Good Buddy Express

If you like to eat healthily (and generally you should) then there’s not too many options in the City Centre Mall’s food court. Good Buddy serves a range of noodle soups, vermicelli bowls, fried rice dishes (lemongrass pork/​chicken/​beef), spring/​salad rolls and bubble teas.
The prices are reasonable at $ 6 – 7 per dish and for that the portions are generous. I don’t think I’ve ever come away wanting more.
The couple that run Good Buddy are really friendly and grew up in Vietnam so they know their Vietnamese food!

Good Buddy Express is Vietnamese fast food, food court style. The flavours are not as bold as what you would experience in a Chinatown restaurant, but the prices are low, portions are decent, and it still tastes pretty good. I generally order the chicken soup, which is full of plain, boiled chicken and noodles, in a light broth. It isn’t phở, but it is warm and satisfying. There are other kinds of soups like brisket (which tends to be fatty) and beef, as well as barbecue dishes with pork, chicken, and beef. I prefer Good Buddy Express to several of the other Asian food court choices because of the cost and the fact it is reasonably healthy.

I was totally craving Asian food today, when I was downtown, but I am sick of Edo and didn’t want greasy Chinese food. So I decided to try Good Buddy Express, which is Vietnamese.
They have quite a few dishes. There are soups, but also plates that come with chicken, pork, beef, or shrimp. You can get these with either rice or noodles. They sold spring rolls too. I decided to get the BBQ Chicken Rice.
After I ordered, the cook put a whole bunch of chicken on the grill. I was wondering if it was all for me, because it was a lot. I think sometimes I just get lucky coming to these kind of places at night, because they want to get rid of their food before closing, so they just pile it on. He cooked the chicken on the grill, which took a while, but I didn’t might. Another worker piled my plate with tons of rice and added some shredded carrot, chopped cucumber, and green onions.
When the meat was done, he basically piled it all on and topped it off with some sauce. I was astounded by the amount of food that was on my plate. It only cost $ 6 too.
I thought the food tasted really food. From what I could tell, there was nothing BBQ about it though. It wasn’t made over an open flame or anything. Everything was fairly tasty though. There were some red chillies in the meat that made it just a little spicy, and the rice was very good. There was hardly any vegetables, but that’s usually how Vietnamese is.
I’d definitely come back here again, and I actually thought it was better than the Thai Express next door.