Good Buddy Restaurant — Restaurant in Sherwood Park

First, the pros. The value is high; a $100-120 takeout meal will feed my family of four for three meals. The dishes are also consistent; you know what you're getting and they rarely stray from a mostly good dish. It's highly westernized Chinese food, which to be honest works well in Sherwood Park. You're not getting traditional Chinese dishes, but that's not what they're striving for here either. I rarely get a dish that is outright bad, either; maybe a single dish every ten orders.

Delivery is fast (sometimes too fast!) and the older man who handles takeout payments / pickup is always prompt and friendly. The pickup deal is amazing, too, when you consider that you also save on delivery fees and tips (I don't tip on pickup; only delivery or table service). I haven't dined in here for over a decade, so I can't speak to that experience.

Next, the cons. The sauces are a bit too much at times and there's usually one dish that's too salty or sweet. The sweet and sour pork (too sweet) and the beef and vegetable (too salty) come to mind, even after considering that this is takeout food.

I also wish they had more dim sum options, specifically sesame balls and steamed rice noodle rolls. That said, there's not many dim sum options in Sherwood Park so I'll take what I can get. I would love to have some traditional Chinese dishes offered (I love century eggs), but understand why they haven't offered them here yet. Maybe as Sherwood Park very slowly diversifies, so will their menu.

To sum it up, Good Buddy is my go-to for westernized Chinese food in Sherwood Park. Yes, there are better options in Edmonton, but we're not in Edmonton. There are room for improvements, but they're generally pretty good. Until a new restaurant truly challenges them, they're the number one in...

Disappointing but not terrible.

Ordered for delivery, we live 10 minutes away from the restaurant and they requested an extra $6 on top of the $10 I was paying because I live on the edge of Edmonton. This would have been fine if the food had been good, and whatever it’s $6 but they specifically called to request extra money which is..just odd to me. If the food had been as good as I had hoped, it would have been worth it.

Food review:

💫 The spring rolls - good. A little thick but good! 1 per person as default.

👎🏻 The chicken fried rice - the chicken was both bland and fishy, no colour at all. No real flavor to the rice. Not dry though.

👍🏻 The wonton soup - was pretty good but arrived cold. Good portion size on this - 3 wontons and large broccoli each. I do like that soup comes with the food, that isn’t always typical.

🫳🏻 The beef and broccoli - was okay, beef tasted weird, same fishy-ness from the chicken in the rice, but broccoli was good and the ratio of meat to veg was good. Again, no real flavour at all.

🫳🏻 Shanghai noodles - good cook and chew on the noodles, good colour, but ZERO flavour. I had to toss in some lemon sauce and extra salt on there and it was better.

💫 The lemon chicken - was pretty good, and good portion size, no fishyness like the other meat. Good amount of sauce so you can add the sauce to the other food to add flavour.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Overall: meat is off in some dishes, little to no flavour across the board. Tastes like they didn’t add any salt, sugar, MSG, or any sauces besides a dash of soya sauce or anything. Mostly disappointing overall.

Paid $88 total for...

Good Buddy is not a good buddy at all. Called on New Years at 6:15 and asked how long it will take for delivery, they said 1:30 to 2 hours, which is fine. They were being honest, so I thought. I asked how long for pick up. They said 45 min. Seemed fair. So I agreed to it. I arrived for my pick up on time at 7:00. They I asked for my money. I paid. I asked how long, they said there was a misunderstanding and it will be 20 minutes more. Ok understandable. Than I waited a full hour more. So it took 1 hour and 45 minutes. Away from my family on New Years. I should of just did delivery but knowing them I would not of received it on time Anyway.

I looked around and the whole time I could see everyone was tricked to come down and than told to wait way longer. I even heard people sitting down saying they hadn’t been served in an hour. They even took the phones off the hook because they realized lying to customers will back Fire. I will not go back to this restaurant for robbing my time Away from my family on New Years.

Too my surprise they left out one of my entrees when I got home.

I hope this is a lesson for Good Buddy to not over estimate your service. DO NOT tell customers 45 min and be 2 Hours.

Organize and be honest to the people who trust you with there food and...