There aren’t that many places in France where you can dine “sans viande”, so when we heard of a restaurant in Menton that serves only vegan food we had to give it a whirl.
The Loving Hut is in an excellent location, right on the Menton seafront with wonderful views over the bay. If you’re having lunch or an early dinner, it is definitely worth requesting a table on the terrace. And you will have to request it, as this place seems to be very popular.
Sunday evening, late September, table for three… we figured that booking probably wouldn’t be necessary but we decided to play it safe and call a day ahead. It’s a good job we did, as they were surprisingly busy and when we turned up it seemed that all the tables had little “reserved” signs on them.
The restaurant is small inside, with most of its seating being either on a pavement terrace or in the porch under an awning. It’s not fancy but has a relaxed friendly vibe with lots of plants and colourful decor - there is also a deli counter where you can buy food to take away and a little corner selling all sorts of speciality food items.
We were seated by a very friendly lady who seemed to be fluent in both French and English, and was very happy to explain the menu to us. The cuisine has an international influence with lots of curry and stir-fry type dishes, as well as falafels, salads, kebabs and savoury crepes.
There was a good choice of starters and you could easily order a selection for a varied tapas-style meal - spring rolls, crostini, stuffed endives, etc - there is even a vegan “cheeseboard”. For a bigger appetite there were about half a dozen pasta and rice dishes, many with tofu or soy protein but some just with vegetables for those who aren’t a fan of “faux” meat products.
Slightly bizarrely, they also have a menu for vegan dog and cat food should you wish to dine with your four-legged friend. Intriguing as it sounded, we decided to stick with the human food.
To start we shared a dish of Cha Cha Épicé, which was imaginatively described as “stir-fried seasoned delight of the sea crumbled with hot spicy pepper, onions and garlic”. What this transpired as was pieces of tender white flesh fried in a crispy batter that tasted quite authentically fishy, served with a deliciously creamy spicy sauce. We couldn’t quite decide whether it was more like scampi or calamari but either way we all agreed that if we had eaten it anywhere else we would have assumed it was real seafood of some sort.
Next up was a vegetable quiche - a hearty wedge of spinach and tomato quiche with a tofu and cashew nut filling and a sturdy whole wheat pastry crust, served with a side salad. It was really good and definitely worthy of a place alongside any egg-based quiche. My friends tucked into the doner-style kebab and a big pile of noodles and veggies in a slightly spicy peanut sauce and both were very happy with their choices. Everything arrived very quickly but it all seemed freshly prepared and certainly tasted excellent. We’d been tipped off that the falafels are the “pièce de résistance” but unfortunately they’d sold out - they were on the chalkboard of lunch specials outside so they were obviously snaffled up by the time we arrived.
It was the desserts that fascinated me the most - chocolate cake, New York cheesecake, apple pie, lots of different ice creams - all vegan! Not a drop of cream or smear of butter in sight. They had most of them on display in a chiller cabinet at the deli counter and they all looked delicious - not at all like “health food” or whatever else you might be expecting. After much deliberation I went for a wedge of lemon tart - a crumbly base with the texture of shortbread topped with a thick tangy layer of lemon curd. Lovely, but would have been even lovelier with a dollop of ice cream on the side. I’m sure it won’t be my last dessert there so next time I’ll remember to ask.
Portions are certainly generous, so anyone with preconceptions about vegan food being only for rabbits will find themselves surprisingly well-fed. The Loving Hut is part of an international franchise with around 200 restaurants worldwide; their ethos is to provide affordable, tasty vegan meals and we certainly felt that they accomplished that when we visited. The one thing that took us by surprise is that they don’t serve alcohol - not sure why, it’s just not on the menu. They do however have some non-alcoholic beers, a lovely dark malty ginger beer, fruit cocktails and the biggest herbal tea list I’ve ever seen.
Our meal for three at The Loving Hut came to 60€ for a starter, three main courses, a dessert, two non-alcoholic beers, one ginger beer and two coffees.
