Bright, airy and spacious, The Good Girls Dinette comes to the heart of Highland Park with the concept, “American Diner Meets Vietnamese Comfort Food,” and lives up to its billing as a relaxed dining experience with healthy choices and an interesting take on Southeast Asian flavors.

Under high ceilings and in a very well-lit room, the Dinette seats about 50 at its tables and five more at a counter. The Dinette’s hallmark is freshness: you can taste fresh, quality ingredients in every dish. And though the menu is minimalistically uncluttered, there’s a good balance of meat and vegetarian dishes, with the menu items split evenly between the two. The vegetarians in our neighborhood should be especially happy with the Dinette’s offerings.

The menu divides offerings under the headings “starters and salads” “rice dishes,” “noodles and soups” and “baguettes.”

“Starters and salads” include delicious fresh spring rolls ($6.25), a platter of six small fresh rolls of rice paper wrapped around thin noodles, fried tofu, lettuce, carrots and mint. An accompanying smooth peanut sauce sets off the sweet-savory taste of the rolls wonderfully. As an alternative, the mushroom imperial rolls ($5.50) featured mushroom, onion and herbs wrapped in rice paper and deep-fried to a very pleasurable crisp. A shredded carrot garnish set off the dish and a soy dip served as a delicious accompanying sauce.

The signature dish of Vietnamese cuisine is pho noodles, and Good Girls Dinette offers both chicken and vegetarian versions. Their “Grandma’s Pho,” consists of a large bowl of steaming noodles and veggies swimming in a rich chicken broth and chock full of chicken chunks, scallions and bean sprouts ($9). The vegetarian version is served in a vegetable broth.

Another standout on the menu was the Vietnamese chicken curry ($10). Listed as a rice dish, it was a very complete meal, with tender chunks of chicken, diced carrots, locally grown sautéed greens served with a generous helping of brown rice (white rice is available).

Of the baguettes on the menu, there are just two offerings—galangal chicken and roasted oyster mushroom-- on the menu (though in our second visit, they added a third sandwich with pork ($8).) We tried the pork and found the baguette itself to be wonderfully soft, the lean but juicy pork slices thin and topped with cilantro to create a terrific juxtaposition of tastes.

Strawberry crostata dessert ($6) features fresh farmer’s market strawberries swimming in light simple syrup in a cup of crisp pastry. Other desert alternatives were a maple bread pudding and an almond jelly.

In its early weeks, the drink menu was limited to three versions of home-made sodas, a tall, refreshing glass of sparking water flavored with fresh lime, orange or grapefruit and a helping of simple syrup ($3.50). The lime was a particularly effective accompaniment to some of the spicy menu entries. (The restaurant plans to add additional drink offerings n the near future).

Service is informal but attentive and the wait staff were both knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the menu’s selections.

Owner Chef Diep Tran, who was most recently a partner at Eagle Rock’s Blue Hen Restaurant, has created the first Vietnamese restaurant to venture into the Figueroa corridor and presents a very welcome addition to the growing portfolio of ethnic offerings available in our neighborhood. It's very much worth a visit.

Open for dinner, Tuesday, Sunday 6pm-10pm (until 11pm on Friday and Saturday)
Open for lunch, Saturday and Sunday, 11am-3pm
110 N. Avenue 56. Tel: 323-257-8980