Good Girl Dinette

On my quest for a perfect bowl of bun (vermicelli noodle salad) for the last 10 years, I must say that this place is on my top 3. Every single ingredient in this dish is done just right. Roasted whole peanuts, fried shallots, organic spring greens, basil, pickled daikon and carrots, charred pork chilling in the fish sauce, al dente chilled vermicelli noodles. Each ingredient has just the right ratio to the other ingredients — which I love so that i can build a perfect bite with all of them until I hit the bottom of the bowl. Most places give too much or not enough protein, noodles, or greens– nope, not here. This bowl of charred pork bun was just perfection… organic produce, good quality pork, and an authentic take to a classic Vietnamese dish.

I was hangry in Highland Park so without hesitation I selected Good Girl Dinette for breakfast.
I was in a different mood that morning because on any normal day my gut would tell me «don’t eat at this lousy fusion Asian restaurant.»
The Vietnamese fusion restaurant is owned by Diep Tran, who is the niece of the owners of the Phở 79 Vietnamese restaurant chain. I can appreciate that the owner knows Vietnamese cuisine and opened this restaurant with her unique «old-​school diner» Vietnamese fusion twist.
I took the leap and walked in. I immediately noticed the hip clientele and servers, the post-​modern furnishings and the indie music. I felt like I was transported back to Portland.
After asking recommendations, I was told that the banh mi or phở was what to get. I wanted the chicken pot pie, but that would take 30 minutes to bake I was told.
Intrigued by their brunch menu, I ordered their breakfast banh mi. I love breakfast food and I love banh mi, so I thought it would be something I would love.
I ordered the house farmers market grapefruit soda with my breakfast sandwich. I trusted my server when she told me to get the mushrooms, bacon, and soft scrambled egg in the sandwich.
Once presented to me I was excited to try the sandwich. After the first bite, I was in breakfast food ecstasy and an immediate convert to the idea of fusion. I told myself at that moment that I can do fusion. I can do non-​traditional Asian food now. It was that good. I didn’t care if my server wasn’t Vietnamese or that my servers were friendlier than my average Vietnamese restaurant.
The gourmet breakfast banh mi was excellent. The Vietnamese flavors mixed with breakfast food to the crunch of the baguette, I was sold. The house grapefruit soda was awesome as well.
I don’t think you can go wrong with choosing either the gourmet banh mi or phở here.
Yes, I loved Good Girl Dinette! Yes, I finally love the idea of Asian fusion!

I can say this place was good. But unfortunately nowhere near amazing.
We had the chicken curry, pork banh mi, and spicy fries.
Chicken curry was very weak in flavor in comparison to traditional curry. In fact everything here was weak in flavor in comparison to how it should be. I think it’s like a hipster thing. To serve weaker food so that it’s like «healthy» «organic». Anyways, the curry came out just luke warm. Before we could finish, it was cold.
The pork banh mi was okay. No bold flavors or anything special really. Very light and dainty. Nice texture though.
The fries were probably my favorite, tossed in jalapeño and garlic. Came with two sauces, one soy cilantro mayo aioli, the other irrelevant and tasteless.
Next time I come I have to show the chef this thing called salt. It’s actually very good when used correctly in food.
The place itself was cute, definitely could use some professional interior design work though.

They take way too long to make simple food that tastes alright, they brought out my dish 10 minutes before my dining partners, our waiter was too busy on his phone to bring us our check. Take that extra time you’ll save and drive to Xoia in Echo Park if you’re looking for a hipster Vietnamese place.

I’ve eaten here a handful of times now, and each time I come away feeling slightly disappointed.
The good– Staff is very friendly. Spicy fries are delicious and so is the coleslaw. The fact that you can get «small appetites» versions of items is rad. I’m also into BYOB.
Not so good– Despite being friendly, service was very slow. I’ve had veggie phở and veggie porridge and each time felt it was pretty bland. Veggie phở came with a chili oil I was excited about but it didn’t really work. My boyfriend ordered pork banh mi and was disappointed with portion size of the meat. At $ 11 for a historically cheap Vietnamese sandwich, he expected a bit more.

