• 4
• Plant-based menu adapted to local foods and tastes

I wasn’t bowled over by the appearance of their food in the Westfield, but I tried the sweet potato curry and it was most excellent! I like pumpkin curry but have never come across a sweet potato version and have to say it was at least as good as any pumpkin curry I’ve ever had. Lots of perfectly cooked sweet potato, tofu and veggies in a well-balanced curry sauce and some fresh rice on the side. Their vegan cakes looked good, but the only other thing I had was their sweetened hibiscus tea, which not too sweet and made a nice change. Service was quite friendly too and the curry + rice was reasonably priced at $8.50. So, 4/5 stars for quality and value, and I’m also giving the Loving Hut 5/5 green stars for social and environmental impact. First, obviously, a plant-based diet is clearly better than a meat-heavy diet for the planet on several fronts: better use of land for feeding the population, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, avoids the animal cruelty that comes with the intensive meat industry, and is better for human health. Second, I really like their business model: each restaurant is independently-owned and comes up with its own menu. For a chain restaurant with over 200 locations worldwide (about 40 in the U.S., four in the Bay Area) it’s a great idea to not replicate the same menu in every restaurant. Each restaurant can come up with their own menu depending on what’s available locally, and can also suit local dietary trends and needs. The idea of walking into a chain restaurant that has thousands of locations worldwide and knowing that they churn out these identical meals in huge facilities (and then waste energy shipping them all over the country/world) is really a repulsive concept. Finally, if you’re vegan or vegetarian, it’s nice to know that you can order anything on the menu without having to ask the staff for a history of the dish.