LOVEinBread - City Hall

For vegan bread lovers out there, you may often feel frustrated by the lack of vegan options in typical bakeries like Bread Talk, Cedele, Four Leaves etc.  Egg and milk are the usual obstacles that prevent vegans from enjoying bread (although many breads are naturally vegan) - A few months ago a 100% vegan bakery opened its doors in Singapore, which is quite exciting - No more asking a dozen questions trying to find out if each item is really vegan.  LOVEinBread had a slow start, but they are slowly increasing their variety of breads and cakes available.  LOVEinBread has been open since July 2014.









LOVEinBread
Location: 6 Raffles Boulevard, #B1-18, Marina Square
Contact: 63384173
Opening Hours: Mon-Fri & Sun 10.00am-9.30pm.  Saturday 10.00am-10.00pm


The owners of LOVEinBread state the reason for opening a vegan bakery is to lessen the environmental damage that the meat/dairy industry causes to the planet.  This establishment aims to project a sense of love to the environment, to animals, and to customers.  I spoke briefly with one of the LOVEinBread owners (Ray, 30) who used to work at a commercial bakery - His mentality for opening LOVEinBread was to 'do something different'.


LOVEinBread is a great place to go...If you can actually find the place. Suntec, Marina Square, Millenia Walk, blah blah blah - All these shopping centres just seem to blur into each other - All looking the same, all with the same shops, all selling the same stuff.  If, like myself, shopping is tantamount to medieval torture, then searching for LOVEinBread will not be a pleasure.  I digress, you basically need to find Marina Link, but to save yourself a lot of time and frustration just show this picture (left) to the customer service counter.  This place is not easy to find, so you really should ask someone who works there.


On the left hand side are the breads...
...On the right hand side are the desserts/cakes and drinks.  I like how each tag has the percentage of organic each item is.
I thought it would be best to go from savoury to sweet, so I kicked things off with the Mixed Herb Ciabatta.  This is a really good value little bread, which had nice elastic texture, with just the right amount of herbs used inside.

$1.50.     7/10














Being a pizza addict I could resist ordering the Vegan Hawaiian Pizza.  It is first important to manage ones expectations, this is a pizza bread, not a pizza.  The base is thick and soft.  Hawaiian pizza should typically contain two vital ingredients - Ham and pineapple.  But in this version, ham was replaced with mushroom.  I was pleased that a generous amount of mock cheese was used - This 'cheese' is from a packet, and I suspect the brand is Sheese.  Considering that mock cheese is ridiculously expensive, I found the price of this pizza to be quite reasonable.  If you're looking for a more comprehensive vegan pizza menu, then I recommend visiting Brownice.  The tomato paste from this pizza contains onions, so not suitable for Buddhists.

Price: $4.80.     7/10

Making a raw vegan tiramisu is no easy task, so I was a little apprehensive on how this Raw Tiramisu would do without the typical cheese, egg and alcohol.  If you are allergic to nuts, then eating the items at LOVEinBread will be suicide - The bulk of all their desserts are all derived from nuts.  This vegan tiramisu has two layers of nut cream, with cocoa powder sprinkled on top.  The texture of this dessert was very smooth and delicate.

Price: $5.80.     7/10
On to the next dessert, which is the Raw Coconut Nanaimo Cake.  Although the name 'nanaimo' might suggest Japanese origin, the birthplace of this cake is actually in Canada (the city of Nanaimo, Vancouver Island).  Once again, the traditional version of this dessert (like all desserts) has a heavy reliance on butter, milk, cheese and egg.  LOVEinBread substitutes these items by using (you guessed it) nuts.  The texture of this bar is heavy and dense, with a delicious base and thick layer of chocolate on top.

Price: $6.80.     7/10
One of the best sellers at LOVEinBread is the Raw Chocolate Avocado Cake.  If you're a fan of thick, rich and heavy desserts (jelak x100) , then this is the cake you should order.  The avocado chocolate  portion of this cake was really dense.  Although the cocoa is strong and powerful, one can still detect a slight avocado aftertaste.  The base of this cake is made from nuts, and a sole hazelnut nut is placed on top.

Price: $8.50.     7/10











Conclusion - I am not sure if I am alone in feeling this way, but raw vegan desserts are very jelak to me.  Nevertheless, I really loved the desserts and breads at LOVEinBread - The pricing is really reasonable, when you consider the costing of the ingredients used.  Location wise (unless you work around there), this place is the definition of hell to get to, and may deter many individuals from being regular customers.  But the concept of a vegan bakery is refreshing, and can definitely work in Singapore - Time will tell how LOVEinBread ends up doing.

Overall Rating
Food - 7/10
Ambiance- 6/10
Service - 7/10
Value - 8/10