The Loving Hut

Glad to see vegans have options, but wasn’t impressed w the choices. Pretty limited and not the most healthy

I was excited to find this listing when in Miamisburg for work, but the Loving Hut is no more! A new vegan place, the Artichoke Café, has opened in its place.

I’m not a vegan, but I’m married to one so I love to find places where we both can find food that we enjoy. This is one of them.
Let me preface this with: I don’t like fake meat, or fake cheese — when I eat vegan I just want veggies, I prefer organic and it needs to be filling. So, I am particular and someone who likes those things may rate this place higher.
The spring rolls ($ 3 for 2) are fantastic. We get them every time we come to the mall, whether we get a meal or not. And, they may possibly have the best salad ($ 6.50) I have ever had in my life. It’s a spring mix with lots of veggies including yellow tomatoes, onions, peppers, dried cherries and a yummy sweet chili dressing that I would definitely buy if they sold it by the bottle. It also comes with two slices of foccacia bread (they used to serve it with raw bread and I’m glad they switched)
I also like the portabello panini ($ 7), but they don’t put a lot of mushrooms on it, so it’s mostly bread. It has a delicious pesto sauce on it — vegan pesto is hard to come by. It comes with a side of cole slaw (good) and sweet potato fries (very good).
They used to keep a variety of vegan desserts. Some very good cookies and some truffles that were great. The last few times they haven’t had dessert at all. I hope that changes.

Seriously, if this is my option for vegan fast food I’ll be sure and carry a bag of soy nuts in my purse just to avoid the possibility of having to eat here again. I ordered the dumpling and small fried rice. Neither was edible. The dumplings were just wonton skins filled with some mystery goo and deep fried. The fried rice was a handful of veg-​all and rice, no flavor, no seasoning. Both made it to the trash rather and my stomach. I’ve been in the food service industry for quite some time and I’d estimate the food cost on my lunch was right aroun $ 1.30 but paying nearly $ 10 for is is a complete and utter insult. What is that 900% markup? Now I know that overhead at the mall is high but that’s just absurd.
Here’s the other thing that really got under my skin… the permanent signs tout being green as one of their goals. Guess what they serve your food in… styrofoam! Really??? So I asked them about it and they quoted picing concerns which I know to be complete bs because I use paper at my tavern and it costs less than styrofoam. When I pointed that out they countered with the fact that the mall doesn’t recycle their waste anyway. So what! Paper in a landfill degrades, styrofoam doesn’t! Then they countered with, «paper doesn’t hold up as well». If only has to hold up for under an hour! They just came up with one bs excuse after another which means that their foundation of being green is just a lie designed to get your business.
Like I said, soy nuts in the purse from now on!

walking into the Dayton Mall to go to the Loving Hut reminded me of my grade school days. I was thinking about getting a shirt with paisley on it and some acid wash jeans from chess king, but instead I was on a trek to eat some vegan cuisine… being vegan by default for quite a while now. Perhaps I would get a double doozie cookie afterward to counterbalance the healthiness.
We walked up to the counter. There were good selections. I believe a husband and wife behind the counter and a younger guy. There was vegan chili. My gf asked if she could have a taste to see if she liked it. The guy said no. We were not sure if he was joking or not. No smile. No walk over to get a sample. He just said it and promptly went into the back room. Weird. Ok. So we asked to try the chili again, the lady was perplexed. She didn’t seem like she wanted to… said something about not knowing what to put it in. So we directed her to a stack of small cups that she could put a little in… with reluctance she did it. Wow. that was really difficult. I mean. yeah.
I ordered one of their paninis. There were a few other things. The food was good. Very lunch oriented, but good. Unfortunately its in the dayton mall, which I hate, and the guy was either a huge jerk or he thought he was funny. He would have been the only one that knew it. What I found funny was that the whole time we were sitting there eating nobody else went up to order anything, thus nobody else could be abused in such the same way. As for me, I’ll make my panini at home. I do recommend it for the food. Just don’t ask to try anything and you might be ok.

Coming from Portland, we were excited to find an all vegan restaurant existed in Dayton, OH. With that being said, our expectations are pretty high. We ordered a variety of items to get a full experience.
Portabello Panini: The description lists a large number of veggies and toppings on a slice of foccacia. What I got was a bunch of spinach, some sparse other toppings, on plain, unseasoned, unsalted foccacia bread.
The side, the sweet potatoe fries, came unsalted and lightly topped with sugar. They were soggy and undercooked. They were baked at least, so no grease, but the lack of salt made them taste quite bland.
The spring rolls weren’t bad. They were cooked about right, nothing super tasty inside but not bad. The sauce was good. They were pretty spendy for what you get though, especially being used to spring rolls being a super cheap appetizer at most restaurants.
The dumplings were the most flavorful amidst everything bland. They did have some decent flavor inside and the sauce wasn’t bad.
Other people ordered the lasagna, whose meat was merely chopped up tofurkey dogs, the American panini, which was as small as my panini and lightly filled.
We left full, since we consumed a large number of appetizers, but overall were pretty disappointed. I think they could do a lot better. It would be nice to see some more flavor. I feel like the bland food will leave a poor impression on people trying vegan food for the first time.

In all my eats I’ve never come across and entirely vegan restaurant, so when it popped up in Unilocal I had to go. It’s in a shopping mall food court, not exactly where you would expect, a stark constrast to the pizza and chicken places nearby. I ordered the vegan lasagna of the day and some vegan egg rolls. The lasagna was tasty and I found myself wondering what exactly is vegan cheese made up. The egg rolls were crunchy and hot. Definitely a unique place!

