Loving Hut Vegan Cuisine 415 Chandler St. (July 20)

Overall impression:   Good vegan Chinese and Thai-style dishes. Nice for lunch.

http://www.lovinghut.us/worcester/

  After popping in for a few hours to work I took myself to lunch. Loving Hut is a restaurant I should have tried years ago, being vegetarian. Perhaps I did have a spring roll from their stand at stART on the street once, but that's it. I vaguely recall a friend saying she thought the food was heavy, plus it is on the other side of town from me... those are my excuses. (Plus my husband isn't likely to want to try a vegan restaurant.) But today I had to stop over at That's Entertainment for a new comic, anyway, and it was a summer day in which I had the car (Eric gets it a lot when I have July-August vacation). So lunch there fit in with my plans. And it wasn't too heavy! Just right, at least with what I ordered.

I had other false preconceptions, I don't know where they came from. For example, I assumed it would be mostly a counter to order and very few tables. There were lots of tables, however, and though about a quarter of the 20-or-so people who were in and out while I was there got takeout most of us were dining in. I was there from 11:45 to 12:45 on a Monday, and there were groups of friends, a couple family units and another solo diner.

I had the scallion pancakes (yum) and the snow peas with soy protein. I purposefully chose something vegetable-laden, and it tasted very good. I liked what I got better than the dishes I've had at Nancy Chang's, in the same neighborhood (though I don't want to disparage Nanch Chang's). I also ordered Thai iced tea without the soymilk, but didn't drink it because it was super-sweet. I thought it would just be tea on ice, as the sweetener in a Thai iced tea is usually the condensed milk. Anyway, they asked after the un-drunk tea and took it off my bill, which was very nice.

The food arrives quickly and is piping hot. Drinks and smoothies seem to take longer, as did waiting for my check. But if I was in a hurry I could have requested my bill and change earlier, I'm sure. I will likely be back to treat myself to a lunch break or to meet friends from the west side.