Great food and they never close! Perfect for a late lunch! Try the imperial mushrooms rolls, phenomenal! The half pint phở is great as well and really filling.

My friend lives right around the corner from this place and it was where she wanted to go to celebrate her birthday, so of course, I obliged. I realized when I got there that I had actually been there before with her, but I guess it was rather unmemorable.
This time was about the same – unmemorable. They were pretty busy when I arrived to grab a table for the five of us before my friends arrived, so I started to grab two smaller tables that we could pull together, but when I asked a server if that was okay, he informed me that they had a larger group waiting for a table first. My friends arrived about five minutes after, and we waited about another 10 minutes to be seated. Not too bad, but the staff was really unorganized about it.
Once we sat down, it took another solid 7 minutes for anyone to come over to greet us, which is way too long. The server was not unpleasant once he made it over to us, but wasn’t very friendly either. We ordered and I told them to not hold up the rest of everyone’s food because my chicken pot pie was supposed to take 30 minutes to bake according to the menu, and my boyfriend, who can’t have gluten, was able to order their phở, which he hadn’t had in a loooong time. We also ordered their spring rolls appetizer and my friends ordered a large plate of fries and tofu rice cakes as appetizers.
My friends’ appetizers came in about 10 – 15 minutes, and our entrees arrived in about the same amount of time after that, without us ever having received our spring rolls. My pot pie made it out at the same time as everyone else’s food, which was great, and the server who dropped off our food noticed that we our appetizer was missing without us having to say so.
The chicken pot pie wasn’t so great – they top it with a biscuit that was too dry and too thick in proportion to the actual contents, and the sauce almost tasted like a curry… and not creamy at all. My boyfriend was sadly unimpressed with his phở as well, but the spring rolls were some of the best I’ve had! And the tofu rice cakes that my friends ordered were by far the best thing on the table.
As far as drinks were concerned, we were allowed to bring in our own beer, for which our server provided glasses immediately once he greeted us and offered us water. It’s technically illegal to offer water to guests in restaurants in California right now, but we wanted them anyway. The glasses didn’t stay full very well at the beginning of our meal, but that improved as it continued and as business died down a bit. When we were ready to go, the server processed our payment quickly, so I appreciate that as well.
Overall, service was not so good in the beginning, but got better as the business died down. They were just understaffed. The bill ended up being about $ 85 for the five of us – that’s five entrees, three appetizers… definitely not a bad price! I just wish that our entrees had tasted better, but the appetizers were great.
Will I return here? Only when my friends want to… but I’d have to try something different to hopefully enjoy it better.

Nice menu; more expensive than other Vietnamese, but I guess you pay for the fusion concept. Got the pork salad. Meat was great, but there were 100x more bean sprouts than any other element (even dressing). The fries were delicious though!

Clearly a faux «Vietnamese» restaurant for white people who know not what real Vietnamese food is. Sorry, but really. Like, really. Quality of food was meh: The chicken phở had LITERALLY 2 tiny thumbnail-​sized BITS of chicken meat, the broth was rather bland, and prices were higher than what you’d find in the San Gabriel Valley.
Moral of the story: Don’t be lazy! Drive down to the SGV and go to a Vietnamese restaurant where 99.99 999% (if not 100%) of the customers are Asian! Geezus, I can’t believe I even have to say this.

