Salad Centre

You’ll feel healthy just walking in to this vegetarian wholefood restaurant, with its huge range of home cooked food and freshly squeezed juices.

The Venue
The Salad Centre is on the main road through Boscombe centre, easily reachable and easy to spot as there are the words - Vegetarian Cafe - printed outside next to the relatively small cafe logo.

The layout is reminiscent of eateries in an airport lounge with food and drink displayed along a servery at the back of the restaurant and plenty of tables packed into an open seating area.

The decor is fairly plain other than a ratatouille recipe painted on one wall and a few paintings by local artists on another.

Even though there's a lot of seating packed in, The Salad Centre feels airy and spacious because of the huge window at the front overlooking the bustling street.

The People
Servers are friendly but always seem to be in a rush, especially at lunch times which can get very busy.

There’s no table service, and the cafe has a very quick turnaround. While this might be ideal for a lunch break, it’s not so great if you’re planning to have a relaxing meal.

The Salad Centre attracts all sorts of customers, from pensioners to construction workers. There are usually a few people eating on their own in their lunch break, and some families with young children.

The Food
As the name suggests, there is always a good range of salads, the recipes of which change daily and are always inventive. A regular bowl, in which you can have just one or all six of the different salads on offer, costs £4.15.

There is also plenty of hot food, such as pizza, jacket potatoes and pies (some of which are gluten free). If you’re not tempted by their more adventurous dishes, the jacket potatoes are delicious and always perfectly cooked.

Specials change daily and costed £4.95 or £6.95 depending on the portion size. They include mushroom and rocket frittata, lentil moussaka, and butternut squash and gnocchi bake. There are always several specials on offer each day so there’s plenty of variety.

Soups also change daily, and include unusual combinations such as their delicious pea, pear and watercress soup. Food is home cooked, but because it’s on display along the counter it sometimes has to be reheated and loses some freshness.

There is a good range of home baked cakes from £1.10 and desserts including dairy or vegan ice cream. An afternoon tea tray of a scone, jam, butter, choice of cake and a pot of tea is £5.75.

The Drink
Freshly squeezed juices are £3.25 or £3.95, and include healthy combinations such as the Detox (watermelon and watercress) as well as plain orange juice.

Milkshakes are £2.95, and soft drinks around £2. Tea, coffee and hot chocolate are available, which can be made with soya milk instead of regular milk if preferred.

The Last Word
The Salad Centre has a great range of tasty, healthy food and is ideal for a quick lunch. The queues can be long, and it can be hard to find a table, but it’s worth the wait.

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