by MARK SLUTSKY

Batman and Robin! Lewis and Clark! Smith and Wesson! Dungeons and Dragons! Nothing beats an amazing team-up, when two great tastes taste great together. But despite our culture’s fondness for tempting twosomes, you rarely see such pairings in the restaurant world, largely because restaurant team-ups, in most cases, don’t make much sense. However, a recent venture that opened on St-Denis a few weeks ago kinda does. Pushap, the veggie Indian resto mini-chain, has teamed up with la faim du monde, another vegetarian restaurant that recently closed the doors on its Duluth location. Together they’ve formed a sort of super-vegetarian restaurant combining selections from both their menus.

It’s not a bad idea, and veggies will certainly appreciate the restaurant’s diverse menu, which ranges from curries to burgers. The Indian food is made with butter, but the other stuff is largely vegan, except for some dishes made with cheese (or where cheese is an option, as with the burgers).

One thing that’s annoyingly consistent about vegetarian restaurants is the service. And I don’t mean that it’s consistently good, either—for some reason, slowness, surliness and vegetarianism seem to go together in the food industry, blame it on whatever you want. So I was happy to find that the food was served quickly and pleasantly at Pushap la faim du monde.

You might want to start with one of the restaurant’s very tasty soups—the soup du jour ($3.50) on a recent visit was a cold, smooth asparagus and orange blend perfect for a hot day. It was a bit too sweaty to try the miso onion soup ($5.25), with its red wine and melted cheese ingredients, but it definitely intrigued. Other starters included samosas ($2.25) and pakoras ($2.95), as well as a variety of spreads. The feta spread ($6.95) was quite tasty, a mix of cheese, kalamata olives, sundried tomatoes and olive oil. It could have stood to be a little more... spreadable, but it was definitely tangy and tasty.

That’s also available in sandwich form ($7.25–$8.25, depending on the bread you want). Other sammies include hummus ($5.95–$6.95), vegé-paté ($6.25–$7.25) and something intriguing called Inca paté ($6.25–$7.25). That’s made with beet, quinoa, cashew nuts, onions, tahini and sunflower seeds. How is it? In the words of a friend, it tasted “healthy,” which you can take as

you may.

If you’re familiar with the other Pushap restaurants, you’ll know what to expect from the Indian food—it’s healthy and wholesome, but don’t expect flavour fireworks. The thali ($7.50) is a good deal, with three veggie dishes, rice and bread included. The chana (chick pea) curry (also available on its own for $4.75) was definitely the tastiest, which is good as the menu describes it as “Pushap’s specialty.” The zucchini curry was... nice enough, but the palak paneer (spinach and cheese) was pretty forgettable.

If you prefer your food in burger form, PLFDM has several on offer—a tofu burger ($8.95), an Inca burger ($8.95) made with more or less the same Inca-licious ingredients as the sandwich, and a Mexican burger ($8.95) made with black beans and Mex-ish seasonings. All can be topped with cheese for a buck, and come with fried taters and the restaurant’s cabbage salad, which is basically a coleslaw by another name. Also on the Mexican front is a chili sin carne ($8.95), a Mexican burrito ($9.75) made with beans and tofu, and, a little more interestingly, cactus quesadillas ($6.75) made with refried black beans.

All in all, the food at PLFDM won’t win any awards, but it is healthy and served without any undue to-do. You’ll get better value for your veggie buck there than at Chu Chai, which is on the same block, but your tastebuds won’t be nearly as tickled. Put it this way: I’d recommend it to vegetarians, but not necessarily anyone else looking for a place to eat.

eattothebeat@gmail.com

Pushap la faim du monde
ADDRESS: 4110 St-Denis (between Duluth and Rachel)
PHONE: 906-0431
HOURS: Mon–Wed 11 a.m.–9 p.m.; Thu–Fri 11 a.m.–11 p.m.;
Sat–Sun 10 a.m.–11 p.m.
BEST FEATURES: Shockingly decent service and
a wide variety of inexpensive veggie eats
ALCOHOL: No
WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: No
VEGETARIAN FRIENDLY: Extraordinarily. Vegan too.
CREDIT CARDS: Yes
PRICE: $8–$15 per person, before tax and tip
RATING: ** and a half out of ****