Vegetarian Restaurant Review: Zoukinis, Seamoor Road, Westbourne (From Bournemouth Echo)

Vegetarian Restaurant Review: Zoukinis, Seamoor Road, Westbourne

12:40pm Wednesday 4th August 2010 in

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With vegetarianism growing at a rate of knots in the Western world it’s quite surprising that there are so few veggie restaurants in the Bournemouth area.

Luckily, this little gem, nestled in the heart of Westbourne, is open on Friday and Saturday nights and offers a fantastic range of tasty vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free delights.

We visited on a Friday evening, and were pleased to see full tables.

Extremely warmly welcomed, we took our seats and started to peruse the impressive menu – as a vegetarian it was such a rare treat to have so many options before me.

A brilliant start to the meal was the discovery that half-bottles of prosecco were available – perfect for one – so I opted for the delicious rosé, while my companion chose a bottle of organic cider.

We soon discovered that we’d happened upon the Zoukinis Fiesta Weekend, one of friendly proprietor Kelly’s themed menus, this time based around Mexican food. (Others have included mediterranean and ‘Taste of the Orient’, as well as regular Indian Thali menus on Thursday nights.) Anticipating a filling feed, we by-passed the tasty-sounding starters, instead opting for a couple of side dishes before the main. The patatas bravas were absolutely delicious, without being too hot, and ditto the yummy chilli olives.

Next we chose our mains – for me the Mexican platter, for my partner garden vegetable enchiladas (with vegan and gluten-free options available for both).

A spread of chilli ‘non’ carne, jalapenos, corn chips and tortillas arrived, accompanied by serving dishes full of refried beans, sour cream, mango salsa and guacamole for me to mix and match at will.

It was simple but tasty fare, particularly the fabulous chilli ‘non’ carne.

The enchiladas were served with beans in a spicy tomato sauce topped with cheese with guacamole, salsa and salad – all of which received a resounding thumbs up from my dinner-mate.

With a tiny space left for pud, we decided to go for the simple-sounding chocolate fondant.

How wrong we were – far from being simple, this spongey cake with a gloriously sticky, warm chocolate centre came beautifully presented with a berry coulis and Barford chocolate ice cream. It was one of the finest and tastiest desserts I have ever had – heavenly.

Our thoroughly satisfying meal came to £51 including drinks, which wasn’t overly cheap, but was well worth paying in my (and my carniverous companion’s) opinion.