Eating Out: Loving Hut

A couple of months ago, my wonderful friend Leigh visited Brisbane with her partner, for three days of glorious eating fun times! They were staying near me, which meant that I could kidnap them and drive them around to all the food places. For Saturday lunch, we went to Loving Hut. Loving Hut opened in Brisbane shortly after I moved back from uni, which was helpful because it was right around the corner from the clinic I was mostly at when I was still an intern (I still work at that clinic once a fortnight, but I mostly work out of one of our other clinics now). I have a soft spot for it, and have eaten all of the menu (except the stir-fried veggies because I can do that at home). I don't go quite as often anymore, but I still enjoy it when I do! Leigh and I had a hilarious dinner there many years ago where we ate so much that I had to literally lie down on the seat, so it is fond memories for us as well. As added excitement, there was also a bake sale fund raiser going on that day for Farm Animal Rescue, so there were some treats to be had! We met up with two of our other friends and their daughter for lunch, and a lot of food was ordered!

I love their Summer Rolls ($7.80), which are always fresh and tasty.



I ordered their Lasagne ($13.99), which is not one of my two regular dishes (normally I always order Beijing Black Bean or Seven Seas). I do love lasagne, but I keep forgetting that they top theirs with a weird sweet white sauce, that kind of tastes like Kingland Soy Mayo.



They also have a Rawsome Spaghetti dish ($9.90), which Brendan and Diana ordered. I am rarely if ever into raw zucchini, but if that floats your boat the option is there.



Brendan also ordered the Sweet and Sour Nuggets ($13.20). These were the first thing that I ever ordered from there, all those years ago! It also reminded me that, except for very specific circumstances, I don't really like sweet and sour. However, if you are into deep fried nuggets and sweet and sour sauce, I have it on good authority that this is a good one!



Leigh and J ordered the Norther Pan Bread ($7.50) and the Heavenly Salad ($9.90), which are polar opposites but two of my favourite things. The pan bread is oily, carby, salty deliciousness. And the heavenly salad is so wonderfully fresh, light and crunchy.

Diana got the Crispy Yum, which is a sweet and slightly spicy sauce on fried 'chicken' chunks, with rice and some crisp greens.



I love the Rosella Iced Tea ($6.90) to drink, it is sweet and refreshing.



Leigh and J ordered the Tom Yum Fried Rice ($12.80).



And the Loving Wrap ($13.99). I used to order this a lot early on. It is like a beancurd omelette wrapped around a tofu and veggie filling.



It was a really nice lunch catching up with everyone. And we grabbed a couple of things from the bake sale, but I didn't take any photos. I made a few things for the bake sale as well, which was fun!

I have a couple of other photos from recent Loving Hut meals kicking around, so I thought I'd just share them here as well. This is the Peking Luck, which is a delicious duck pancake. It was a special, and I am not sure they have it anymore, but I would recommend it if they do.



For a brief and glorious time they also had hot cinnamon sugar doughnuts, which were quite lovely. But they seem to be gone now. Boo!



And we had our ALQ volunteer meeting there a couple of months ago, where I ordered one of my favourites. The Seven Seas Delight is meant to be vegan fish... but it is not gross like I find most vegan fish and seafood. Instead it is just nicely seaweedy in flavour, with a nice sauce and is served with rice and veggies.



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Leigh has a love for all her kitty nieces, but has a particular draw to Sahara. Sahara is very alluring. Here she is, looking very smug because she has managed to get onto her grandparents' bed for a snooze.

Eating Out: Loving Hut Christmas Buffet

Hello friends, and happy new year! it has ticked over to 2018 here in Brisbane. I was asleep by 9.30 last night, but I will have some fun food to share with you soon. But first, I though that I should blog about some of the Christmas special dinners that I ate out at. There were two, but the first was the Christmas Buffet at Loving Hut. They normally have a buffet every year for both Mother's Day and Christmas, but this was the first time I'd ever been to one. I was pretty excited. It was $35 for all you could eat! The Christmas one was actually held at the start of December, and there was nothing really Christmas about the food, but it was good.

First up here are some photos of all the food stations at the buffet. A lot of the plates and bain maries are a bit empty, trust me when I say they replaced them frequently and the food just kept on coming and coming. But this was the only chance I had to grab some photos without a line of people in the way.

















And here is my first plate, I got a little bit of most of the things. It was pretty good! Though as you can see, most of the fried appetisers were just sitting out on plates, so they got cold and soggy pretty fast. It would have been good if they could have kept them hot. On the side is some mojito iced tea.



