Good Girl Dinette: Banh Mi and Pot Pie

Welcome to Free Lunch! This week we accompanied blogger and photographer Cathy Chaplin and writer Lien Ta to one of their favorite restaurants in Highland Park, Good Girl Dinette. The two women are Vietnamese-American, as is Good Girl's owner, Diep Tran, so they feel a kinship with the restaurant ... and its pot pie.

Another all-star dish on Good Girl's menu is the oyster mushroom banh mi. The mushrooms (and the jalepenos, as Cathy explained) aren't traditional ingredients in the sandwich, but the pickled vegetables and soft baguette are.

Chef Diep changes the menu seasonally, and on our visit long beans (very similar to green beans) from the farmers' market were on the menu. The beans were stir-fried in a sauce that posed a bit of a mystery to Lien and Cathy, though they suspect it was mostly Maggi Seasoning, a staple from their childhoods.

Chef Diep took some time out of her prep work to speak to us about the mission of her neighborhood restaurant, too.

Want to go on a Free Lunch? Tell us about your favorite restaurants!

Good Girl Dinette
110 N Avenue 56
Los Angeles, CA 90042
(323) 257-8980