Review: The GoodLife Restaurant By SRS (VI)
The GoodLife Restaurant By SRS | 14, A.J. Marinho Drive, Victoria Island | 09116307214 | Instagram | Reisty Link
TONI: I find that it’s been getting more and more difficult to pick a restaurant to eat at lately. With the recent streak of dining disappointments and skyrocketing prices, my heart (and wallet) just can’t handle another letdown.
I didn’t feel like jumping from Instagram page to Instagram page and I had heard about Reisty so I figured it would be easier to just look at a bunch of restaurants on one page. Not gonna lie, my plan is to just have them do all the work for me. Let someone else do the heavy lifting for a change. Seriously, the time I’ve wasted scouring Instagram for restaurant info and menus is kinda crazy.
I eventually landed on The Goodlife Restaurant, a spot that seemed vaguely familiar. The photos of the food and the ambiance looked fantastic, and with a few good reviews to boot, it felt like a safe bet. Then it hit me — Oyinda had mentioned wanting to check this place out. So, I thought, why not make it a joint review? And then I figured, "What the heck, let's get Imoteda and Nosa in on this too!"
OYINDA: Yeah, so The Goodlife Restaurant came on my radar sometime in 2022, but it wasn’t until I watched a show called Flawsome this year and they were constantly in my face that I decided to pay them a visit. Safe to say the marketing, or whatever the term is, really worked. Anyhoo, Reisty is definitely going to make my job easier because I am too tired of combing through the lengths and depths of Instagram for new restaurants to visit.
TONI: I was confused when I got there because I couldn’t figure out where the place was. The buildings all seemed residential. It turns out GoodLife is located in Pier Harbour Residences and Spa, a building that offers short let serviced apartments - hence the residential look. I was relieved to walk in and see that it was an actual restaurant and not someone’s living room.
IMOTEDA: I thought the space was pretty but extremely surface level pretty. There’s something about when Nigerians build spaces, man. First glance is great but the longer you look the more the cracks appear. From the super cheap Dollar Store lanterns to the fake plants to the paper decor… It all just had me wishing I had gotten takeout so I didn’t have to notice all the imperfections. But I get it man. It’s expensive and Nigeria is hard. I’ve seen my own restaurant so I am no one to judge!
OYINDA: I also just want to mention that whoever curated the playlist must be a die-hard Rihanna fan on a mission to convert everyone else, because they played Rihanna throughout our time there. I mean, even the OG songs and Lift Me Up, lol. I liked that the music wasn't too loud though, so we could conveniently have conversations.
TONI: Another restaurant, another QR code menu. I don’t know when my beef with QR codes started but I’m over them. It might have something to do with the fact that 9mobile never passes up a chance to embarrass me. The menu seemed overwhelming to me. It was a lot of items but nothing that I was particularly interested in. It took me a while to decide what to get. I’m pretty sure our server was sick of me but she was still pleasant.
Complimentary Bread Rolls
We got complimentary bread rolls while we waited for our food. The bread rolls were nice and warm. Definitely homemade. The one with the pepper was so so random but it was still bread so I wasn’t too upset.
IMOTEDA: The bread rolls were hot and honestly my favorite thing that I ate. I really like the addition of pepper but I am a Yoruba babe so that’s not surprising. Meanwhile these 5 gram President butter packs, how much are they now??? God! Tinubu, you will crumble!
OYINDA: I’m sorry, but I’m still standing on business about there being ABSOLUTELY no need for the chili flakes in the bread. I mean, what was the reason??? It was an unwelcome surprise for me.
Pedro Sour
TONI: I ordered the Pedro sour. I love the smokiness of ogogoro and I’m always excited to see what bars do with it. Unfortunately, I was a little forward with my order and didn’t really look at the menu. If I had, I would have seen that it was the world’s most basic cocktail - Ogogoro, lemon juice and demerara sugar syrup. It tasted exactly like what it was, an ogogoro lemonade. It was decent but not exciting so that was disappointing for me. The smoke came through but that’s expected, you can’t hide ogogoro under a bushel, abi how did they say it?
The Good Life Cocktail
IMOTEDA: I got the Good Life cocktail which was described on the menu as gin, coconut rum, lemon juice, simple syrup and Strawberry/Kiwi/Blueberry. I wasn’t sure about the last bit. Did it contain all those syrups or was I supposed to choose one? Well the server didn’t ask and when I got my drink it had none but was a brilliant blue shade that can only be achieved with copious amounts of blue curacao. Toni has a theory that no cocktail with a pastel blue shade can be good and honestly, this drink convinced me. The best thing about it was that the egg whites were shaken well so it had a great full bodied mouth feel. Aside from that? Meh.
High Life
OYINDA: I had the High Life, another signature cocktail, and I actually really liked it. It tasted a lot like a mimosa, which makes sense since it had Prosecco in it. In terms of booze, I think the Prosecco definitely overpowered the taste of the whisky and Malibu rum, but not in a bad way. The blend of pineapple and passion fruit flavours was delicious. Also, the drink was really well-mixed all in all.
OYINDA: We got the Quadruple platter as a shared starter. The mozzarella sticks on the Platter had to be the fattest mozzarella sticks known to man. It was just an overwhelming load of cheese and no flavour. I really enjoyed the Shitto Barbecue wings because it fully had that characteristic Shitto flavour I love, spicy, savoury and sweet at the same time courtesy of the honey. I think it could have been juicier though. The calamari was quite mid and the lavash was decent.
