Author: Annie Ewbank & Adam Levy
The name “Good Girl Dinette” isn’t evocative of any particular cuisine, but this one-year-old Highland Park eatery’s tagline reads: “American diner meets Vietnamese comfort food.” Though we’re usually wary of so-called “fusion” restaurants (hamburger-sushi, anyone?), the dinette’s food makes traditional Vietnamese food cool and – dare we say – comforting.
We went in expecting good things from the Good Girl, as it was recently listed in the L.A. Weekly’s 99 Essential L.A. restaurants and was started by Diep Tran, the founder of the excellent Blue Hen located on Colorado Boulevard. The restaurant itself is tucked in a side street near the center of Highland Park. It’s an unassuming dining room embellished with just a few splashes of bright orange, but the surrounding brick walls and the large windows are decoration enough. When we went on a surprisingly busy Tuesday night, there were only two waiters tending to a sizable crowd of Vietnamese families, fedora-ed hipsters and Oxy students.
Our food took awhile to arrive, and it was torturous to be basking in the noodley herb aromas emanating from the kitchen while we waited. In the meantime, we had our drinks: hand-made orange soda and Vietnamese-style coffee.
The house-made pop ($2.75) consists of either a mandarin or blood orange crushed into a glass of soda water, and nothing else. Though we probably would have liked it sweeter, we appreciated the simplicity of fruit and water. The coffee ($3.50) was blacker than pitch with a generous spoonful of condensed milk, incredibly strong but not bitter at all.
After half an hour of staring longingly at all the wonderful food the waiters were carrying past our table, our order arrived. The beef stew ($10.00) with carrots, onion and Vietnamese five-spice was complex and rich, almost sweet-tasting. The meat was cooked to that perfect melt-in-your mouth texture, no chewing required. Their pork bahn mi or baguette sandwiches ($9.00) were also good, if not quite comparable with their two-dollar Vietnamese dive counterparts; the pork was thick and fatty, instead of lean and shaved thin, and the pickled daikon and carrot was shredded feathery instead of in crunchy slices.
In addition to its main menu, the dinette had an equally exciting “For small appetites” section – miniature portions of the restaurant’s signature dishes at reduced prices. Two of these makes for a meal – like the pint-size pho ($5.00) and small fries ($3.00). These fries reminded us of the garlic fries of our youth, but with chiles, cilantro and sweet rice vinegar for dipping. They are spicy enough to make you wish they had come with a side of tissues. But no matter how painful it got, they were so good we couldn’t stop eating.
Another one of our favorite dishes was the Good Girl’s porridge. In many countries, porridge is traditionally touted as medicinal, and we bet that the Good Girl’s porridge ($7.50) would cure anything. Served with add-ins of lime, bean sprouts, Vietnamese basil and jalapenos, the brown rice porridge was strangely reminiscent of oatmeal, but studded with poached chicken and sprinkled with scallions. With all that chicken broth and vitamin C, it would be an awesome, tasty cold-buster.
For dessert, we had the maple coconut bread pudding ($5.00). Served warm with a dollop of homemade whipped cream, it was both subtly sweetened and flavored. It tasted, we agreed, like a hug.
The Good Girl Dinette is the perfect place for a relaxed dinner with friends. Their food is tasty, creative and fresh, and it is an excellent restaurant for those who haven’t had Vietnamese food before. Comfort food as good as this should be universally enjoyed.
The Good Dinette is located at 110 North Avenue 56, Highland Park. It is open Tuesday to Thursday 5:30 – 9:30 p.m., Friday 5:30 – 10 p.m., Saturday noon – 10 p.m. and Sunday noon – 9 p.m. For more information, visit www.goodgirlfoods.com.
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