The Five Pound Note: Good Friend Chicken

This is a new weekly note by Laura Goodman (aka Eater London’s Lady Godiva) on how to spend a fiver.

Hellooo London,

Every week I’m going to stop what I’m doing and tell you about a delicious sub £5 thing.

Chinatown is an obvious hangout for Lady Godiva — it has all those spicy skewers and cauldrons of hot broth and weighty polystyrene boxes of hand-wrapped dumplings. But it can be hard to see the wood for the tapioca balls. Where to begin?

May I propose: Good Friend Chicken, a Taiwanese fried chicken shop on Little Newport Street. The sign on the bright red and yellow front reads “deep fried chicken breast and bubble tea,” but there’s more than that, thrift fans, there’s so much more. For £3.80, get a large paper bag of popcorn chicken — a proper fistful of nuggety bits, fried to order. And for £3.50, the kind of snack that — if it was served somewhere with a few more Edison bulbs — would send the people truly wild. It’s a bag of deep fried chicken skin — misshapen strips of crispy, crunchy, golden wonder.

But wait for the best bit. The counter is lined with seasonings (11 at the last count.) Fun! Choose to have those bits and bobs shaken with — to name a few — cumin, plum, chilli, seaweed, curry or cheese powders. A classic combo of plum and chilli will offer a hot, fruity bang for your buck.

‘Til next week,

LG.

Good Friend Chicken
14 Little Newport Street WC2H 7JJ
020 7734 2088