Loving Hut is pretty creepy. I sincerely appreciate being able to find veg/vegan food in a lot of cities and countries, but the idea of supporting the Supreme Master situation (I hesitate to call it a cult, but I struggle to find a better word) is pretty distasteful. From online stories and friends' personal anecdotes, I'd rather steer clear and go hungry.

Some links I plucked from Google:

- http://www.humanewatch.org/the_murky_sea_of_cult_money/

- http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2011-06-02/news/critics-claim...

- http://thechinghaicult.blogspot.com/

I’m not religious at all, but I’ve eaten in some religious-based restaurants such as Harikrishna, adventist, and buddhist. And to be honest, I don't find it creepier than any other religion/cult.

I used to go all the time to a Loving Hut in Chinatown (San Francisco) and got friendly with the staff. They never mentioned religion or tried to convince me to join their religion/cult. I would be annoyed if they tried to push their religion on me, but instead, they seemed interested in promote vegetarianism and veganism. On a side note, this Chinatown branch has the best vegan Pho I ever had.

We have a loving hut nearby (Brighton, UK), and I can't say that I was particularly taken with the menu. I'm not even sure if I'd class it as food and I'm a champion for veganism!

The quality of their branches doesn’t seem to be consistent. For instance, they have a branch in Palo Alto that is a cafe where they reheat food prepared in advance. The food in this branch is kind of meh. I guess that is one of the reasons I didn’t fell compelled (yet) to go to any branch in London (where I leave now). There’s good (and cheap) vegetarian food everywhere in London!

I ate at their Camden branch once and it was pretty good, but the Holloway Road branch experience was kind of revolting.

Good to know, I'll check the Camden branch.

Fair enough - someone was telling me about the Supreme Master thing recently, must admit I had largely ignored it up until that point as just part of the bizarre Loving Hut experience. Thanks for the links, definitely some food for thought!

What the hell is up with the end of the Phoenix New Times article? There's incomplete sentences and stuff copy-pasted from the beginning. It's like the writer forgot to finish it and the editor never looked at it.