THE new look to the Slug and Lettuce in Bournemouth town centre is more evolution than revolution.

The layout hasn’t changed much, but the new décor is nice and fresh and there’s a more distinct separation between bar and dining area.

It’s clear that this chain it trying to move a little more towards the restaurant end of things.

Once it was a bar that served food, but now with tables laid out in restaurant fashion and waiter service, it’s definitely now somewhere you’d go for a sit-down meal with the family.

The food’s certainly a notch above bar grub too – and to say it was plentiful is something of an understatement.

We started by sharing a mezze platter, which combined garlic ciabatta strips, olives, falafel, flatbread, houmous, salsa, a crème fraiche and spring onion dip, carrot and cucumber crudites.

It was easily enough for four people. What turned up was a huge wooden platter with oodles of each dish. You could have easily shared it as a main course for two.

All delicious and far too much for a starter as we paced ourselves for the main event. A smaller version for those looking for a little something as a starter wouldn’t be a bad addition to the menu.

And so on to mains – we both vowed to be a bit different and try to have something we’d not had before.

Thanks to the diverse menu – which includes everything from burgers to curries via salads, sandwiches, brunch, meat, fish, chicken and pasta – that wasn’t difficult.

I went for a char-grilled chicken and mozzarella tostada (a cross between a warm toasted tortilla and a thin-crust pizza, for those not familiar), while my girlfriend elected for a Moroccan chicken salad.

We were both in for a bit of a shock once more – both plates were loaded to the gills and beautifully presented.

The Moroccan chicken was exceptionally tasty but the portion size was far too big – perhaps without a starter it would have been somewhere near polished off.

The tostada was covered in perfectly-cooked chicken, lovely mozzarella and plenty of salad, but again was too much after a big starter.

But that was of our own doing to an extent thanks to a possibly over-ambitious starter and neither of us could fault the food at all. At the end of the day you can’t really complain when there’s too much food.

All in all it’s clear that the Slug and Lettuce is moving into the full-on dining experience and the high quality of the food and service certainly reflects that.

Our meals, excluding drinks but including some ice cream, came to just short of £30, which really was great value considering the quality and quantity of what came out of the kitchen.

Go on a Monday night and it’s half that thanks to a 50 per cent off deal. You can’t go far wrong.