I was disappointingly pretty full after that first plate, though really there was a lot on it. But I went back for some seconds. Mostly for the Singapore Noodles. They used to have them on the regular menu and they were my favourite! Then they took them off, and no matter the number of times I put 'bring them back' in the suggestion box they never did. Except, apparently, for buffet nights. They were as good as I remembered, and I wish I could have fit more in!!! I also got a little bit of salad, because I am a vegan after all. Hee.



Dessert for me was mostly about the carrot cake, which was so good! I don't know why they don't have this all the time, as their regular desserts are pretty meh and I never get them. I also had a little cup of sago pudding, which was nice but I had to limit myself due to the coconut content.



I wish I could have fit more in, because they just kept refilling everything! I saw some people with take away containers, so I think next time I might bring some along to take some home. Especially if they have singapore noodles! Definitely keen to try out the Mother's Day one next year.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Who remembers Aurora, the sweet little kitten who took far too long to get a home? And then she finally went home with a wonderful client. Well, she came back to board with us over Christmas! She is a grown up girl now! But still so sweet, it was lovely to see her again.

Eating Out: Loving Hut Brisbane

It's been a while since I've posted about Loving Hut in Brisbane, which in part is because it has been a while since I've been there. I used to eat there all the time, I worked my way through most of the menu, but then I needed a bit of a change. With so many other vegan and vegan friendly places popping up all over, it is only natural that I would need to branch out and explore. Lately, however, I have been in the vicinity with limited time and in need of a yummy lunch, so Loving Hut has been back on my radar. You can see some previous posts about Loving Hut visits here.

My favourite of the mains is the Beijing Black Bean, which has beefy style TVP strips in a delicious savoury sauce. Also in this photo you can see the Salt and Pepper Mushroom, which is a whole field mushroom battered and fried in salt and pepper style. The S&P can vary, but thankfully this was a good one. And I love the pickles they serve it with.



The Summer Rolls are probably my favourite thing on the menu. They are so light and delicious, served with a hoisin sauce.



They have occasional specials, like this Vermicelli Salad. I got the Gluten Free version, not because I am gluten free but because the gluten free version came with tofu and I will always choose tofu. This was great for lunch on a hot day.



Sometimes, you just need potatoes. They serve potato wedges with tartare sauce. But I must remember not to get these again. The wedges were not very well cooked, and I needed lots more sauce.



Finally, their Steamed BBQ Buns. I love these! There's are on the smaller side, but still have lots of flavour. For some reason they serve them with sweet chilli sauce, which seems like a weird combination even if I did like spicy stuff. So I skip that and just enjoy the buns.



Loving Hut - Shop 2/1420 Logan Road, Mount Gravatt, Queensland

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post

Eating Out*: Loving Hut

*Before COVID.

Loving Hut in Brisbane was one of the first vegan restaurants to open when I moved back, and it was right near the location I was working at that time. It was fate! I ate there so much initially. Then I started to explore other places as they opened, and would just pop back in every now and then. But at the start of this year, I found myself going back more and more. You can see other posts I have made about Loving Hut here.

Two of my favourite things - Summer Rolls and Beijing Black Bean.



I tried this fun Green Tea Frappe one day. It was good, though the whipped cream they used on top was coconut based so I didn't eat that.



I am generally not a huge fan of the desserts there. When they first opened they had really nice desserts, but then they just kind of went meh. But they have started having carrot cake and it is really nice!



Crescent Dumplings are always a solid choice!



Finally, Singapore Noodles. This was on the menu when they originally opened, and I loved them so much. Then they just took them off the menu. No explanation. Once I went to their Christmas Buffet and they had them there, which was a happy day indeed. Then, earlier this year, I walked in to see them back on the menu! I like to think it was all the times I wrote 'Bring back Singapore Noodles' in the suggestion box over the last few years. Anyway, they are delicious. A bit oily, but so tasty and so good.



Loving Hut is currently open for takeaway and is doing deliveries on Saturday evenings as a special service during lockdown.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Dim Sim tucked in for an afternoon nap on our bed. The pink and white crocheted blanket was made for me by my grandmother when I was little, and I still have it and love it all these years later.

Veganventure 2014: Part 7 (World Vegan Day)

That night, the night before World Vegan Day, we met up with some bloggers for dinner at Loving Hut Northcote. We had bloggers from Veganopoulous, Where's The Beef, Green Gourmet Giraffe, Veganise This and The Good Hearted.

Leigh and I shared some Steamed Rice Rolls with Mushroom Mince.



I had the Eggplant and Tofu Hotpot, which was lovely.



Leigh had the refreshing Lemongrass Chicken with Rice Noodles.



I didn't get a photo of everyone's food, because it was a long table, here here are some of the other dishes.

Sizzling Duck Katsu.



The Volcano (southern fried chicken with volcano hot sauce).



Wonton Soup.



