Loving Hut Plantbased Vegan — Restaurant in San Diego

I’m going to start this by saying I’ve loved eating here for years, the food is always delicious but the service keeps getting worse. The last time I ate here, about a month and half ago hit the rock bottom of service:

We were seated and handed our menus. I ordered tea and was brought it right away. Off to a good start, the server took the rest of the drink and food orders. Drop the waters and side plates with napkins. So far so good, 5 stars. The appetizer came out and I’m thankful it did. We got bao buns.

10 minutes after ordering the wifes’ chicken sandwich comes out first, then we waited. Then the sons’ burger came out 10 minutes later and we waited 5 more minutes for the daughter’s chicken nuggets to come out. Then crickets, after about 10 more minutes, I waved down our server to ask where the other drinks are and my food order. He comes backs and says the cook just started making my food. Cool, and he leaves. He did not return with the drinks.

About 10 minutes later, I flagged down our original waitress and asked for the drinks and my food order. She comes back and said the printer had issues and the printer didn’t print my food order. Great.

We’re at least an hour into our meal. The family is done eating, I don’t have my food yet and we have to leave for to make our show time. I waived down our waitress and told her to cancel my food and my family’s’ drink order, and I need the bill. She said my food was just about done, so I’ll take it to go.

She makes the milkshake, cola and kombucha real fast and drops em on the table. Cool, I need these to go. She brings my food and the bill. We did get comped a dessert but it sat in my truck for too long and I did not eat it.

Honestly, I wouldn’t be mad if they were busy but there was 4 other tables, 1 was already done, 2 were mid meal and 1 was seated after us. There were a few to go orders and I think 1 of them snagged my noodles.

I also know a traditional sit down meal can take about an hour but that’s with a 20 minute ticket time and disorder. But with a traditional sit down meal the flow of the meal is: menus, water, order. Drop the drinks, appetizers. Kids food comes out first...

If you're looking for a good meal and you're in the area on Mira Mesa, look no further and come here. The menu at Loving Hut is a bit daunting and global, with Thai currys next to pasta dishes and a separate burger and chicken menu, however, if you are with kids, it is especially nice to have variety especially if you were hungry and want a good meal. Our kids ended up ordering burger and chicken sandwich which were excellent, our daughter usually has burgers without toppings but ordered one with a huge stack of mushrooms and lettuce and ended up eating the entire thing. Our other daughter ordered a chicken sandwich which she ended up eating as well despite housing a bunch of appetizers beforehand. We had a variety of items including the Korean wings, eggplant curry, udon noodles with chicken, and spam musubi rolls. Everything was so good.

You probably noticed from my descriptions that I failed to mention that everything is vegan. We are vegetarian and love plant-based items. This place does not feel vegan and their food looks and appears like any other restaurant. What's best is that the service is really good, the owners were kind enough to come to our table and greet us and chat about their favorite items on the menu and their story about opening loving hut approximately 15 years ago.

At the end of our meal, we were so full but our daughters wanted to try the milkshakes. Oh my goodness, they were so good. One of them had the caramel chocolate shake and the other had the ube. They were quite heavy but worth it and we suck them down on the drive home.

The only critique, if there is any, is that there is a lot of fried food on the menu. But this does not mean all of the food is fried, we just happen to order a lot of the plant-based meats that were fried and heavy. There are many salads and soups which we did not get to yet. I'm sure we can have a more balanced meal and not leave so stuffed next time. Anytime we are on Mira Mesa, we are going to forget looking at Yelp or maps for dinner, we're just going to go...

A few years ago I would have given this Loving Hut 5 stars, unfortunately more recently things have gone down hill. Is it still the best vegan food in San Diego? I would no longer say so and a main reason is the fact that it's not organic, the portions have gotten small and even some organic restaurants are cheaper. The menu ranges from Thai food and Asian fusion to American comfort food. The menu is a little different each time I come here but it has stayed mostly the same. One questionable decision was removing the Surf and Turf burrito and just having fish tacos now instead. Upon looking at the menu online there is a friendly but questionable message that reads: "Modifications kindly declined". With the prices for items here I have to question that decision and the reason for it itself. While the outside of the restaurant looks cute with a little hobbit door it is also very much attached to the cleaners building next door, not exactly the most appetizing thing. As far as the inside of the restaurant well, it's not very special and feels dated which is why I usually order to-go. The food is not organic and that's worth pointing out, especially at the price-point. In recent years the prices have not only gone up but the portions have gotten smaller and the sides that are included with some items are especially small. For example I ordered the Cali burrito and while it comes with a side of chips that portion was very small (see picture). My girlfriend ordered the chow chow garlic noodles with "shrimp" and while it was good it literally just had 3 pieces of "shrimp" and chowmein noodles and was $16. My Cali burrito was cut in half despite ordering to-go which is a big no-no in my book. Overall the prices and small portions make me question if it's worth it to come here again, as much as I want to support small-ish businesses. Additionally the hours are a...