Hands up who didn't make their sandwiches today. It may be that you ran out of bread, forgot to wash the Tupperware from the day before, or you're just plain idle.

Matt and Cat regularly fall into all three categories, consequently finding themselves in Newport at midday with nothing to eat. Being the Island's administrative capital, there are often many other office drones on the hunt for a quick lunch and M&C have acquired some lunchbuddies to accompany them on their hour's break. Matt and Cat dining club venue Original Phil's Diner is a regular haunt as are the Blue Door and Olivo. One day, the pioneering little group decided to go west to Carisbrooke to the highly recommended Cafe 44.

Carisbrooke, with its historic mill, ancient church and free parking, is a pleasant village that still just about manages to assert its difference from the much larger Newport. Taking advantage of that car parking the lunch party crossed the road to the smart-fronted Cafe 44. This new kid on the block has already been gaining lots of positive feedback and Matt and Cat and friends were keen to check it out.

Review continues:

Cafe 44 breaks the mould of the traditional greasy spoon, refashioning it into a stylish, well-appointed eatery. Matt and Cat were impressed by the tidy counter, the slick wooden booths with their pew-like seating and the clever use of skylights. It's a surprisingly large venue; although Matt and Cat didn't thoroughly explore, there seemed to be plenty of additional seating in a raised area out back.

Shuffling into their pews, M&C and friends studied the menu. It was a typical list of cafe fodder - eggs, burgers, sandwiches - into which a few surprises had been interjected such as mussels in white wine, cream and garlic and Mexican chilli and chocolate. There were also some tasty-sounding daily specials. Matt, who was planning on a light supper, thought it wise to fill up so he chose the intriguing-sounding Mexican chilli and chocolate. Cat went more mainstream with poached eggs on buttered toast with extra mushrooms. Their friends opted for burger and prawn sandwich respectively.

After the orders were given to the chummy man at the counter, the nerds talked about cakes and the designers analysed the menu, admiring its matt lamination and cool Scandinavian colourway. After some moments trying to find optimum comfort on the wooden benches the team's chat was interrupted by the waiter, who advised Matt that his Mexican chilli would have to be served with naan bread as the kitchen was out of nachos. Matt was happy with this late substitution.

In fact, when his dish arrived, he was pretty happy with it all. The chocolate wasn't an obvious taste but the smooth and rich flavour it imparted to the chilli was a revelation. The accompanying mango chutney even had real chunks of mango in it; so overall Matt was more than satisfied with this lunchtime treat.

Coming next - in descending order of enjoyment - was the 'Number 44 Handmade Burger': butcher's beef mince blended with seasoned onion, cooked on the griddle and sandwiched in baker's bread, served with fries and side salad. It was an impressive-looking pile that tasted as good as it looked, and was highly praised by someone who has eaten a lot of burgers. The group was stunned when the burger's recipient declared it to be better than a Phil's burger!

The simplest meal, Cat's poached eggs on toast, turned out to be the most disappointing. Unexpectedly the 'buttered' toast was dry, with patties of wrapped butter alongside on the plate. Cat likes to have her butter nicely melted and was not happy about having to scrape the eggs and mushrooms off the toast, butter it and re-create the 'on toast' part of the dish. The eggs too were a let-down. As any egg-bore will tell you the white of the egg should be firm and the yolk runny. Cat, too, has strictly orthodox views about such matters, and alas the yolks were hard and dry: a sure sign of over-cooking. Although the mushrooms and bread were very nice, it was alarming to think that even the woeful House of Legends could rustle up better poached eggs than Café 44.

Before long it was time for the group to disband, go back to their respective desks, and work like Trojans until the weekend beckoned. The three lads enjoyed their meals, and all agreed that Café 44 was a stylish venue with chirpy staff and some welcome and unusual twists to the menu. The eggs, sadly, just didn't cut the mustard - if eggs cut mustard. That was a surprising aberration, given the good standard of everything else at Café 44. Despite this lapse, Matt and Cat recommend this venue as an welcome addition to Carisbrooke.