Today I went to try Loving Hut (hopefully their website will update soon to include the Melbourne location).
I think this place has really only been open a couple of weeks, and they are still finalising their menu. When K and Toby from In the Mood for Noodles reviewed them, not all their menu items were available. Maybe it was because I went on a week day, early in the lunch period, but they were serving their full menu today.
Rather than order a main from their menu, I decided to try the options from the bain marie. $8 gets you your choice of 1 noodle or rice serve, with 2 choices of main. The serving size was really generous too. I opted noodles, with the beef in black bean and beef rendang dishes.
The dishes were really tasty. Unfortunately the food was nearly cold when it came to me. As much as I liked the taste of the dishes, I struggle to eat barely warm food. I really wished I had ordered a main off the menu, their menu options all sounded really tasty, but I was pressed for time so went the quick option of the ready made dishes.
I had ordered a serve of dumplings to try for a side. These were made to order, and were really tasty and completely worth the trip. The sauce was good, the filling was really tasty and fried nice and crispy.
While I was disappointed with the dishes from the bain marie not being hot, I think I might have gotten them on a bad day. The staff were really friendly, and they have only been open a short time. They are still settling in. I will be going back here, and next time getting a dish made to order from the menu.
Eek, that's pretty terrible ethnic stereotyping by your colleagues! (And I don't think the onus is on the proprietors to name their restaurant around those prejudices.)
ReplyDeleteThe almost-cold food is really a concern, for food safety reasons, I wonder why it is like that. I guess the bain-maries weren't plugged in / turned on?
Maybe I'll go and just order a double serve of dumplings, mmm.
With the work environment at that particular office, and all the references they were making to other establishments down the road I thought initially they were being sexist and got offended at that. I tend to be rather naive and slow, so it sometimes takes me a while to work out what someone just said. I ended up being really glad I went to lunch alone.
ReplyDeleteThe dumplings are fantastic and were satisfying enough to be a meal on their own after I didn't eat much of the main. The bain marie was set up in the window and looked plugged in. I haven't really ever seen how one works, can they have a temperature set? Maybe it was set to low or just broken. Either way I put it down to their having just opened and still settling in.
The dumplings look great! I've heard that a Loving Hut has opened in Sydney but it's in the West which is a long way for me to go for vegan food!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I've just discovered someone I know is the daughter of two of the owners, and she said the same thing to me, she recommended I leave a couple of weeks before going in because they're still settling in / figuring things out for themselves - which I'd heard through the mighty power of veg food blogger word of mouth anyway, lol :)
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