The Good Friend Chinese Restaurant

Choice cuts

Much as I love Brighton there are still things, 25 years on, that I miss about London. I miss the markets and the theatres, and I really miss the Chinese restaurants. I know that Brighton has a few, some of which I like a lot. There is much to be said for the stylish food at Gars for instance, delicious every time, in great surroundings and with superb service, too. No, what I miss is pretty basic: the Soho style Chinese with meat hanging in the window and a chef hovering over a steaming cauldron of chicken broth. The thought of it is making my mouth water.
The craving for this kind of food always sends me to one place – The Good Friend on Preston Street. Here I find some of those old favourites, and also some new. So when Mr R and Mr L suggested we do Sunday lunch, my craving for the orient steered us back.

The Good Friend is a pretty enough restaurant, not a spit-and-sawdust affair, but with none of the pretension of some that I might mention. And the staff are a delight, always welcoming me back as if I am a long lost relative.
When I first started going there, back in pre-history, there was a menu of dishes all in oriental characters. I asked what they were and the waiter back then suggested that I might not like them, as they were rather more for Chinese tastes. I persisted, and found several dishes that I liked a lot and one that never fails to put a huge grin on my face.

Anyone beginning to wonder if I eschew the delights of popular Cantonese dishes should not worry; I like those too, but in balance. There is a format to going to the Good Friend that involves everyone reading the menu before putting it down and asking me to order. I like that, because I can order my favourites, throw in a few popular choices and hey presto, a feast.

So to start it was their salt and pepper squid, which in my view is the best in town, piping hot, tender and liberally sprinkled with fresh chilli, garlic, salt and spring onion. I married this to a plate of ribs, the dry ones which taste great but are a much cleaner way to start a meal. For good measure we had some sesame prawn toast too, and some prawn crackers.

I had ordered jasmine tea, but after a few moments spotted the look of disappointment on Mr R’s face and ordered a bottle of house white, which is better than average and very inexpensive by today’s standards. Our table went quiet as we tucked in.

For our main course I indulgently ordered my two favourite dishes. I simply love having a plate of the mixed roast meats, the ones hanging in the window and served at room temperature. You can choose three so I went for the char sui sweet glazed pork loin, crispy pork belly and roast duck. The char sui always satisfies that need for sweet and salt, and it was as good as ever. The crispy belly pork was great, the right balance of lean meat and sweet fat and the crackling really crackled. The duck was sublime. The thin skin, all the fat rendered away, was the colour of French polished mahogany, crisp and addictive. The flesh below was sweet and succulent, yielding to the slightest pressure from a chopstick (I think a fork would work equally well, but when in…).

To balance this I ordered Mr R’s favourite deep fried chilli beef. It was good, not my favourite as I fail to see what the need for the beef is when it is cut so fine, but the sauce had a pleasing effect and the crunch added texture.

A plate of steamed pak choi with garlic always goes down well. It’s amazing how pleasing a simple plate of greens can be when done well and all three of us tucked into this with relish.

So finally, to my favourite dish – a braised beef brisket in a hot-pot. I found this years back on the secret menu, and have been enjoying it ever since. Brisket is a pretty cheap cut, but like all cheap cuts, when cooked with skill has more flavour then any fillet steak will ever have. At Good Friend they cook it with star anise, cinnamon and heaven only knows what else to create an unctuous stew that is rib-stickingly good and packed with flavour. You will find a bit of sinew here and there, but you eat around it, and remember that it all adds to the flavour. Simply writing about it makes me want to go back and eat it right this minute. I rank this dish as being up there, perhaps even in my top ten dishes of all time.

We had a bowl of steamed rice to eat with our meats, one being quite enough given that I don’t eat that much rice, especially when there is meat to eat, and we almost polished off the lot, just a few scraps here and there had us beaten.

How much did this cost? Well, it was a delightfully impressive £77 (£26 a head or thereabouts) for the three of us, including service and our wine. I reckon that is pretty good value, especially when you consider how much delicious food we ate. In truth, there was certainly enough for four, perhaps with a little more rice.

Good Friend Chinese Restaurant, 24 Preston Street, Brighton, BN1 2HN, 01273 779836