We've started getting breakfast on Sundays lately, because we have a new breakfast partner who can only come along then. Imagine having a job. How dare she. This week we were looking over our list of breakfast options, and that friend herself mentioned one that she hadn't been to since before The Great Pandemic of 2020-Fucking When We Get Our Shit Together. Which was how we found ourselves riding our bikes through the middle of the city, complaining about the heat and regretting the choice to wear a long skirt today. Was it worth the pain? Yes. It was.
WebsiteI looked down at the menu. There were pancakes; that was good. There were chips; that was good, I could pick my usual safe options and have something to write about. But there were options. Tomato sauce and mayo? Appealing, but (as great a sin as this may be) I am not one for tomato sauce on chips or anything else. Herbs and garlic? Those sounded delicious, and if I ever return I intend to try them. But then I saw the last option - coconut and curry chips, of all things - and I knew there was no other choice. When faced with such unique offerings, what kind of a potato critic would I be to pass them up? How could I let myself miss such an opportunity?
Simply, the chips were near perfect. Well cooked and flavourful, with a nice mix of overly crunchy and slightly soft that fell right on the mark on average. They were flavoured heavily (and a little unevenly, I will admit) with salt flakes and parsley - I did not consider it to be too much, but I am a known salt addict and I have known others to complain about that level of flavouring, so be warned that results may vary on personal taste. The seasoning also included coconut and fried shallot, which I did not feel added much; the former was mostly useful because it padded out the volume of seasoning at the bottom of the bowl and allowed me to take large pinches of it to horrify my friends by eating, but I did not notice the latter at all, and indeed forgot it was there until looking at the menu again later. Having said that, the chips certainly did not suffer for their inclusion or their lack of influence; they were delicious, and I would gladly have eaten more of the chips just by themselves.
Of course, these chips were not by themselves, and it would be remiss of me to not mention the Bengal curry sauce that it came with. I feel like it is well established in these reviews that I am a White Bitch, and thus have no idea what makes a bengal curry distinct from any other variety, but it was really good. One person sitting next to me said they would eat it with a spoon, which I honestly cannot disagree with. The curry was not spicy, but it had a strong and vibrant flavour, tinted by... something acidic that I could not identify. Some recipes I have looked at online suggest that bengal curries may include lemon, which... could have been what it was? I don't know, it didn't taste quite like that, but it could have been. It was good, though, and the flavour meshed with the saltiness of the chips surprisingly well. From comments others made about their respective meals, this seems like a common trait at Loveon, unusual flavour combinations that nevertheless work, and they certainly didn't miss with their chips. Someone observed that the curry being cold seemed odd, although on reflection we realised that most chip sauces are, and that it only seemed unusual this time because it was curry, which usually isn't. Would it have been better hot? I think it would have been good, still. I don't know about better.
The rest of my meal, today, were pancakes with assorted fruit, a berry compote and vanilla ice cream, as well as a strawberry and blueberry milkshake.
The pancakes were unique. This is not, in fact, a euphemistic way of saying bad; they were just genuinely unusual. They came with large chunks of raw apple, which were not on the menu - they came with an entire slice of orange, just kind of there. The orange was average, as they are this time of year; the apples were good, an unusual choice on pancakes but one that I liked. The pancakes themselves were unusually dense and dry; this was not actually a significant failure point for the dish, because there were so many liquid components that soaked into them to replace the moistness they would have had, but it could have been a different story very easily.
The milkshake was simple, but had a good flavour, and was a nice change from last week (which I may write about at some point, if I get around to it, and will possibly link here when I do). Towards the end I got a couple of mouthfuls that were a little too full of seeds for my liking, but in general it was good, and I would gladly order it again, unless I decided to get a different flavour next time.
Generally, breakfast today was delicious. Loveon was somewhere I would go again, a surprising and disappointing rarity in this culinary journey we find ourselves on, and I believe many around the table were of a similar opinion. One thing to be warned about is that the servings were quite large; a few of us were unable to finish the food we had ordered, and I found myself struggling even with the last couple of mouthfuls of pancakes, which are usually so light and fluffy. Frequently I find myself deciding that this week's potatoes were the best thing on the menu; it is tempting to make that call again, but for once it isn't because the rest of the offerings were subpar, but because all of the food was good.
Update (2024-04-07): I recently returned to Loveon on a separate occasion, only to find that the chips with curry sauce no longer existed on the menu, much to my disappointment.