My friend SZ has been raving on and on about how good the brunch is here, so I have been wanting to try this amazing brunch for a long time. Thrillist also wrote about the brunch, so it has to be good. So my friend JC and I came here after church one Sunday to try their brunch… unfortunately, because we had gone to a later church service, we did not make it here until 5 minutes before brunch ended. Which meant we would have to order off their lunch menu :(Brunch is served here on weekends from 10AM-​3PM, with lunch/​dinner servied Tuesdays through Sundays from 11AM until 9:30/10PM. Paid parking is available in two lots nearby.
I had prepared myself on what brunch items to order, so I was at a loss looking at the lunch menu. In the end my friend and I got the following to share:
– SLOW-​ROASTED PORK BANH MI: pickled daikon & carrots, cilantro-​maggi mayo; spicy fries or slaw; add red boat bacon to any sandwich, +$ 2.50
The banh mi itself was $ 11; the spicy fries (with chiles, garlic, and cilantro) are included in the cost but we added their cilantro-​maggi mayo for $ 1. The fries were pretty good and I liked the mayo – I’m glad we got it even though it cost extra. The banh mi, however, was just okay. And for $ 11 it should be a lot MORE than okay since better banh mi sandwiches can be found in the SGV for a LOT cheaper. We were pretty bitter about the pricing on this sandwich.
– CHICKEN POT PIE: savory curry topped with a buttermilk biscuit; please allow 30 minutes for pies to bake
This seemed like it would be a really good dish so we waited the 30 minutes for it to be prepared. We did not realise how large it would be so we each ordered one – that was our first mistake. No, actually, our first mistake was ordering this dish to begin with. Ordering two of them was our second mistake. It ended up being like a soupy chicken curry and both of us hated it. JC forced herself to finish it but she was SO unhappy the entire time. I decided to bring most of it home so I could try to fix it.
While the brunch here might be amazing, the food for lunch/​dinner is most definitely NOT. My friend JC is still traumatised by this place and refuses to come back; I still want to try their brunch though to see if they can be redeemed. Two stars for now, but hopefully once I come for brunch I will be able to update my review to a higher star rating.

ahhh my dreams have been crushed ;) not literally but very disappointed.
I’ve been here several times for dine in and LOVE their mushroom banh mi. Mushroom imperial rolls are decent. Last time I had the Phở the beef was rubbery and fully cooked but the broth was barely luke warm.
Service has always been mediocre, but I go in with those expectations so that’s ok.
I decided to give them another try tonight, but do take out — GOOD LUCK with that. I’ve called five times in the last 20 minutes and it goes straight to voicemail. It’s like they took the phone off the hook.
What a bummer. This place had potential.

This review is for chicken curry only.
The presentation of food was fancy, portion of food was rather small due to setting dishes.
Most importantly, chicken was double cooked. It seemed that they used cooked chicken to make curry which made the meat smell came out.

Looks can be quite deceiving. The food looks great in pictures, but when you factor everything else in like service time and food portions, Good Girl Dinette disappoints. I was really hoping this place would be good so I didn’t have to travel so far to the SGV.
They only had their breakfast menu at the time I came in so they were limited by the food selection. The only thing that really peaked my interested was the beef phở which is an additional dollar extra according to the menu. Also, their breakfast menu only offers the pint sized phở so you need to opt for the regular sized phở. When my «regular» sized phở came out after waiting 20 minutes, I was disappointed by the portion size. If I had gotten the pint sized portion, I would have definitely needed to order more. Even the regular sized portion is small compared to a traditional Vietnamese restaurant. Also, phở is made relatively quick. It shouldn’t have taken +20 minutes.
Then, when I had my first sip of broth, it was luke warm and somewhat bland. This is not how I wanted to start my Sunday. Well, as I am writing this review, I am still hungry after eating that «regular» beef phở.

An absolute catastrophe. Hostess acted mega bummed to see us. Food took over an hour to arrive. When it did, it was heinous. And it was Phở? How hard is it to make that in less than an hour? How did it manage to be so gross? Unsolved mysteries.
The cook quit while we sat there because the boss was yelling at him like he was subhuman. She was literally abusive. I woulda quit too. Good for him!
THE rudest waitress of my life. If it sucks that much to work here take a cue from the cook and walk out. Don’t take it out on me.
I’ve never hated a place so much in my life. Shame on this place.

I hate to say it but the food here really isn’t that good. It’s really a ²⁄₅ star food wise.
I ordered the phở and it was… not very good (²⁄₅). The broth tasted quite different from traditional phở and not in a good way. My friend got the curry and the curry was watery and tasteless (¹⁄₅). Another friend got wings and said they were mediocre (³⁄₅). And my last friend got the spring rolls and said it was pretty decent (probably ³⁄₅).
The spicy fries though were quite decent (⁴⁄₅).
The atmosphere and ambiance of the place is quite good though. Pity the food doesn’t match.

