Best Friend: Korean cult favourite
A large section of Pitt Street around the World Square shopping centre has become something of a miniature Koreatown in recent years, with shopfront after shopfront featuring bright neon signs written in cute bubble font Korean characters. Here you’ll find Korean karaoke bars, Korean grocery stores and several Korean restaurants, including the curiously named Best Friend.
Apparently, the restaurant is named after a cult Korean gangster movie, and there are numerous black and white movie posters displayed proudly around the spilt level dining room. The restaurant is bright and modern, with bold red, white and black tones and Korean pop songs playing on televsion screens in both dining areas.
The menu comes on a jumbo-sized laminated card and is variously divided into entrees, soups, noodles, hotpots, rices dishes and “special fried” items. Most menu choices come with three cold side dishes – usually kim chi, a traditional Korean salad, and wobbly slices of white mung bean jelly in a zesty chilli soy sauce. Order one of the hotpots and a cauldron-like iron pot is brought to the table, sitting on a portable gas burner and filled with bubbling spicy soup. A choice of hotpot ingredients include Korean style spicy sausages, pork ribs with kimchi and spicy seafood with noodles.
Best Friend is well known for their fried chicken – the batter has a perfect crunch and the chicken inside is soft and tender, served with finger licking sweet soy sauce or a surprisingly punchy Korean sweet chilli sauce. Also worth trying is the sizzling marinated chicken with chilli and cheese, the sweetly delicious beef bulgogi and the squidgy, starchy jap chae potato noodles with vegetables.
With its good value menu and late opening times, Best Friend is a favourite student hang out – the ice cold mugs of Hite beer certainly help keep the crowds coming in.
Posted by Fiona Davies
