Review: 41728 Heartlake Downtown Diner
Posted by MeganL,
For all the food themed sets that have been in the Friends line, it's surprising that there's only been one diner - 41349 Drifting Diner, and that was part of the go-kart theme. There's a new generation of Friends, so it makes sense that there's a new diner for the Friends to hang out at, which is 41728 Heartlake Downtown Diner. Interestingly enough, both sets have almost the same number of parts (345 vs 346) and 41349 was offered at the same price ($29.99 US). What else might they have in common?
Summary
41728 Heartlake Downtown Diner, 346 pieces.
£24.99 / $29.99 / €29.99 | 7.2p / 8.7c / 8.7c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
The first restaurant for the new generation in standard build
- Excellent architectural detail
- Great detailed printing on minidolls
- Disjointed scene
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Inside the box there are three numbered bags, two large half-circle plates (10x10), a 1x16 brick, an instruction book, and a small sticker sheet.
In the instructions we see where the diner is located, somewhat central to town. It looks like it might not be far away from the school, which would be very helpful for the Friends to stop by for lunch, if the offerings at the cafeteria don't suit.
Minidolls and animals
There are three minidolls in this set. Liann is colourfully dressed in a denim vest with triangular patches on the back. The vest overlays a green and white striped shirt with long white sleeves, however, the printing of the white sleeves doesn't look terrific on this model. The patches work well with her bright orange shorts and vibrant coral shoes. Aliya (and her fantastic hair) is very smartly dressed in a navy blue romper over a sleeveless white shirt and is adorned with a horseshoe pin. I still love her metallic sandals!
Charli is an employee at the diner, and their long white apron is adorned with a burger pin and a nametag. I love their pale blue spiky hair, and the blue running shoes would be a must for working in a diner all day. I wonder if they are related to Dottie, from the Drifting Diner? All the minidolls have some nice printing on the back - I especially like the details on Liann's jacket.
The minidolls come with some accessories - Liann is getting around town on a skateboard and a helmet that is colour coordinated with her shorts. Aliya looks like she could be on her lunch break with her pen and tablet.
There's also a cute cat included - Shadow, Aliya's cat. We first met Shadow in 41742 Cat Hotel, so perhaps Shadow is venturing someplace for lunch.
The completed model
The front of the diner has some classic architectural features, from the red and white roof, the coral stripes outside of the windows, and the large model of a sandwich over the front door. This diner even has a drive-through, though clearly the traffic expected is a little different for a drive through.
Shadow is featured on a "Wanted" poster on the front window. Could it be that the feline has had some felonious tendencies around the diner?
The back of the set shows some of the details in the diner, and we'll take a closer look. One detail that you can't quite see is a stickered detail next to the door indicating that Charli is a stellar employee.
On one side of the door are some classic diner activities - video games and a jukebox. I haven't put the jukebox in wrong - there's a gear on the side of the building to allow the jukebox to rock back and forth.
The combo menu is shown over the service area. There are two rolls ready for sandwiches to be made, and the nearby cooler contains various items, so customers can build their own sandwiches. Some cool drinks are close by. Different sandwich options are shown on the menu (another sticker). The table is filled out by a cash register and some cash.
The other side of the drive-through window also shows a sticker with menu options (not shown). While I like seeing the menu options, this seems like more of a deli menu than a diner - I expect to see burgers and fries at a diner.
The building is quite compact, so to enjoy their sandwiches, patrons need to bring their meal over to the very colourful booth featuring vibrant coral and teal upholstery that's a standalone build. This is quite a sandwich - I didn't see that version on the menu!
Friends aren't the only ones who enjoy sandwiches.
(Note: Sloths not included in this set, but they do match the furniture.)
Overall thoughts
This set ticks all the boxes for a diner - there's a serving area, table with sandwiches, and some really nice architectural details. However, I'm struggling with calling it a diner when it's clearly a sandwich shop. I'm thinking back to 41349 Drifting Diner that had a cooktop, burgers, fries and more items I expect to see in a diner. I'm also curious as to the Wanted poster for Shadow - perhaps this will become clear when the YouTube series starts. This set also has some interesting parts - a parts list can be found here.
The facade for the building is excellent - love the red and white roof, and the large brick built sandwich. The rocking jukebox is a really nice touch. In comparing it with 41349 Drifting Diner, the building is certainly more substantial in this set, but there are more activities and opportunities for play in 41349 (as that had a race car and a drive in cinema).
This is a decent set and I like seeing many food options in Heartlake City. However, at this price point, I have to say that the Cat Hotel is my favourite so far.
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28 comments on this article
This is such a cute little set. I love the colors and architecture, and the rocking jukebox feature is cute. It's a bit of a shame that the booth doesn't actually fit in the diner, but that's a minor complaint.
The maps of where each set is located in the instructions are an interesting feature. I'd be interested to see somebody put together a sort of composite map that shows where all the different sets are in relation to one another.
There's a 403 on the article image when you click it!
This might have been more coherent if the diner set opened up and you could put the table inside.
Such a nice little build. Friends is so good this year.
False advertising: the sandwich on the top of the building is twice as wide as the one you get.
3061 was Cafe but very similar to that new diner
It's a good enough stand-in for Tom's Diner from Seinfeld. It's about time those minifigs left Jerry's apartment.
After seeing Friends sets from this year and last year, Friends is beginning to replace Star Wars as my collection’s primary theme.
I think this set is remarkable in that it fits with the Friends theme, but could easily be worked into a City theme with few changes. This one is instantly on my "must buy" list.
We have 41379 Heartlake City Restaurant
This is so lacking for a Friends set, let alone a diner compared to either 41349 or even 3061. 3061 is similar in looks, but has so much more interior detail and food, yet it's piece count was 222 pieces. I am a huge Friends fan, but this sets seem to have been designed from someone who designed for City, very lacking.
