TUCKED away in the quaint old town section of Poole High Street is a rather nice little Mediterranean restaurant which is puzzlingly called Karma.

The name would suggest Indian cuisine more than anything, but this is definitely in the Greek camp, with maybe some Turkish or more general Med influences thrown in.

The cheerful mosaic-style glass lighting arrangements (the type you buy on holiday which then look completely out of place in the temperate climate of Britain), red brick archways and Greek music all serve to conjure up warmer climes.

This certainly put us in the mood for mezze so we chose the hot selection as a main course.

Starting with the staples of taramasalata, hummus, tzatziki and aubergine ratatouille, our table was soon groaning under the weight of numerous tasty delights.

These included succulent lamb and chicken skewers, cheese-filled pastry borek, falafel and spicy sausage, which all worked extremely well with the home-made chilli sauce we were offered.

Our excellent waiter struck just the right note of being attentive without pestering.

He urged me to choose a large glass of wine because ‘it’s Saturday night’ and served us with alacrity, good humour and charm.

Our main course mezze cost £15.95 per person with the total bill coming to a very reasonable £42. We certainly wouldn’t have been able to manage dessert as our Mediterranean specialities were more than enough to satisfy a good appetite.

There’s lots of lamb on the menu, along with a range of tasty-sounding casseroles and favourites like moussaka and kleftiko. I can certainly see us making a return visit to Karma sometime soon.

 

The bill...

Grilled lamb kofte starter: £5.45
Main course mezze for two: £31.98
Turkish beer: £3
Coke: £2
Total: £42.43