Good Girl Dinette: In Highland Park, why not Vietnamese comfort food?

spicy jalapeno fries, Good Girl Dinette

I was so glad when Good Girl Dinette opened in Highland Park, because it's an up-and-coming area that really needed some variety in its restaurants. I was there for the soft opening a year ago, and it's gotten even better since then with longer hours and a few really solid dishes like the crazy good spicy fries. Here's an excerpt from my review for this month's Los Feliz Ledger.

Good Girl Dinette is a perfect snapshot of Highland Park at this moment
—incrementally gentrifying, but still a humble, unflashy place. Owner/chef Diep Tran cooked at Eagle Rock’s Blue Hen and ran a catering company before starting Good Girl a year ago. The high-ceilinged space is spare and a bit echoey; dinner here (or lunch on weekends) feels like getting invited to an impromptu dinner party at a cool loft-dwelling friend’s house.

Good Girl Dinette's famous chicken curry pot pie

The menu covers a range of familiar Vietnamese dishes with a few ventures into the diner category—from banh mi baguette sandwiches, to pho noodle soup, spring rolls and main dishes served with white or brown rice. Most order the chicken curry pot pie ($10), which takes 30 minutes to cook. It’s a good choice, with chunks of chicken in a mellow curry sauce hiding under a flaky disc of biscuit dough.
Don’t miss the spicy fries, topped with a flurry of diced jalapeno, chopped garlic and cilantro—order them with cilantro-Maggi mayo on the side. Beef stew ($10) sounds prosaic, but balanced five-spice powder seasoning, chunks of carrot and good quality beef cubes lift elevate it. Drinks include Vietnamese coffee or housemade citrus soda; and there’s free corkage.
Good Girl Dinette
110 N. Ave. 56
Highland Park
323-257-8980