AN ESTABLISHED Bournemouth seafront restaurant will be bringing a new beach experience which aims to rival the likes of Ibiza this summer.

WestBeach has unveiled its scaled up plans to transform part of the sandy coastline.

With hospitality businesses due to reopen with outside seating only from April 12, WestBeach on the Beach is set to offer fixed booth seating and dining.

It will be open daily from 9.30am, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner with a menu of favourites from Poole Bay oysters and lobsters through to fish and chips.

And then from May 21, when the WestBeach indoor restaurant is due to reopen, the outdoor site will be renamed W Beach.

The change in name will coincide with a more relaxed style and slightly reduced menu on the decked area. This will include a tapas offering to complement WestBeach's long-running restaurant.

WestBeach operations director Matt Piovan said: "We have had an area of the beach licensed for a while but we have never really utilised it but Covid sort of forced our hand to evaluate what we do and how we could do something different to generate trade.

"Everyone wants to be outside and we had a conversation with the seafront team about using the beach more.

"We had a successful 10-week period last year and following that licensing, police and seafront have been happy with us. Now we have a licence to use it for six months of the year now.

"Coming out of the current lockdown, it gives us an excellent opportunity to do something fantastic out there.

"We really want to push something different and something premium with the beach this year, as opposed to just a bar. We want to make it a really good beach dining experience as well as somewhere for people to come and have a few drinks."

Mr Piovan said while Covid had been a "significantly damaging time for hospitality", it had given the business a chance to re-evaluate and carry out a major investment in one of the site's natural attractions – the beachfront location.

More than £20,000 has been invested as the business prepares for its 21st year at the seafront this summer, with up to 150 covers due to be available on the beach.

"We want it to be a regular feature every year and be something different for Bournemouth," said Mr Piovan. "It's the fifth best beach in the world now and we need to have some world class offers on the beach that rival places like Ibiza."

He added: "We have been silently working on our grand scheme to reopen with a bang rather than worrying about being closed."

Bookings for undercover areas of WestBeach on the Beach can be made online at west-beach.co.uk/book, while the rest of the site will be available on a walk-in basis.