Meh is the perfect review for this place, it belongs in the food court. Ordered a portabello panini. It came with sweet potato fries and some sauce on Facacia bread, with lettuce and tomato. However, the slices of portabello mushroom in the sandwich were miniscule, paper thin. I thought I would get a hearty mushroom sandwich, and instead got mushy bread with some mushroom slivers. Meh.

I’m not a vegan or a vegetarian but I have been trying to eat healthier and am always looking for low calorie meals, the Loving Hut seemed like just such a place. The location is a little off putting, it’s in the food court of the Dayton Mall, it seems like they would do much better in a stand alone or strip mall type location. While I was there they didn’t seem very busy even though the other restaurants around them were packed. I ordered the spring roll dinner with a salad and fried rice, everything was very tasty! The spring rolls were crunchy, the rice was fried but light and flavorful (would have been nice to have a spicy option for the rice). Overall everything was very good, I would definitely return if I found myself in the mall. My main gripe is the food court location and another being that they have very limited drink options, not sure if this is a vegan thing or not but no diet sodas (no sodas at all) but the green tea was pretty good.

I wish I could give a better review, as I am not sure this place can actually survive in a Mall Food Court surrounded by the likes of Taco Bell, Steak Escape and Gold Star Chili. However, I specifically sought this place out looking for a healthy meal while on a business trip and what I got was sadly overly-​greased and fairly unimpressive. I ordered a spring roll dinner with veg fried rice and a salad. The rice and spring rolls were unnecessarily saturated with oil. The flavor was pretty decent, but the fact that it was soooo greasy really turned me off. Service was okay… I approached the counter and there was a guy on the computer that didn’t acknowledge me for about 30 seconds… a little awkward. I finally was recognized when a young lady came out from the back and saw me. You’d think they would be pumped when someone actually wanted to buy something from them, because I was the only customer they had for the 15 mins I was there.

I am so happy to find a Loving Hut in this area. For my husband and I, this is a drive but it is completely worth it. It’s hard to find a place that caters to vegans and I feel so happy when I don’t have to ask a million questions about the menu. We first ate at a Loving Hut in Chicago and fell in love with the concept and the food.
Comparatively speaking, the ambiance was much different in Dayton because this is located in a food court, but I hear they do have plans to change to a freestanding location just outside the mall. It’s ok though, people watching here is abundant and we ate in our own little vegan-​made paradise.
The sweet potato fries are a must! I had the mock chix salad and it did not disappoint, and my husband had the mock crispy shrimp. He loved it! We will be making the ½ hour drive back to eat in a mall food court because yes, it IS that good!

So nice…
When you’re a vegan, there is nothing quite like going to an all-​vegan place. You don’t have to ask — you simply have to order.
I say this, because it’s such a rare occasion that I find a restaurant that is not only 100%-vegan, but is also healthy. Aside from the super-​expensive and mostly-​vegan Neo-​V in Columbus, there’s Rad Dog and Pattycake Vegan Bakery. Vegan? Yes. Healthy? I’ll let you be the judge of that.
The Loving Hut is in the food court of the Dayton Mall, so it’s around an hour away, but oh so worth it.
For one thing, they have a menu on-​line, which is critical for any non-​vegan restaurant catering to vegans, but just a really nice touch when everything is fair game.
For another, they have a wide range of foods. A vegan hot-​dog is still a vegan hot-​dog no matter how many different toppings you put on it; and a vegan cupcake is not lunch. No, seriously!
The Loving Hut runs the gambit:
Appetizers:
I had the Loving Dumplings pan-​fried, but you can just as easily order them steamed. See? Healthy choice right there, and you’re not even eating your entrée yet.
I also ordered (and shared) a Southwest Eggroll, which was super tasty, as was the semi-​spicy sauce it came with.
Oh, and one more thing: you really don’t have to ask. «What’s in this sauce?» or «Is this vegan?» I mean, a lot of the items come with their own sauces, and normally, I’d have to ask about each one, or simply not eat it if feeling lazy and unsure.
And speaking of asking, in a lot of restaurants that cater to vegetarians and vegans, they won’t have a vegan dessert. It’s super sad. Some of my favorite restaurants have ten vegan entrée options, yet simply don’t have a single vegan dessert. At The Loving Hut, if they’re serving it, it’s vegan. So I had a slice of chocolate cake, but I believe they have other desserts depending on the day.
They have soup and quite a few salads, which are over on the healthier side of the fried-​versus-​healthy spectrum.
As a vegan, are you missing shrimp? They have a really good Veg-​A-​Shrimp which is coconut crusted. Yum! And even if you’re not a vegan, I think you’ll still like it. A lot of this food seems to be designed to be a gateway into good, flavorful, humane food.
They have steamed white and brown rice, fried rice, Loving Slaw (my sandwich came with a little container of this super tasty slaw), and sweet potato fries.
I had the American Panini sandwich, which was pretty tasty. Tofurkey sliced deli meat-​analogue with lettuce, slaw, mustard, vegan cheese and Vegenaise. And, because it was a panini, they the sandwich was grilled to perfection with the little grill marks you’d expect.
So, there was a great variety of high-​quality food available and it’s well worth the trip to the Dayton area, especially if you’re vegetarian or vegan.
I’d say that the food quality is probably a little higher than On The Fly, for a similar price. I also noticed that things were fresh: veggies were crisp and chilled, sandwiches were made to order, and the fried things were clearly fried on the spot.
Just keep in mind, the atmosphere is that of a food court, with food court seating, food court lighting and potentially food court children running around screaming. My experience was pretty good, but I would imagine this place gets pretty crazy at certain peak times during the day. This is a place to go for really awesome vegan food, but probably not if you’re trying to impress someone with ambiance.
I can’t see taking a full star off for the location, but if I could give the restaurant a 4 ½ star rating overall, I would. The food is excellent, though, and more than makes up for the rest.
My only wish: that they open one in Columbus.