Good Friend Chicken Chinatown: Best Fried Chicken in London

I’ve written quite a bit about Chinatown restaurants so far, with reviews of the ultra-delicious, must-visit Chinatown Bakery, and Chinese Tapas House and their amazing bao buns. But today, I felt like I needed to tell you about the place that makes the best fried chicken in London; Good Friend Chicken, in the heart of Chinatown.

I love Asian food, and anything that goes from Vietnamese pho to Korean barbecue. But there’s something about finding fried chicken in Chinatown that exceeds all expectations, simply because that’s not the first place I’d visit to get my fix of fried chicken.

Also, since the shop serves halal chicken, Good Friend Chicken is definitely the place you want to visit if you’re looking for the best halal fried chicken in London. I’ve written extensively about halal food in London, but I’m yet to write the guide to halal fried chicken, so at least, you’ve got one of the best places to start when visiting the city!

By the way, if you’d like to discover more amazing food spots in London, here are a few guides on The Working Line you really shouldn’t miss:

• the best halal burgers in London
• the most delicious halal restaurants in Covent Garden
• and the best spots for halal sushi in London

Good Friend Chicken Chinatown: Best Fried Chicken in London

You can’t miss Good Friend Chicken in Chinatown when passing by Little Newport Street, at the beginning of Chinatown. Just off Charing Cross Road and Leicester Square, you’ve got this small shop, and you’ll always see people queuing outside, waiting for their orders to be prepared.

The shop is bright, and always busy, and to be honest, there’s no wonder why. This is clearly one of the best restaurants in Chinatown for fried chicken; and you’ll be of the same opinion when you visit!

Chinatown Restaurant: Good Friend Chicken Menu

The Good Friend Chicken shop in Chinatown offers lots of different items on the menu, but most of the recipes revolve around Taiwanese fried chicken. There are other restaurants in Chinatown offering fried chicken, that’s true, but there’s something about Good Friend Chicken that you can’t find anywhere else.

The most famous fried chicken recipes brought about in the Chinatown shop are as follows:

• Volcano chicken, a huge fried chicken breast with a melty, gooey cheese filling
• Popcorn chicken, little pieces of ultra-crispy fried chicken
• Huge slices of fried sweet potato
• Fried squid
• Bubble Tea
• and more incredible recipes!

Good Friend Chicken has several menus available that knock off a couple of pounds off your total order, so if you’re feeling a bit low, lacking study motivation, and are not really supposed to spend any money, that Chinatown restaurant really won’t break the bank.

Good Friend Chicken Chinatown: What I Ordered

These are the items I ordered when visiting the Good Friend Chicken shop in Chinatown:

• Volcano chicken
• Crispy fried squid
• Fried Sweet Potato
• and a Bubble Tea

The total bill amounted to a little £25 for two people, and I can assure you I was incredibly full after relishing all those super filling fried chicken, squid and sweet potato bites. That’s definitely one of the Chinatown restaurants you’re going to want to visit if you’re looking for laidback places to have a romantic date, for instance.

After visiting Good Friend Chicken a couple of times, I have found that if you don’t order three million items as I always do, this is one of the most affordable halal restaurants in London, and one of the best cheap eats in the city, hands down. The quality of the food, I’ve found, exceeded all expectations.

I’m not that much of a picky eater anyway, and I like to think of myself as a foodie, but really, Good Friend Chicken Chinatown has something that you won’t find anywhere else. And I promise, if you love finding street food in London, you’re going to come back again and again.

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Good Friend Chicken Crispy Sweet Potato

The Good Friend Chicken fried sweet potato slices are huge, and retail for about £6. The cool thing about this restaurant (which is only a takeaway, by the way) is that you can choose from a selection of powders to coat any item you order.

The selection of powders ranges from plum to garlic, with tomato, seaweed, chili, and many more. Garlic and chili are some of the bestsellers. There are currently over 10 different flavored powders to choose from at Good Friend Chicken Chinatown, and they’re all more delicious than the previous one.

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The fried sweet potato slices are extremely filling, and I chose to coat them with garlic powder – boy, was that delicious! Whether you get them super fried or slightly fried as I did, the powder makes up for the bulk of the flavor. And flavor, there is.

You’d initially think that paying £6 for sweet potatoes is a lot, but honestly, I’d pay that over and over again just to have a taste of these fried sweet potatoes as often as possible. Really filling, sweet yet spicy, with that crisp to tender ratio that defies any other Chinatown restaurant.

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Good Friend Chicken Crispy Squid

Next up, I ordered with my fiance the crispy squid with a seaweed powder topping. I felt that even if I was in potentially the shop for the best fried chicken in London, I should also try out some of the other items.

I always do that; choosing some items that you wouldn’t initially think of ordering. Just because I’m in the perfect fried chicken shop in London, doesn’t mean I only need to order fried chicken, no?

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And I was right; the crispy squid was absolutely delicious. I love my seaweed as much as the next person, and I have to admit to always ordering seaweed salad whenever I go to a Japanese restaurant, for instance. The crispy squid from Good Friend Chicken could have done with some more frying, that’s true, but it was already crispy, and the seaweed flavor was well spread onto all the pieces.

Good Friend Chicken Volcano Chicken

Now, the star of the show, and one of the best sellers at Good Friend Chicken Chinatown, the Volcano chicken. A huge piece of fried chicken, made from chicken breast and filled with gooey cheese, that’s the item that proves that Good Friend Chicken preps the best fried chicken in London, and that’s a fact.

Even if we were two people on this poor chicken, it was still a bit difficult to finish, just because it was so huge! The fact that we ordered a Bubble Tea to wash it all down was, indeed, a smart move from us. The Volcano chicken was absolutely flavorful and fried to perfection.

It was crispy, and savory, and the good amount of cheese inside helped us eat it more easily. When you first bite into the Volcano chicken, you’ll probably burn yourself, so be careful with that. It was very hard for us to wait until the fried chicken cooled down, especially because it was so absolutely, utterly, and completely delicious.

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My pro tip, since Good Friend Chicken Chinatown is a takeaway-only restaurant, is to order and then to go sit down in Leicester Square. We always do that, and it’s super cool to eat a good chunk of fried chicken with all the fun Leicester Square statues around, and people singing famous songs.

I actually took those pictures while we were sitting down in Leicester Square, and on a sunny day, I think that visiting Good Friend Chicken is one of the coolest non touristy things to do in London!

All in all, even if I very much enjoyed the crispy squid and fried sweet potato slices, I have to admit that the Volcano chicken is, indeed, the best item in the Good Friend Chicken shop. I’ve only been to the Chinatown shop a couple of times, that’s true, but in my opinion, this is the best fried chicken in London, and there are no two ways to go about it.

Good Friend Chicken Chinatown: Best Fried Chicken in London

There you have it, the complete review of Good Friend Chicken Chinatown. Without a doubt for anyone, I deem it the best fried chicken in London, and if like me, you have a weakness for fried chicken, you’re going to have the time of your life there!

Good Friend Chicken is open from 12 pm to 9 pm every day of the week, except on Saturdays and Sundays when it operates on longer opening hours. That legit means you could go for an early lunch, and then head over to the best free views in London, or, if you’re a student, sit for a bit in the best cafes to work in London!

Plus, I know that there aren’t many amazing spots for halal street food in London, so you’re down for a treat if you’re only eating halal food. By the way, if you’d like to discover more amazing food spots in London, here are a few guides to read next:

• a review of Oodles Chinese, an HMC restaurant in Holborn London
• the best halal Thai restaurants in London
• and the best halal afternoon tea in London
• Elan Cafe Review: most instagrammable cafe in London

Until next time!

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