Good Friend Seafood Restaurant ~ A Review

For those who live in the southern part of Penang island, its almost certain that they have heard of Good Friend seafood located on the beach at Teluk Kumbar. The place which I will write about on the other hand is located in Bayan Lepas and is actually run by the same owner who started the one at Teluk Kumbar. The owners objective now is to provide a place for even better quality food as well as a more relaxing air conditioned environment for his customers.
So here we are invited for this review here. The first thing that struck me was that the place was cozy and that the menu now have more varieties of dishes other than just seafood. This is really good news as I feel that sometimes having a meal purely of seafood can be abit overwhelming. So I will use the same format as I did in my previous post, writing about each photo instead of a big summary here. Keep reading ya and always welcome for comments.

Address: 19-A, Sunway Prima, Jalan Sungai Tiram 5, 11900 Bayan Lepas, Penang.
Phone : 04-6430118


The exterior of the restaurant at night with the bright sign board

 The simple interior. They also have more space upstairs with bigger tables and more seating area

 Steam Grouper at about RM80/kg. This was the first dish to be served. Its steamed without other condiments other than the soy sauce topping. The fish was definitely very fresh and steamed just nicely.

 Steam clams ~ RM18. This is steamed clam with a dash of chinese wine and also some ginger and chilli padi. The clams are fresh and of a quite large size. Its not too spicy and with fresh seafood, you can always be sure of a good taste.

 Tri-flavor Red Snapper ~ RM25. This is a deep fried red snapper in a sauce made from bean paste and chilli. The fish is very crispy and and the sauce really give it an extra oomph as it would have been rather bland tasting. With the reasonable price, its worth trying.

 I was delighted to know that they also serve the popular satay which I thought was only available at Teluk Kumbar. Apparently the owner has managed to source the same supplier for this satay and now is able to serve it to their guest here. Do note that its recommended to order prior as stock is limited.

 Nestum Chicken & Sour Plum Chicken ~ RM38 per portion. We managed to sample 2 types of chicken that night which is the Nestum and Sour Plum variety. They are basically made the same way, that is the whole chicken leg is deep fried and then the dish is completed by the taste of choice. I feel that both are good, with the Nestum Chicken being very flavorful and the chef was very generous with the Nestum. The sour plum would appeal greatly to those who like sour and slightly spicy tasting dishes. At RM38 each, the portion is good for 10 person and there are smaller portions available.

 Good Friend Pork Trotter ~ RM32. Why do I have so many photos of this? It's pretty obvious that I m a pork lover moreover of crispy crunchy pork. This pork trotter is first cooked and then deep fried giving the outer layer its crispiness. But sadly, I felt that it was too tough. It would probably have been better if it was slow oven roasted :p

 When its chopped up

 Braised Broccoli with Scallop and Mushrooms ~ RM38. This dish to me was abit disappointing, not the fact that its a vegetable dish but of the tiny size of the scallops. The scallops were so thin that one can hardly taste it in the bite. The vegetables and mushrooms were both good with the thick sauce going well. If the scallops can improve then definitely no complaints.

 Crispy Tofu ~ RM20. This is a dish which kids would love. Who doesn't like fried tofu that has been mixed with seafood? Its not only crispy but the texture of it is really soft. This is one of the must try.

 The mantis prawn before they were cooked

 Very fresh looking ya. Believe me, they were still moving

 Aliens? Hehe

 Cheese Mantis Prawns ~ RM25 (big) RM15 (medium). This is the first time I have had large mantis prawns cooked with cheese. According to the chef, two types of cheese were used to make this. Its no denying the freshness of this but I just feel that the cheese mixture was abit overwhelming and stole some lime light from the prawns itself. For such large mantis prawns, I would have preferred to savour its fresh taste. But its really something different though.

 Kum Heong Prawn ~ RM80/kg (depending on size). The size of these prawns were huge though not as large as tiger prawns. The kum heong style of cooking is very refreshing and really suited the prawns. For prawn lovers, this is a good choice to try here.

 Signature Crab ~ RM50/kg. The signature crab is a version of sweet and sour crap served with mantou (fresh steam buns). The buns were very soft and goes well with the sauce from the crabs. Compared to famed sweet and sour crabs, this one doesn't give you that super oomph but its still delectable. The other improvement I would suggest would be to use bigger crabs. The crabs, even though many were of small size and it would really have made a difference had larger crabs been used.

 Thats looking at you

 Teow Chew Noodles ~ RM12. This fried noodle dish was filled with lovely condiments and I feel that its fried well as the noodles did not felt too soft or dry. The taste is good as well and helps to round of the dinner.

 Salted Fish Fried Rice ~ RM12. Trying the salted fish fried rice, I was immediately surprise about the size of the salted fish. It was in really large chunks. This I feel made the rice lacking in full flavor as it would have absorb so much more of the salted fish flavor had it been tiny chunks. I also think the type of salted fish was not the best as it was abit hard. Just a so so fried rice.

 No Name Dessert ~ RM12. Well, since it doesn't have a name, we will just call it dessert. HAHAH. It basically has jelly, lychee and longan all mixed up to be served cold. The jelly was pretty good and as usual, its sweet from the syrup used.

 The owner on the right, the non seafood chef in the center and Terry from Qyzzy on the left. Thanks to you all.