For those that don't know, Geylang is an area well know for its abundance of vegetarian eateries (as well as other things). It is an area I have only really scratched the surface of, and in the future I will certainly increase the amount of reviews I do in this area. For today though, we have Loving Heart Cafe, which is owned by the infamous Loving Hut brand - This brand offers strictly vegan food in all its eateries. It was unfortunate to hear that their Selegie Road outlet had recently closed. Nevertheless, you can still find them at their International Plaza outlet. The Loving Hut brand has expanded exponentially with there being outlets all over the world - Including USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand....Even Mongolia!Loving Heart Cafe
Location: Blk 134 Geylang East Ave 1, #01-219
Contact:
Opening Hours: Mon-Sat 10am - 10pm. Sunday 7am - 10pm
The logo, decor and ambiance of the place resembles the Loving Hut restaurants. However, this is not an air conditioned eatery. Menu wise, the dishes are listed behind the counter. The menu is quite varied, with there being Western, Japanese and Chinese dishes on offer. They also have vegan roti prata, which I was tempted to try, but unfortunately stomach space didn't allow. Moreover, they have an Indian chef to make the prata, so it would be interesting to see what the quality is like. The place was somewhat quiet and subdued when I was there, but perhaps on weekends the customer traffic becomes higher.
Speaking of the Indian chef, he was the one who cooked this Black Pepper Burger for me. The first thing to highlight, that was done very well for this burger, was the charring of the bread. He used the Indian tava (famously used for making breads, such as prata and chapati) to toast the bun. Although toasting bread may seem like something a child can do, there is still skill required to get it perfect. The black pepper sauce was strong and complimented the mock meat patty soundly - Making the patty all the more juicy and succulent. The other ingredients were a little cliched for my liking, with there being only tomato and lettuce. Price wise, this was a real standout as well, probably the best value burger in Singapore.Price: $2.50. 8/10
Final dish of this eventful lunch, was the Hainanese Fragrant Rice (Set) - Which can be more conveniently translated to chicken rice. One of the key components to chicken rice is the chilli sauce, rather unconventionally this sauce didn't have the biting sharp spice one would usually expect. Instead, it was verging on sweet - I must say, this was a welcome difference. The mock chicken was derived from beancurd, which is not my favourite type - However, it is certainly more healthy than using gluten. The rice had good flavour, and the coriander soup complimented the food nicely. Another plus point is the food arrived almost instantaneously, and was good value for money.Price: $4.00. 7/10
Conclusion - If I lived nearer to the geylang area, there is no doubt that this would be an eatery that I would keep returning to. This statement is more impressive than it sounds, as there are simply countless vegetarian eateries submerged within the geylang streets to choose from. But so far, this may rank as the one I enjoyed the most. I do plan to return one day to experiment with more items on their menu, lets hope that they are just as tasty as the ones I tried during this review.
Overall Rating
Food - 8/10
Ambiance- 7/10
Service - 7/10
Value - 8/10
