In a special guest review, Matt & Cat regular Wendy reviews food at the Isle of Wight Festival.

I wrote about IW Festival food for M&C last year and am pleased to bring you this update for 2009.

Sunday morning:
Keeping my eyes peeled for Isle of Wight food vendors in amongst the countless concessions, the only additional one I've spotted is Yarmouth-based Harbour Seafoods in the big food area near the main stage. After their low-key début at last year's Festival they're now geared up for catering big events, with a large kitchen, and bold signage promising seafood chowder, paella and kebabs. They were doing great trade. Might check it out today.

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In these times of economic hardship, people are thinking creatively about how to make money. Sunday supplements (a necessity if ever there was one) bulge with suggestions about how to get the cheapest cuts from Waitrose, whilst getting the Volvo to go a few extra miles. This, of course, is nothing new to our farmers, who have been diversifying their businesses for years.

The latest to do this on the Island has been the Griffin family, at the award-winning Briddlesford Lodge Farm; who have been adding strings to their collective bow with holiday accommodation and now a café.

Matt and Cat had heard that this new venture was very popular. The farm café market is really taking off on the Island, and M & C are always keen to be part of the zeitgeist. So, one lunchtime, they offered to take a little old lady to the new Briddlesford café as a special treat - only to discover that she had already been! She praised the place highly and didn't take much persuading to go again; so off they all went.

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Visit the website: http://www.briddlesfordlodgefarm.co.uk

The global recession seems to be passing the Isle of Wight's high streets by. Apart from the sad demise of Woolworth's, the Island's town centres seem to be bucking the national trend, with new restaurants, at least, opening weekly.

On their regular stroll to Farmhouse Fayre to buy their weekly ration of veg, Matt and Cat have been watching with anticipation as the windows of the long-abandoned St James Street bathroom shop were covered over. After a couple of months pupating under oriental newspaper, a new Chinese restaurant emerged fully formed and blinking into the unusually clement winter sunlight.

So it came to pass that Newport had another Asian restaurant. There's already a trio of Indians (Nabab, Bengal Palace and Tamarind), a brace of oriental eateries - Hong Kong Express and the unreviewed Mems (which is always closed when M and C try to eat there). Can the county town sustain another eatery or has it reached saturation point?

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How often in films do you hear the phrase, "I've got a bad feeling about this"? If Star Wars is anything to go by, far too many.

However, to exhaust the phrase one final time, these were the words that issued from Cat's lips as she and Matt drove into the grounds of Rookley Country Park. Not the most welcoming of entrances; a bland-looking building with a single sign directing visitors round the back of the structure. M and C with junior reviewers Bill and Jack followed the arrow and eventually found themselves in quite a nice airy bar and dining room. Inside, it was well-appointed, with many comfortable tables and big sofas to lounge on whilst watching the inevitable television. It had the added advantage that you didn't have to look at the outside, either.

A conservatory and decking had been added to the unprepossessing building to make the most of the rather dismal view - a small former quarry surrounded by mobile homes. However, the welcome from the eager staff was immediate and very friendly, and the meaty aroma of the carvery was enough to make the quartet lick their lips in anticipation. Could this venue overcome its handicap of being positioned by an industrial estate in one of the Island's less notable villages?

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Visit the website: http://www.isleofwight.com/rookleycountrypark/index.html

Matt and Cat have a good friend from the West Wight who's a bit of a bon viveur, and who enjoys exchanging notes with them on the latest Island eateries, preferably over a glass of some appropriate quaffage.

Over the years they've discovered a remarkable congruence; the more he denounces a place, the more M and C love it. It never fails. So when, during a recent encounter, the fine fellow hastened to pour the most extravagant scorn on Godshill's Loaves and Fishes restaurant Matt and Cat knew that they had to try it. Read on to see if the magic worked this time!

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