The main downside of this set is that the purple plate is on the outside of the building, like what are those flowers even growing on? Painted grass? Carpet?
I don't know if this piece would fit on the outside , but if so , should have included it in green, olive, grey or tan or something , or left off the flowers.
https://brickset.com/parts/6377247/plate-5x5-1-4-circle-w-cut-out
Good review! This set is a great design for sure.
While I haven't seen anything official confirming it, I suspect that Charli may be the first nonbinary LEGO Friends character, since their name is pretty gender-neutral and their design features a mix of masculine- and feminine-coded traits, resulting in a very gender-ambiguous appearance. In any case, I think you made the right call by defaulting to they/them pronouns unless anything official suggests otherwise.
Liann and Aliya's outfits here really suit their personalities quite nicely, and I appreciate the back pic showing that the patches on Liann's jacket include the same raccoon motif we've seen in some of her artworks from other sets!
I love Shadow's mischievous expression, and judging from the "Wanted" poster, he's every bit the little troublemaker that his expression implies! One of the official pictures showed him looking at his own wanted poster, which immediately reminded me of this meme: https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/039/926/huhcover.jpg
The literal rocking feature of the jukebox is a great way to add play value to what would otherwise be a static fixture, and the checkerboard floor area provides some nice space for the Friends to dance along to the beat!
Unfortunately, the gorgeously constructed booth seating apparently had to be separated from the main build due to the space taken up by the jukebox and arcade game — and IMO, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to treat it as outdoor seating like how it's shown on the box art, since exposure to the elements would probably not be good for its puffy upholstery. But thanks to the set's open back, it's not hard to move it back behind the diner and assume that the walls wrap around.
I love the huge submarine sandwich and the ingredients for making other, smaller sandwiches — I don't think we've seen any other Friends restaurants with this style of countertop cooler for the veggies. Deli-style sandwiches aren't too unusual for a diner, IMO, though you're right that the menu is rarely as narrowly focused on them as in this set.
The building itself conveys the traditional, streamlined diner look brilliantly, and is nicely complemented by the sign's neon block letters and brick-built sandwich. The Bright Red and White roof give it a vintage Americana vibe, while the SNOTted Vibrant Coral columns and Bright Bluish Green horizontal stripes give it an exciting burst of color similar to 10260 Downtown Diner.
The drive-thru and its cleverly constructed signage complete the building's retro look very nicely! However, I kind of wish the brick-built driveway were omitted, since it's too narrow for anything but bikes, scooters, and skateboards like Liann's — and unlike the City road plates, it doesn't really provide any easy way to either expand it or connect it to other sets. Truth be told, I still wish LEGO would treat those road plates less like a City-specific gimmick/feature so that more sets like this one could take advantage of them.
But all in all, I think this set is a phenomenal design. Its similarities to 3061 really help this year's sets to feel like a fresh start for the theme, while the design improvements showcase how far the theme has come since its origins eleven years ago! Thanks so much for the review!
@ao_ka said:
"3061 was Cafe but very similar to that new diner"
In spite of that set's name and graphics, I think it was arguably more of a diner than a café — based not only on its architecture, but also its menu, which emphasized stuff like milkshakes and burgers over coffee or croissants. Notably, a lot of real life diners feature "cafe" in their names, especially since diners basically originated in 20th century America as a specific style of café.
Set 41426 from 2020 had much more traditional café vibes than the original City Park Cafe. Granted, neither set included any coffee service (in spite of the coffee cup graphics on their signs), presumably because LEGO preferred to focus on drinks that appealed more to the KFOL target audience. But the 2020 version focused more on breakfast foods like waffles with strawberry jam than on "fast food" like burgers with mustard and ketchup. It also stuck strictly to outdoor café seating, rather than diner-style booth seating.
@ToysFromTheAttic said:
"It's a good enough stand-in for Tom's Diner from Seinfeld. It's about time those minifigs left Jerry's apartment."
Nothing is finer than being at your diner.
Quick question, what's with all the sloths I've been seeing in all the reviews lately?
This a great small set. Love the interior. Mini-builds galore. Excellent stuff. Great to incorporate into any city.
Exterior is great and has that friends level of detail but the colour of the floor isn’t my favourite and the interior detail is a little lacklustre imo, drifting diner was way better and funner
the friends stuff would be tempting if it wasn't for the horrible Minifigures
I’m pretty sure I have a diner from series one in a box somewhere. Or was it a bakery?
Who buys a combo meal with two drinks?
How well does this work with minifigs, rather than minidolls?
So the main complaint about this set was not enough burgers and fries and too much salad?
Grease is the word.
@Bornin1980something said:
"How well does this work with minifigs, rather than minidolls?"
100% compatible, I don't see any minidoll specific accesoires or seats etc, beside the dolls included themselves, but the hair/helm pieces can still be used.
I REALLY wish Lego stopped doing small additional builds that have no way to be part of main model.
While I'm not interested in the theme, sets contained within it are lovely and playful looking, increasingly so, I'd say. Thanks for the review!
@lordofdragonss said:
"I REALLY wish Lego stopped doing small additional builds that have no way to be part of main model."
Agree, this should have been built on different plates, either a deeper back or stair for the seating area. Different plates would also solve the flowers growing on purple carpet, it just looks weird for a 2023 set when most other sets nowadays have grass or a street outside.
I think the Simplest MOD would be to have the 2 10x10 plates, then the 6x10 plate inbetween and then add some bricks to expand the wall, so it becomes a 26x10 floorplan instead of the current 20x10 + 6x10 side bit.
This was already on my wanted list, but seeing that jukebox function has sealed the deal. And of course Charli is Employee of the Month: they're apparently the only employee there!