Drive 10 min towards downtown and get a real bowl of phở from a few authentic phở spot in Chinatown.
Came on Fri night st 6pm for dinner with the family. First off, it is very hipster here. Purely an observation.
Service was slow, in spite of the restaurant being half full.
To our dismay, and due to it being out of season, corn was not available.
Ordered :
Chicken egg rolls
Fried tofu appetizer
Beef phở
Chicken porridge
Pork noodle salad
Phở was mediocre at best. Small portion, oily soup, not a lot of flavor.
Porridge had way too much ginger.
Pork noodle salad was the best thing we ate.
We also asked for a little bowl of extra broth for the kids… was charged $ 3.
The only nice option here is BYOB.
Small portions, slow service, expensive prices. Won’t be coming back!

I have eaten here many times and was very hesitant to try since I grew up with Vietnamese food. Needless to say, this place is awesome… good service and food doesn’t have MSG that makes you want to pass out after. I recommend the chicken egg rolls to start, followed by a bowl of either the porridge or noodles. Best part about this place is BYOB! Come by and try it out, highland park is a swank scene!

I must say that I am a bit shocked that this place only has 3.5 stars. I have ate at Good Girl Dinette a few times now and have never been disappointed. The last time I ate at Good Girl I ordered the Roasted Oyster Mushroom Bahn Mi and boy oh boy that sandwich exceeded my expectations. It was super hearty and delicious and had the most amazing flavor. The garlic fries were pretty damn delicious as well! I have also had their Phở which I also thought was really good. I have also consistently had good service as well.
So, all I can say is that I hope you give this place a chance and don’t judge it by the amount of stars it has. It is definitely worth trying!

Ive been living around the bend from this place for years now, and just tried it the other day, for a lonesome Friday lunch. The location is perfect, in an old Highland Park brick building, but tucked into one of the avenues, right off Figueroa, so it is shaded, cool and quiet. The whole storefront is glass, which is nice to sit next to, and have a view of the street. I’ve only had their tofu banh mi, which came with a delicious order of garlic fries, so I’ll have to update this later, when I’ve tried more of their menu, but for now I can say the atmosphere is super pleasant, and the food I’ve had satisfied me perfectly.

Let’s be real… I ain’t the biggest fan of fusion.
And I FOR REAL tread carefully with Asian fusion. That shit should be illegal. With Asian food, even though there are similarities, I respect the cuisine of each culture individually (Korean food being my least favorite), so when I heard about Good Girl Dinette, and not knowing what to expect, I had my guard up. My heart wasn’t completely open. You know.
But that Curry Pot Pie, tho.
And that Pork Confit.
And those fresh Spring Rolls.
Made a grown woman believe!
Curry pot pie had a nice buttery crust to it and a stock/​gravy with a wonderful dark yellow (?) curry smokiness that was unbelievable. Absolutely wonderful. Yes, Curry. Yes. The curry flavor was very present but not too overwhelming, and that shit was served super hot. Packed full of fresh veggies and cubed potatoes… I’m talking love, Unilocal.
The pork confit was very, very concentrated and strong in flavor (since most confits are reduced heavily when cooking… with this one almost resembling a pork glaze) so a little went a long way. Mixed with the brown rice, The sweet and salty, robust and tangy concentrated soy sauce and vinegar??? flavor paired absolutely well. Or so I thought! Remember: A little goes a long way.
The spring rolls were so light with carrots, cabbage, mixed greens and glass noodles. The dipping sauce was tangy and sweet. Together they came to play ball. I could have eaten them all day.
Your coconut bread pudding? Eh… it was alright. Kind of amateur, and the presentation was sorely lacking. Serve it hot. Crisp the edges and the top next time to add a little texture. Give it more butter, and garnish it with the coconut glaze yourself. Bring the dish together better.
I still have yet to try other menu items, but you are easily in the top five of my favorite dining spots in LA. Sooooo glad that it wasn’t Asian fusion with only other Asian foods. Some Asian/​French. Some Asian/​American. And it seems to work here. I love you, I’m telling everyone about you, and I’m coming back. Believe that.