By Erin Semagin Damio, News Correspondent

For vegans, dining out can be a challenge. Many restaurants offer a meatless entree or two in concession to vegetarians, but for someone who also avoids cheese, eggs and butter, the meal can often be relegated to a salad minus the goat cheese or bacon bits.
But The Pulse Café, a small vegan restaurant in Somerville’s Davis Square, opened this January to offer a tastier alternative. Hopping on the band wagon with other veggie-centric restaurants – Grasshopper in Allston, My Thai in Chinatown and Veggie Planet in Harvard Square – The Pulse is recreating dishes using less familiar protein sources, like seitan, a meat supplement made from wheat gluten; tofu, a soy product that can be made flavorful and crispy; and tempeh, which is fairly chewy and made of fermented soybeans or grains.
Pulse offers a variety of homestyle vegan cooking with a frequently changing menu. Owners Bob and Lisa Bouley (Bob is the chef) used to own Vej Naturals in Malden, which closed in the fall in anticipation of Pulse’s opening. Pulse claims a heavy focus on organic and natural foods, as well as environmental sustainability. Takeout containers and utensils are compostable, and Pulse gets its power from wind and NSTAR Green, a company which provides electricity generated from renewable sources.
But what about the cafe itself? Pulse certainly has a conscience, but is it worth eating at? Stepping into the cafe, it is fairly small, with a light atmosphere. The walls are bright, adorned with framed pictures of vegetables, and the chairs are naturally finished wood. The kitchen is partially open, so although the food being prepared isn’t visible, it’s definitely possible to catch glimpses of the chefs at work.
Above all though, the food is fabulous. Pulse does not fit the stereotype of healthy, bland food. The menu is simple, home-cooked, and well-prepared. Clearly, making good food from quality ingredients is a priority here, the ingredients just happen to not come from animals.
The current menu includes several appetizers, like nachos, Mediterranean mezze, and a pesto crostini. Entree-sized salads include spring greens, ranch and an Incan salad made with quinoa, black beans and corn. Entrees consist of a variety of dishes with a protein of tofu, seitan or tempeh. These dishes have a lot of flavor and show influences from around the world, from Brazilian-style tofu to Caribbean jerk tempeh to seitan picatta. Pulse offers a rotating smoothie of the day, soup of the day, and sometimes offers daily specials of pizza and sushi rolls.

The nachos are a tasty take on a traditional and decidedly not vegan dish. Homemade chips are covered with refried beans, jalapeno peppers, Pulse’s homemade vegan sour cream, and a delicious cashew based Monterey Jack-flavored cheesy sauce. Although with the saucy refried beans, they were a somewhat messy finger-food, they were worth the use of every napkin.
The ranch salad was very generously sized and filling enough for a meal. It came with romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, carrots and a well-seasoned smoked tofu. The ranch dressing was creamy and had a great flavor, and the pre-dressed salad came with just enough.
An eggplant panini sandwich was fantastic. It came with perfectly cooked eggplant, flavorful tomato-sauce, and a tofu-based ricotta cheese substitute, melted together and sandwiches between two pieces of fresh toasted French bread. The side salad came with many more vegetables than the usual side salad, like avocado, and was a great completion of the plate.

Although Pulse is priced very reasonably for dinner on a student budget (entrees are $11 to $13), they recently started offering lunch as a slightly cheaper and equally delicious option. Offerings include sandwiches like falafel, TLT (Tempeh, Lettuce and Tomato), and smoky tofu; smaller portions of dinner salads, soups, and pizza (the current flavor offering is a mouth-watering combination of spinach, fennel, onions and a tofu-based ricotta cheese). Desserts are creative, change every night, and have included tempting specials like raspberry chocolate cake, chocolate toffee matzoh (just before Passover), and chocolate mousse.
The Pulse Café (195 Elm St., Somerville) is about a five-minute walk from the Davis Square T stop on the Red Line.