Loving Hut also has a dessert case, including treats from La Panella as well as some fancy cakes. I went for a Lemon Tart.



Where's The Beef has also blogged about this dinner (with much better photos of their dishes) here. You can see what Veganopolous ordered here.

The next day was our final day in Melbourne, and we attended the yearly festival World Vegan Day. I didn't actually take that many photos of the day. For the best round up of everything that was there check out this post by Veganopolous.

Before heading off to WVD we had a breakfast of leftover pastries in the hotel - an Orange Poppyseed Muffin and half a sourdough cinnamon sugar doughnut from Crumbs. No green juice due to tragic mold issues.



We had hoped to get a green juice or smoothie at WVD, though there didn't seem to be anything like that in sight. So we went for the next best thing - and Apollo. I am not actually sure of the name of the stall that had this. It was a pastrami dog, facon, cheese, lettuce, tomato and tzatziki. So yummy!



We ran into Krisy again while sitting down and eating, and she shared some of her dosa with me. I have never had dosa before!



There was some beautiful iced tea available by Impaka & Peacock. One was a fruity rooibos and the other a fruity mint and lemongrass. I tried and enjoyed both, though the rooibos was my favourite.



I heard that Vege 2 Go had cinnamon sugar doughnuts, and they did! These were not as good as the Crumbs or Smith & Daughters doughnuts, but were still very nice.



I ogled the treats (and first generation My Little Pony) in the Mr Nice Guy Bakeshop case.



And I tried a chocolate rainbow freckle from Compassionate Kitchen after reading so much about them on Veganopoulous.



In non-food adventures, we stopped by the Bed & Broccoli stall to pick up a signed copy of Nikki's beautiful cookbook (launched that day!), looked at the art exhibit (I bought the sweetest artwork of a kitty) and spent some time looking at all the stalls. As usual I have non-buyers remorse. I always talk myself out of buying things, and then immediately regret not buying them the moment that I am in a position to no longer be able to get them. Oh well! Leigh also did a cooking demonstration out of her new cookbook Greenilicious. I was a tester for this book and it is great and you should all buy it!

It was getting really busy, and we reached our limit of squeezing past lots of people in the two halls, so we decided to call it a day. Thanks World Vegan Day, you were fun! We caught a tram back into the city and had a little bit of time to kill before we needed to get to the airport. We had hoped to get to Yong Green Food one more time, but alas we just missed a tram that would have taken us there and we would have a been a bit pressed for time taking the next one.

Instead we decided to try out Supercharger, a little vegan place in the Emporium. This doesn't have a website, but I had read about it on Where's The Beef and Veganopoulous. So thanks guys! Basically you choose a base and then up to five toppings/sides. It is $12 for three sides and $14 for five, so of course we got five!

They also sell smoothies and 'blends'. Blends are cups full of vegetables and fruits and juice that they blend up for you once you make your choice. I chose the Broccoli and Kale one and Leigh got the Orange and Carrot.



I don't remember the exact names of what I chose, but I shall describe it. I had potato mustard mash for the base, with daikon and garlic pickle, cauliflower and lentil smash, raw beetroot and carrot salad and tahini sauce in the big bowl, and there is daal and tofu miso soup in the little bowls.



Leigh also got the potato, the daikon, the cauliflower and tahini sauce, but got some raw broccoli salad, a chickpea curry and some mushrooms in ginger broth.



This was all delicious, a perfect antidote to a week of fairly rich eating! I would definitely recommend eating here. Where's The Beef has excellent directions for how to find it in the shopping complex.

Then it was back to Southern Cross station to catch a bus to the airport. Southern Cross has a Lord of the Fries. I have eaten there once in Sydney and wasn't a huge fan. Leigh ordered some sweet potato fries with the peanut sauce (the sauce of the month). I'm afraid it tasted about as good as it looked, which is not very. The sauce was just like melted peanut butter with a whole lot of salt mixed in. Blergh. Lord of the Fries is yet to win me over.



Then it was to the airport and a farewell to Leigh, she was flying back to Sydney and I was on my way to Brisbane. My flight was delayed, but once it got underway I got fed dinner! I flew with Qantas because I am using up frequent flier points, and for main meals they will do a vegan option. It was actually pretty good for plane food, rice with black eyed peas and a cauliflower curry.

So ends my Veganventure. I had such a great time, ate amazing food and met some really awesome people. But of course I was glad to be home and was all to eager to be hugging my beloved kitties again!

Cute Kitty Photos of the Post





Once I was home and settled I was very happy to get into my own bed with my own cats. Dim Sim settled down on the bed with me, so she has a beautiful welcome home photo. Sahara was on her blankie under the bed, so she has a very dim, dark, vague welcome home photo.