Good Love — Restaurant in Melbourne

Dylan Thomas and Samantha Schreuder are bringing Good Love to St Kilda, in the form of a cruelty free and totally vegan café/bar.

Having spent years in corporate hospitality, the couple found themselves with time on their hands after their former employer, Bimbo Deluxe, caught fire last year. The place was doing 500 pizzas a day, and the couple excelled in managing the venue, and coordinating events.

They decided the time was ripe to create their own space, and a change of pace was in order. Five months since opening, and Good Love prides itself in its ability to flavour profile, and craft meals that are flavour driven, and ethically made. Everything is made in house, from vegetables and herbs & spices. The pair have control over everything that goes out for consumption, and nothing is sourced from a packet. Its cruelty free, with no mass producers involved in the process, so no slave labour either! Better yet, all ingredients are locally produced.

What I love most about this venture, is that it’s driven by positivity, inclusivity, and a humble approach.  The name Good Love was inspired by 80s disco funk tunes, and aims to promote that caring and sharing attitude held by its owners.

Good Love is an experience like no other. While it can be a casual drinks spot on the weekend, they also offer a fully immersive experience, where you are walked through how a dish or a drink was created, and why it was created. As consumers, we are afforded that unique conversation via a customer waiter interaction, so that we begin to think about flavours and the taste experience, and better understand how we consume,

The all vegan menu features everything from the humble Bacon & Egg Brioche; Falafel Bowl; HSP; as well as the popular KFC, which is battered jackfruit made using a secret herbs & spices mix, served on grains and greens with a chilli mayo.

Coffee is roasted by Proud Mary, and there’s a full list of vegan wines, beers, and house infused spirits, such as the house made fig gin.  By the way, they also make their own milk, which is a blend of soy and oats, thus bringing out the smooth chocolate tones from the...

Great food, amazing drinks but average service.

The day I went was very quite, there was only 1 other couple there so I don't know if it was an off day for the person working there. I had to go to the front counter to be greeted and told the person working we had a booking.

Anyway they said we can sit anywhere so we sat outside since it was a nice day. We were given the menu but the waitress didn't come to our table to check on us or ask us what we were ordering. I had to walk to the counter to ask questions about the menu. We ordered the banquet menu which seemed worth it for $100 for 2 people, this may be expensive for some people but when it comes to food and supporting a vegan business, I don't mind to pay extra.

It was a 5 course meal including dessert and a jug of sangria. The food was pumping out so fast that we couldn't keep up, I felt that I needed to tell them to chill as we were still trying to get through our first dish. We barely finished the first dish and we had all dishes out on the table.

When it was time for the dessert I was wondering when that was coming out because we were waiting for awhile and our plates were cleaned up at this point. I was checking in on the waitress and all they were doing was standing behind the counter hunched over the POS machine. As soon as I walked up to the counter to ask them was there dessert part of the banquet, they said, oh we can put that though for you now. Within less then 5 mins the dessert came.

This is the second time I've been here, the first time it was extremely busy so it was difficult to judge the service but this time around there was no excuse.

I hate giving a bad review to vegan businesses I want to support but I believe this needs to be addressed.

It doesn't take much to make someones day and interacting with your customers with a friendly check in comes a long way to support...

We had the most amazing lunch! We ordered the KFC Bowl and Phish and Chips and shared a decadent Smores Puff Pie. The kfc bowl was absolutely delicious, the jackfruit nuggets taste like chicken and are not processed fake nuggets like I’ve tried elsewhere. Even the fried greens were a surprise, such lovely flavour, we were raving about the greens too. The phish and chips was something I’ve never heard of or tried, banana blossom, similar to zucchini flowers I guess. I would definitely order this again, and the crushed baby spuds so much nicer than chips. The dish was like an upmarket refined fish and chips, I highly recommend. Now by this stage we were really full, but I had to try the smores puff pie. Small but decadent, like a chocolate marshmallow lava pie, rich but not too much if you’re a chocolate lover. Great service and atmosphere. We sat outside on a Sunday afternoon and there was live music of a guy on guitar from a bar next door which was lovely. Lots of people walking dogs, lovely little side street but still part of the st Kilda vibe. Waitress very friendly and...