You're down the beach and, having worked up a bit of a lather engineering a complex sand city with nothing more sophisticated than a bendy plastic spade and a bucket decorated with a picture of a duck in a sailor suit, you want something to eat. Sandown has its famous beach on which to play and, interspersed along the golden mile are plenty of refreshment stops offering ice cream, tea and chips with which to fortify yourself - plus replacement buckets and spades, if required.

You could spend all day down the esplanade, amusing yourself swimming, making a hefty investment on the penny falls and eating. And plenty of people do. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are all catered for and, at the licensed Beach Shack, positioned right on the esplanade just south-west of the pier at Devonia slipway, there is a surprisingly wide choice of nibbles, snacks and meals.

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Matt and Cat gravitated towards the Blackpool of the south east Wight one afternoon after a particularly strenuous day bimbling around Afton. Having fortified themselves with sarnies and a drink at the Apple Tree café, they were too full to do proper justice to the menu at the Beach Shack. Sadly foregoing the scrummy-sounding steak and Stilton baguette, the home-made crab cakes and the home-made red pesto and cheese, M and C settled for two cream teas.

The cream tea is a good barometer of a venue. Is the tea in a pot with 'all the trimmings'? Clotted cream? A generous dollop of jam? The Beach Shack subscribes to the school of the instant cream tea - one scone served with a carton of the excellent Roddas clotted cream, a portion of jam, a packet of butter and a pre-made mug of tea - no teapot or hot water - in the builder's café style. However, where the Beach Shack excels itself is with the scone. Having previously tried some of café owner Amanda's red pesto, Cat could confirm that she and Matt were in the hands of someone who knows how to cook. Whether the scones were home-made was not made clear but judging by the other entries on the spectacularly comprehensive menu, if it was home-made it would have said so. Nonetheless the scone was a delight. Crumbly without being dry and chunky without being cloying.

And, of course, what a nice setting. Matt and Cat sat at the café's patio, although there is some indoor shelter in a teeny little room inside the Beach Shack. As well as offering Wi-Fi, punters can sit inside and read the papers - but frankly, if you're at Sandown Beach, you may as well be outside.

M & C enjoyed their cream teas, and sat sipping tea, enjoying the last rays of the sun as walkers strolled by along the revetment. If light meals by the beach are your thing, you'll not go far wrong with The Beach Shack. A decent cream tea and a nice cup of tea, on one of the finest beaches in England. Recommended.

Visit the website: http://thebeachshack-isleofwight.co.uk/