If you are staying in downtown Seoul, the most accessible outlet is probably the Sinchon outlet. It is listed as "Loving Hut Yonsei University" on Happy Cow, because it is located near the university gate.
Take the metro green line #2 and alight at Sinchon. Take exit #2 and walk down the busy road of shops. The shop is along the main road, so it was quite easy to find.
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| Inside the restaurant. It's self-serve. |
What I like about Loving Hut is that there is quite a variety of Korean food and there is an English menu with pictures of the food. The price is not expensive too.
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| The menu has English captions and pictures |
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| Drinks and ice cream also available. |
There were so many dishes I wanted to try, but my stay in Seoul was short and I only came here twice.
The first day, I had a bean paste bibimbap (Soft Tofu Gang Doenjang Bibimbap, 7000W).
It came was a bowl of bibimbap, a small sizzling pot of bean paste and a bowl of mashed tofu. I wasn't quite sure how it is supposed to be eaten. But I decided to pour the mashed tofu into the pot of bean paste and it turned out right. I am not sure if I was suppose to pour the mixture into the rice and mixed it up. I ate it separately. It's not bad, but nothing really memorable.
The main course comes with 3 small side dishes: kimchi, some greens (looks like garlic stems, but I can't really tell) and seitan. I like the kimchi. It's the type without the fermentation smell and is slightly sweet and spicy.
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| This is the Soft Tofu Gang Doenjang Bibimbap. 7000W. I poured the bowl of white mashed tofu into the sizzling pot of bean paste (Doenjang means fermented bean paste) and mixed it up. |
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| I like the kimchi from Loving Hut. It's a little sweet, without the fermentation taste. |
After the meal, I decided to try the vegan ice cream. The ice cream is sold by weight. 100g costs 3900W, which gives 2 small scoop. I tried the pomegranate flavour and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was really good.
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| Pomegranate ice cream. I really like this. |
The next day, I was back for dinner again. This time I ordered the Soft Tofu Pot Stew. I had tried this dish many years again when I was in Portland Oregon. It was so memorably delicious, I had been looking for this in Singapore for many years, but just couldn't find the vegetarian version. I was so glad Loving Hut had it on the menu. (I had wanted to tried it the first day but got distracted by the Doenjang Bibimbap).
However, when it came, I was a little disappointed. First, the portion was small (I had imagined a bigger "pot"), Then it didn't look like what I had so many years ago. The soup wasn't red and the tofu was mashed. But when I tucked into it, I found that it was quite good too. Not quite the same as the original (though seriously, I can't remember how the original tasted like), but quite tasty nonetheless. I must warned that it is rather spicy (which is how I like it).
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| Soft Tofu Pot Stew - Spicy and good! |
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| One of the sides was lotus root. This is sweet. It's tasty, I liked it. |
I wanted to try more dishes but another main course would be too much. So I ordered a side dish of Spicy Fried Soy Meat. This turned out to be a disappointment. The texture of the "meat" was more like gluten balls than TVP meat. It wasn't spicy at all and it tasted like a regular Chinese sweet and sour meat dish.
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| Spicy Fried Soy Meat -- not bad, but nothing special. It is more like a regular Chinese sweet and sour dish. |
Overall, I enjoyed Loving Hut. It is conveniently located. There is English and pictures on the menu to help you decide what to order. The staff also spoke English. The ambiance is nice and it is inexpensive. Given that vegetarian food is so difficult to find in South Korean, I must say it is really great to find Loving Hut here.
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| There is a wall of Famous Vegetarian and the Sakyamuni Buddha is listed there. This is a mistake. The historical Buddha was not a vegetarian. He ate what was offered to him, including meat. |
After a good meal, I took a nice walk down the street that was buzzing with many activities and did a bit of shopping. Yes, another plus is that it is located along a busy shopping street.
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