam, BC
4/25/2011
Nice little place for Korean food. Price r a bit cheaper compare to other Korean restaurants I went to. Food r generally spicy. If u like spicy food, you r gonna like this place a lot. Server is friendly but they are not always around. Few times I need to walk to front near then kitchen to find them. Over all I am happy to eat here. Been there couple times already ever since I found this place through yelp.
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Review from Billy L.
Port Coquitlam, BC
7/17/2010
I don't have the address for this place but it's located across the road from Value Village in Burnquitlam. It's a korean restaurant that we just tried and we must say it's quite spicy. I ordered the spicy pork on rice and she ordered rice cakes and kimchi fried noodles. Both were very tasty but when it comes to spices, we're big wimps. Service was ok, there was a slight language barrier but we managed. I would recommend this place to people who love spicy food but if you're not ok with it, stay away.
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Review from jay d.
2/8/2011
went there a few weeks ago after a 1 inch blizzard and being new to town, i asked the owner a few questions and he was quite nice and tried to help me out. good food and nice staff. went back with some co workers and the really enjoyed the food and ambiance..
