Good Times Asian Bistro and Bar

Interesting Asian Bistro.
Revamped Bak Hauk.
Trendy.
Higher end of Asian prices.
All in all though… impressive.
Staff were friendly and helpfull.
I settled on an order of Peach Prawns for $ 16, and Pork Dumplings for $ 10. With my Iced tea…~$ 30. A liitle steep… but quality was quite good.
The dumplings… best I have had to date. Big. Flavorfull. Filling. Much more so than the «same» dish at other establishments.
Peach prawns were crisp, sweet, saucey. Everything they should be.
All in all… I was pleased.
And I will be back!

Terrible customer service. Ordered in and got the wrong order. Called back to let them know and the man at the front desk kept re-​reading the order, even when we told him it was NOT ours. He barely spoke English and kept insisting it was ours. When we went to take it back, they had given our order to someone else and continued to ask us if we were sure. Didn’t even give their apologies. Gave us 45 cents for gas and that was it. Thankfully we got a refund. Plus, no under 18? Not right. Used to go their with my family to enjoy a good meal when it was Bak Hauk, now they no longer serve to the family community. Extremely disappointed and let down. I would not recommend this place to anyone who is craving Asian food.

Last week I was invited to try out Good Times Asian Bistro & Bar out in Sherwood Park. It used to be called Bak Hauk Orient Delight and then the owners decided to renovate it, and rename the restaurant. It’s located right off of baseline road, and is relatively easy to find. There’s an ample amount of parking. The restaurant is going for more of a upscale/​lounge type of venue, and it definitely gives off that vibe by the interior.
It’s definitely one of the nicer Chinese restaurant that I’ve been to. There’s a nice bar area in the middle, and seating areas on both the left and right of the restaurant. The menu is a little bit overwhelming, but as with most Asian restaurants, there is a ridiculous amount of options on the menu. We decided to go with dinner for four, which comes with soup, chicken fried rice, deep-​fried crab cheese wonton, and a choice of three entrées. We decided to go with the crispy chicken with garlic soy sauce, prawns with peach in creamy sauce, and their name-​sake phoenix nest.
The soup options that you get are hot and sour soup, miso soup, and wonton soup. We decided to get one of each just to try them. The soups were relatively good. The hot and sour soup is definitely one of the more authentic soup and it was relatively good. You get a very generous portion of tofu and seaweed in the miso soup. Finally, the wonton soup was a bit disappointing. The broth was relatively good, but three wontons seemed a little bit on the skimpy side. I would recommend getting the miso soup or the hot and sour soup. Overall though, it was decent.
Next we were served the crispy crab cheese wontons. I’ve had this similar dish at Watari before. These are relatively good. They are served with a sweet and sour sauce. The ratio of wrapper to imitation crab was a bit overwhelming. I preferred the thin wrappers that are used at Watari.
The prawns with peach in creamy sauce was good. There was a generous amount of shrimp, and the sauce was not too rich. Overall relatively good. One comment that I would make is that the shrimps were served on top of cold peaches, which cooled the dish down very fast. It came out a little bit luke-​warm and if it was a little bit hotter it would have been more enjoyable.
The crispy chicken with garlic soy sauce was really enjoyable. It came out nice and hot. The skin was crispy, and the soy sauce had a little bit of sweetness to it. Definitely one of the better dishes.
The phoenix nest that we had was filled with a lot of different things. It had squid, shrimp, barbecue pork, and a variety of vegetable. It’s served on top of deep fried noodles. At all of the restaurants that I’ve had before, the noodles soften because of the sauce of the meat/​vegetables, but these noodles stayed relatively hard and difficult to eat. Relatively okay, but it could be a bit improved.
The chicken fried rice was quite good. It had a really good balance between all of the flavours, and had a generous amount of chicken. Kind of your typical fried rice but definitely a good choice and a staple for your meal. I kept coming back to it throughout the meal, and definitely enjoyable.
Lastly, at the end of our meal, the owner Norman really wanted us to try the pad thai, which we obliged. This definitely did not disappoint. This was by far the best dish of the night. One of the things that I’m picky with when it comes to pad thai is the consistency and texture of the noodles, and these were cooked perfectly. They were firm and just right. There was a generous amount of toppings and peanuts. Definitely my favourite of the night.
Overall I had a really good experience at Good Times Asian Bistro. The interior is really nice, and the atmosphere of the restaurant is a little bit more toned down than your typical Chinese restaurant. The menu can be a bit overwhelming, but there are definitely some really good items to get. Again, I definitely recommend getting their pad thai. They did recently renovate and changed the concept of their restaurant, so there are always some growing pains, but I have no doubt that things will pick up. The service at this restaurant is really good and unexpected, which was a nice touch. Give this place a try and check it out. It’s a good addition to the Sherwood Park restaurant scene, and more options are always welcomed!