skip to main |
skip to sidebar
If you haven't heard of Loving Hut, look it up to see if there are any in your area. It is a delicious vegan restaurant, which promotes compassionate and green consumption.
You'll notice on the site that each location has its own custom menu.
If you happen to be lucky to live near one, visit it immediately!
I first heard of Loving Hut when I was taking a trip to NYC and was looking up some good vegan eateries. Loving Hut was highly reviewed and recommended. When I visited it, I realized why.
At the NYC Loving Hut, I tried the spinach quesadilla, crispy burger, and dumplings. All were delectable. Even my carnivorous friends tried it and enjoyed it. The restaurant itself is tiny and has limited seating but that's normal since most places in NYC are small.
Imagine my excitement when I discovered a Loving Hut opened up only a few miles away from my place! Loving Hut in Falls Church opened up around March 2011. Their food is mostly Vietnamese oriented.
My favorite so far is the quiche and the dumplings. They offer a crispy burger here but I prefer the crispy burger in NYC. The one here has a more chicken-y taste. Still very tasty! Their quesadilla is delicious, however they give a relatively small portion.Below is a picture of the spinach (with Daiya cheese) quesadilla and the crispy burger.
One of the best things about my local Loving Hut (and a reason I visit it so frequently) are their desserts. They offer Vegan Treats desserts. Vegan Treats has THE best cakes. I blogged about them here. The Death by Chocolate cake and the Smores cheesecake are my favorites. If you're a guy, you'll most likely love the Peanut Butter Bomb cake. They also have donuts, whoopie pies (yum!), and a large variety of cupcakes, all by Vegan Treats. I'm not crazy about Vegan Treat's cupcakes. It's not as flavorful and sweet as my favorite cupcakes, which are from Bakeshop.
Oh and if you are into bubble teas (and even if you aren't), you MUST try their strawberry bubble tea. It tastes just like a strawberry milkshake and it wonderfully satisfies the sweet craving.
If you discover a favorite dish here, there will most likely be an option to buy the raw/uncooked ingredients to take home and attempt to re-create. Loving Hut in Falls Church has a freezer full of faux meats and seafood and other ingredients they use in their dishes, available for sale to the public. This way you can make more of what you like, however you like it, cheaper!
If I were an entrepreneur in the food industry, opening up a Loving Hut would definitely have been part of my venture.
Loving Hut, Falls Church
Loving Hut, NYC
I have been posting a lot about cupcakes so this will be one of my last posts about it (unless, of course, another cupcake joint that offers vegan cupcakes opens up). But really, who can resist these damn tasty miniature cakes?
The cupcakes pictured above are from Red Velvet Cupcakery. Even though they only have one flavor, "Black Velvet," a.k.a. chocolate, it's very much worth going into one of their two locations in DC to try. Looks like from their site, they're going to be opening up shop in Arlington too! Bakeshop better watch out! Just kidding. Bakeshop is delicious and their cupcakes have their own delicious signature taste.
These chocolate cupcakes are deliciously moist with a medium thickness of chocolate frosting, which is very chocolatey tasting. It definitely is up there as one of my favorite vegan cupcakes. I'd say it's a tie between them and Bakeshop. The difference is that Bakeshop's cupcake are much lighter and fluffier tasting. Bakeshop's frosting is also lighter and more whipped compared to the denser, thicker frosting and cake of Red Velvet Cupcakery's. As a very nice added touch, Red Velvet Cupcakery tops their Black Velvet with colorful sugar sprinkles, which adds a lovely sweet crunch.
In the end, it's all a matter of what you'd prefer biting into. If I had to choose between the two, I'd choose Bakeshop only because they have many more flavors to choose from.
Sprinkles Cupcakes just opened up in Georgetown. This is very close to my work so a couple coworkers walked there and brought back some cupcakes. They have only one vegan option, which is the vegan red velvet.
The frosting was a light cream cheese flavor and there was a fair amount on the cake, although I can always have more frosting. The cupcake itself is a nice size. The top part of the cupcake was disproportionately bigger than the bottom part. I guess this means a larger area to cover with frosting :)
The cake part was pretty good. It was not too light or too dense and it was VERY moist. The cake was a bit meal-y tasting but in a good way (reminded me of childhood). I recommend at least trying it. At $3.50 a cupcake, it's a pretty good price for a nice sized cupcake. AND if anything, better to give them business than stupid Georgetown cupcakes (I went into G-town cupcakes once to ask if they had vegan options and the girl there was short with me and immediately and unsympathetically replied no!). I believe a true bakery can make and accommodate all dietary needs. Thank you, Sprinkles! Now to get you guys to offer more flavors.
Every third Sunday of the month has been deemed 'Vegan Day' at Bakeshop in Arlington, VA. EVERYTHING in the shop is vegan that day. This means there is a lovely variety, which includes my favorite, chocolate ganache topped peanut butter rice krispy treats.
Ten percent of the sales goes to Compassion Over Killing. How generous of Bakeshop :)
The morning usually starts off with their wonderful vegan pancakes. They sometimes have 2 types of batter, plain and nutmeg. When asked what I wanted on it, I chose chocolate chips and pecans. BFF chose blueberries. Both were superb!!!
Afterwards, I bought buckeyes (chocolate, peanut butter balls), rice krispy treats, of course, dark chocolate truffles, and a variety of cupcakes, which included a cream filled (with frosting on top, as well) red velvet. That was definitely the winner of the day. I didn't get any, but they also had apricot cookies and 'crack' (i.e. some sort of buttery, thin, toffee delicious treat that melts in your mouth).
Ideas are being thrown out for what to do on subsequent 'Vegan Days.' I was told that the next one might consist of lunch or dinner and a BYOB! Did someone say mimosas?
The Zpizzas in the DC metro area now offer Daiya cheese. They've been offering it for over a year now. Before Daiya, they offered soy cheese, however it still contained casein. I think they finally realized that didn't qualify it as a vegan pizza. Anyway, Daiya cheese really is the best vegan cheese out there and it tastes great!
If I'm ever craving a vegan pizza (WITH cheese), I order from zpizza. Since my order is usually so complicated (because I substitute almost everything), I order online. They have a great online ordering system. It works well but the people that work at Zpizza don't always (they sometimes don't quite get it right -- be sure to check your pizza before you carry it out).
If you like a lot of toppings, the best thing to do is order the 'Berkeley Vegan' and substitute the toppings on there for what you do want. You get more toppings for your money doing this than you would if you created your own.
My favorite thing to do is order the Berkeley Vegan and substitute the soy crumbles (I don't care for their Gardein brand crumbles since I don't like the taste of sausage), zucchini, and bell peppers for roasted red peppers, pineapples, and avocados. I keep the onions, tomatoes, and mushrooms on it. That's six toppings on a pizza! OH and be sure to substitute the marinara sauce for roasted garlic while telling them to mix some marinara in it. The sauce really makes this pizza!
Be sure to sign up for their mailing list, 'ztribe'. They offer great money saving coupons from time to time.
Update: Veg DC provided a site with a listing of all the vegan pizza offerings in the area.