TONI: I agree with Oyinda on the platter. The mozzarella tasted like hot plastic. Without any flavor to it, it just had a gross mouthfeel. I thought the chicken wings were good but they were also over seasoned and needed some brightness. I would have squeezed a lime on them if I had the chance. The calamari and the lavash were just alright. Calamari could have done with a bit more salt.
The Beef Burger
IMOTEDA: It was burger week so I got the Beef Burger. They said it’s 2 for 1 so Oyinda got the chicken burger. I have never been so disappointed in a burger in my life. You know the nigerian ground beef that tastes like straight up ammonia? Yeah, that’s what they used and they didn’t have the decency to at least season the burger a little bit. At least put onion, let me be slightly confused about the source of the ammonia taste. The bun was really soft but unfortunately that was a negative cause the burger had zero structural integrity and was hard to eat. The cheddar was plasticky and though it looked nice and melty, it actually squeaked against my teeth when I chewed it. The burger just lacked seasoning, integrity and any “oomph”. I ate about two bites and sent it back. They were nice about it though and gave me a free cocktail to compensate. I just got a double shot of gin and tonic cause a G&T will never break my heart.
The Chicken Burger
OYINDA: My chicken burger wasn't as bad as Imoteda's but it was still pretty meh. It reminded me of a KFC burger which isn't bad, but at The Goodlife's price point, I expected a lot more. The chicken was drier than I would have liked and the whole thing just wasn't really flavourful. The thing about the bread not being firm enough to hold the burger was true for me too. I ate one half of the burger and called it a day. At least the fries were nice, crisp and well-salted.
Creamy garlic mushroom and mushroom sauce pasta
TONI: I don’t know when I became a Lagos baddie but I’ve started ordering a lot more pasta when I eat out. Today was no different. I got the creamy garlic mushroom and mushroom sauce pasta. I asked for it with penne pasta and chicken. This might have been the best thing on the table. On the first bite, I could tell that it had good flavor but they made me work really hard to find that flavor. All the flavor was in the garlic sauce, it was rich, fragrant and had actual mushrooms in it. The pasta was perfectly al dente and was adequately seasoned. In theory, it was a good dish. The problem was that the dish just did not have enough of the most important element - the mushroom sauce. I had to eat half the pasta to discover the little depository of mushroom sauce at the bottom of the bowl. The second half of the dish was much more enjoyable.
Now the chicken on the other hand was a disaster. It was extremely dry on the outside but still somehow pink on the inside. This is why chicken breasts get a bad rep. It’s like they never heard of a brine. Even the mushroom sauce could not help it. It was quite upsetting because there was an extra charge of 6,500 to add the chicken. I had to use my cocktail to push it down because it hooked inside my throat. Imoteda managed to finish it sha. That babe is very questionable.
IMOTEDA: Ngl after the disappointment with my burger, I just wanted to eat meat. One thing about me? I am always craving meat. Appaz it means I have an iron deficiency which makes sense because I am slightly anemic but whatever. With the mushroom sauce, the chicken was swallowable and I was hungry.
Asian Short Ribs
Nosa is taking “if you don’t have nothing nice to say, don’t say nothing” seriously today. All you need to know is that this piece of meat was N33,500. Do with that what you will.
TONI: Disappointed by the boring ogogoro cocktail, I decided to get something else. I ordered the Quiet Storm, a cocktail with whiskey, Martini Rosso, ginger and beer. I love whiskey, I love ginger and I love a good beer cocktail. There’s something about the bitterness and crispness that beer adds to cocktails that is so pleasant. I was looking forward to seeing how the whiskey, beer and ginger would be incorporated into the drink. Imagine my surprise when I found out that the “ginger and beer” written on the menu was actually just ginger beer. I had somehow ended up with the second most boring cocktail on their menu. Just like the Pedro sour, it was a decent cocktail but it did nothing for me. The ginger beer overpowered most of the flavors and I felt like I could have just ordered a can of ginger beer.
POSTSCRIPT
OYINDA: Not all that glitters on TV is gold, guys. I think the Goodlife had the makings of a fantastic dining experience, but ultimately just fell flat.
TONI: For such high prices, we’re going to need higher quality ingredients and more exciting cocktails.
IMOTEDA: I’m in the industry so I’m not mean by design, I empathize with the need to make a profit but it can’t be at the cost of quality. My advice to people in this economy is to stop opening restaurants. They’re just not financially viable right now. Lagosians are broker than ever and produce is more expensive than ever. A terrible combination. Sorry to The Good Life sha, they tried but at that price, it’s a little too rich and too basic for my pocket.
NOSA: Yes, the food was terrible but it didn’t seem like it was terrible by design. It’s not like anyone tries to make terrible food on purpose, but for once, we actually felt a little bad that the food sucked. You could tell the chef tried. The plating and the technique was on point-ish, but the actual food was just bad. There’s only so much you can do to a burger if the patty tastes like a Mr. Biggs patty. It’s not a skill issue, it’s a raw material issue.
VERDICT
PARKING
About 12 - 15 parking spots for the whole building
DAMAGE
Pedro Sour - 9,500
High Life - 9,500
The Goodlife - 9,500
Quiet Storm - 9,500
Quadriple Platter - 20,000
Beef Burger - 17,000
Chicken Burger - 0 (Part of the Burger week - buy one, get one free deal)
Creamy Garlic Mushroom Pasta - 15,000
Added Chicken - 6,500
Asian Short Ribs - 33,500
Small Nestle Water - 2,500
