Good Ha is located in the same strip mall as Red Ribbon Bakery, another Pilipino establishment, which I will have to go to on another visit. Good Ha is a mini version w/ less selections of Turo Turo on Santa Monica Blvd. in East Hollywood . Turo Turo is also the general word for cafeteria style serving since Turo Turo means "point, point" where the customer orders by pointing to the displayed food item.
Good Ha has no obvious price listings, & although the prices are reasonable, you will have to ask the staff for specific prices. The cafeteria style food in the stainless steel chafing dishes have no labels as to the name of the dish you are ordering. To say the least, very informal, or critically, rather lackadaisical in not informing customers on needed information. In this respect, Good Ha basically caters to a Pilipino cuisine savvy clientele who already knows what the foods are called & what they are made from. Service here is not unfriendly & perfunctory.
1) Empanada na Manok: Basically chopped up potato, onions, sautéed chicken pieces which are a bit over cooked & dry in barely discernible, sweet meat sauce w/ a touch of dried thin red chile flakes. The usual bit of plumped raisins is missing here. The pastry shell is rather sweet, dense, heavy, chewy indicating a rustic, home style touch w/ a bit of butter & an egg wash on top to create an appetizing golden brown hue. This empanada is rather pedestrian. At this point, Valerio's Bakery on Sta. Monica Blvd. in E. Hollywood may be better.
2) Pancit Bihon: Thin rice vermicelli also known as maifun in Chinese cooking is sautéed w/ vegetables & slices of pork. There was a bit of wheat based chow mein style noodles which were boiled to the point of mushy tastelessness. Unfortunately, the cabbage was over cooked or left in the chafing dish so long that it looked extremely limp & discolored while the meat was overcooked & dried out for the same reason. It was so "old" tasting, I had to throw it away which is really rare since I don't like to waste food. The white steamed rice is good here...cooked just right so it is a touch al dente w/ a sweet almost nuttiness.
3) Kaldereta: Long simmered beef which made it tender w/ a bit of a nice chaw. I'm usually used to tomato sauce which leaves a more delicate tomato gastrique being used, but the Good Ha version seems to be braised in something that is closer to ketchup & a touch of American style tomato based barbeque sauce that added a bit of smokiness. It took me a while to get used to the heavier, stronger, sweeter, ketchup tasting spice mix, but once I got into the swing of things, it was a good variation.
4) Ground Pork: They wouldn't tell me the Pilipino name. It was a more subtle dish mostly flavoured w/ Patis/fish sauce w/ bits of starchy, lightly earthy Kabocha/Japanese squash for subtle sweetened emphasis. Also augmented by a bit of frozen peas & carrots for color. Nice item to put over a bowl of rice.
Surprisingly, I must say that I have had excellent Turo Turo at Phil-Am market in of all places Cathedral City near Palm Springs. Prices at Phil-Am are comparable, but there is a consciousness of a more refined cooking style in terms of cooking technique & flavor combinations. However, Good Ha seems more like the unsophisticated country cousin version. 3- Yelp stars. read more