Zapoteca Mexican Grill & Seafood is a Mexican restaurant on Marine Drive in White Rock, a short walk from East Beach. The kitchen specializes in the food of Oaxaca and southern Mexico, and takes its name and its inspiration from the Zapotec indigenous civilization.

Mole runs through the menu. A tasting covers three of them: chocolate mole negro, herbal mole verde and chilhuacle mole amarillo, with bread, corn chips and plantain croquettes. Among the mains, mole negro comes with grilled flank steak and sweet potato puree, and mole verde with grilled pork belly.

Corn shows up everywhere else on the menu, in totopos with fresh guacamole and feta, in the deep fried corn ribs sold as costillitas, in tortilla soup built on a chile pasilla broth, and in the thick guajillo corn tortilla under a huarache. The seafood half of the name is carried by two ceviches, cured shrimp and raw Ahi tuna, along with squid chicharrones.

Vegan dishes are marked on the menu. Takeout and reservations both run through the website. Zapoteca is at 15495 Marine Drive, White Rock, BC V4B 1C9, on (604) 536-6677, and opening hours are worth confirming directly at zapoteca.com or by phone.