Restaurant review #86 – Roberto Love and Food was a new place in Hasselt (opened in Spring 2016), on the far away side of Flanders (at least for us, coming from Bruges 😉 ). It was not a vegetarian nor vegan restaurant, but had several vegan options or dishes that could easily be veganised. Roberto used to be the chef at restaurant De Levensboom in Hasselt, a well know restaurant in Hasselt with vegan options.

I write “was” because unfortunately only a couple of months after its opening, Roberto Love and Food already closed again in September 2016. The owner and chef found a dream job in Malaga (Spain) and so the excitement of having a new place in Hasselt with vegan options quickly dwindled.
We visited the place in July (before the announcement of its closure), and had a nice lunch. Although you will not be able to visit Roberto Love and Food anymore, I decided to write this review anyway. Maybe who knows, Roberto will return to Belgium one day, or perhaps you can go taste his culinary creations in Malaga!

We made a reservation and mentioned that we are both vegan. No problem. The place was empty when we arrived, but soon other people came in for lunch. There was also a small terrace in front.
The place was nicely decorated, very bright (big windows). Most chairs were lined with pillows, which made them more comfortable. The only thing we didn’t fancy were the pots with beach shells on each table.

This was the menu. It was not indicate which dishes were vegan, but it was no problem to get (most) vegetarian dishes veganised. (I was a bit baffled when we asked the waiter which dishes were vegan and he replied “all of them” – well surely not the ones with fish 😛 )

This is what we had for lunch:

We shared a plate of hummus as an appetizer. It came with nice little pancakes to scoop the hummus. Lovely.
The main dishes were nice, but not so exciting. The presentation was special (with the little pots placed seperately on the plate), but culinary a bit underwhelming (just some vegetables with potatoes/pancake).
The desserts were super delicious and beautifully presented. Roberto had asked beforehand if we wanted to have the desserts on a shared platter, and we were OK with that. It was avaocado pistache pie and a bowl with chocolate moelleux. A bit on the expensive side though (8,50€ for each).

Service was very friendly, and they were very knowledgeable about ingredients. Toilet was clean and also decorated with some photos and posters. I love that there were individual towels to dry your hands.

A pity Love and Food is already closed again. It was a very nice addition to Hasselt, and we would have surely visited again.

One other thing though: I posted a collage of photos of our visit shortly after visiting Roberto Love and food on Instagram and on my Facebook Page. They reappeared – uncredited – on Love and Food’s IG and FB. I appreciate our photos being used and spread, but a little credit or acknowledgement when pinching photos would be nice 😉

Roberto Love and Food, location
Runkstersteenweg 39
3500 Hasselt
0496/76.52.67

website: http://www.robertoloveandfood.be/

See our lists of restaurants where vegans are welcome in the menu section of The Bruges vegan! List restaurants in Bruges and outside  Bruges.