Lola's is a Spanish tapas restaurant on Commercial Road, where Bournemouth town centre gives way to the West Cliff. Two friends from Spain opened it in 2015 with one straightforward idea: homemade tapas, cooked from fresh ingredients and served in generous portions made for sharing.
On the menu
It's the traditional tapas set-up, small plates to graze on and pass around the table. Bread with alioli, patatas in four styles, and croquetas filled with ham, chicken, spinach & blue cheese or mushroom get things going. Heartier plates follow: hake baked in garlic cream, Galician-style octopus, chorizo, pork loin, ox cheeks and a selection of cured Ibérico ham, plus Spanish omelette, Padron peppers and Manchego cheese. For pudding it's the Spanish standards, crema catalana, churros with chocolate and almond cake.
Vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free
Dietary options are woven through the whole menu instead of being bolted on at the end. Every one of the four patatas, the mushroom croquetas and the Padron peppers are vegan, and vegetarians also have the tortilla and a goat's cheese salad among other dishes. Gluten-free bread and flour can be swapped in across several plates, which makes it easy to feed a group with different requirements.
Worth knowing
The restaurant has a devoted local following and is frequently named among the highest-rated restaurants in Bournemouth on TripAdvisor, where its reviews run into the thousands. Reserving ahead is wise, especially for dinner, and the website takes bookings online. With the town centre and the Lower Gardens both an easy walk away, it fits simply into a day spent exploring Bournemouth, before or after.
More restaurants in the area are covered in our food & drink guide, and our things to do guide will help fill the rest of the day.