text: Every once in awhile I have a meal at a restaurant that exceeds all my expectations and it happened recently in of all places Montreal Canada In a city known for smoked meat and french fries loaded with gravy and cheese I had one of the best meals ever at Propulsion Cantine Vegetalienne A Vegan restaurant with an Airplane theme on the famed Saint Catherines Street From the menu to the decor from the waitress to the owner this place is funky fresh and entirely unexpected Simone and I brought some friends with us who were Vegan and we actually arrived about twenty minutes before closing I was a little nervous that the service and the food would be sub par because of the time of night but we were happily greeted on arrival by the quirky and funky waitress whose name I cannot remember but whose personality I can never forget She was more then willing to talk our ears off about the entire menu and about their new restaurant that has only been open since mid summer The decor is aviation themed including a mannequin of a s pilot and many parts of an actual propeller plane that had crashed and the owner had bought and turned into the bar and some seating tables It is all very cool to look at while waiting for the food Speaking of food we decided after speaking with the waitress that we would just let her decide what to eat and so she started us off with a sample of a cool and refreshing cucumber smoothie From there the four of us split a create your own bowl This was a imaginative concept where you choose a combination of grains vegetables and sauces We went with a Pesto Bowl and had Quinoa Bean Based Pesto and fresh grilled Zucchini and roasted Cauliflower in it Although completely dairy free and thickened with garbanzo beans this was the best Pesto I have had It was creamy nutty and garlicky great The quinoa and vegetables were cooked perfectly as well and this was a great start to the meal Next we wanted to explore the sandwich menu all sandwiches come with tempeh in them and of course your choice of fresh moist light vegan breads They all sounded so good our waitress suggested we split a variety of them and she would be sure the kitchen would cut them into portions for us I did not think it would get much better after the Pesto but these sandwiches were just over the top great The choices we went with were the Lentil Cari sandwich my personal favorite The Mungo Mango voted by my friends to be the best and The Purple Taro Portabello still good but third on the voting scale The Lentil Sandwich on Turmeric Bread was tempeh with a lentil patty that had a hint of curry and spice and just the right amount of smokiness The patty held together on the outside and when you bit in the lentils were cooked perfectly tender but not mushy I have never had lentils that tasted so good in my culinary life and the only thing that upset me about this sandwich was that I had to share it with the rest of the table It was my absolute favorite Next up was the Mungo Mango This was also pretty good and consisted of Chinese Mung Beans and Fresh Mangos with tempeh on Fig BreadIt was earthy and sweet and everyone at the table loved it also Lastly was the Purple Taro Portabello It was also good and very purple with mashed taro and sauteed mushrooms with tempeh but I found it to be a little soggy and less flavorful then the other sandwiches By the time we ate all the food it was past closing but when we asked the waitress if she wanted to cash us out to help with closing she told us not to worry about it and then she went and ate her own dinner We ended up staying for awhile longer and chatting amongst ourselves and with her and it was only when the kitchen and pilot outfitted owner had started to leave that we got our check On the way out we took some vegan cookies with us for the road and they of course were great That night I dreamed of Lentil Sandwiches and so the next night Simone and I went back for another helping of sandwiches pesto and good conversation with our friendly waitress There was also a great piano player that second night who was amazing and we ended up staying again until closing Everything about Propulsion is five stars in the future they will be adding Vegan alcoholic drinks and fresh local salads I hope that people check this place out because it truly is a hidden gem and I hope that I will have the pleasure of many return visits when I travel to Montreal