If you're hungry for lunch and in Newport you're probably in the right place.

From traditional cafés like one-of-a-kind Chapel Coffee Lounge to international identikit fast food franchises, the town has a good range of offerings. Admittedly, in the evening the choice is a bit slimmer, but for the busy shopper or office drone Newport's rarely a let-down for a mid-day repast. If, like Matt and Cat, you'd built up a substantial appetite staggering blank-eyed round the post-Christmas sales in an attempt to shake off the festive cabin fever, you could eat at dozens of revitalising places, each with its own personality.

And of those many lunching-places, none is more central than the Blue Door, located in the shadow of the Victoria memorial in the very middle of town. Most of the year, this busy corner has a little group of tables outside, where Matt and Cat often while away a happy lunchbreak in the sun, watching the world go by and almost invariably passing the time with someone they know. Such is Island life.

Read more »

Come with us on a journey through time and space, to a land of long hot summers, Cinzano and pop charts where ‘Do You Wanna Touch’ was considered a tour de force.

A place where, if they weren’t having the neighbours round for fondue bourguignonne - dipping their meat to the vibrato warblings of Demis Roussos - your parents were eating out at a restaurant like Valentino’s.

Although a venerable feature of the Carisbrooke landscape, Valentino’s has never really appeared on Matt and Cat’s radar. They’ve eaten at the village’s other food venues: The Waverley, the Eight Bells and Cafe Number 44 but not the Italian restaurant. However, a prompting tweet from their virtual friend Englane, proclaiming that it was her favourite restaurant, inspired M&C to see what it was all about.

Read more »

Matt and Cat are fans of the Hong Kong Express chain of Chinese restaurants.

Starting in Ryde, the brand spread westwards to Newport and Freshwater. Each new venue provided fast, fresh Chinese food in the distinctive Hong Kong Express style. Perhaps not the first choice for an intimate romantic tryst - say - but if you want to eat well in short order then it's hard to beat.

One thing M&C have noticed is that as it gets slicker, Hong Kong Express has got just a little bit more impersonal. At one time it was possible not only to get that great Chinese nosh, but also for the friendly staff to greet you, seat you and even sometimes remember what you ordered last time. These days, sometimes it does feel a little like being on the production line (although some restaurants use conveyor belts to good effect!) . But hey, the food's still good. So it was with some excitement that Matt discovered from co-workers in his office that the Hong Kong Express bandwagon was still on the move, with the opening of a mobile catering unit at Vectawarm on the Dodnor industrial estate, right near Matt's workplace. A lunchtime excursion was clearly in order.

Read more »

Don’t know about the rest of you but when Matt and Cat think about cream teas, Godshill springs to mind.

This quaint village with its gift shoppes, picture-postcard thatches and tea gardens is a mandatory port of call for grockles and cream tea aficionados alike. One sunny October day when mad dogs and Englishmen made a bee-line for the Wight’s unseasonably scorching shores, Cat and a like-minded chum made their way inland to have a cream tea lunch in the scone capital of the Island.

Some of the village’s tea shops have been serving up afternoon delight since the Model Village was all fields. However, Cat and her friend, strolling in the middle of the road as is customary, bimbled to the newest pretender for the tea garden crown, Rainbow Art Café. The last time Cat visited this little corner of Godshill she bought a very nice embroidered coat from the venue’s previous incarnation, Christmas Cottage. Some may remember this side street crystal-mongery which purveyed wind chimes, ambient music and incense. Since then the venue has undergone a makeover; the majority of the produce has been swept away, replaced with chi-chi tables, a vast glass counter exhibiting a variety of tasty-looking cakes, and some incongruous life-size clowns.

Read more »

Some partnerships seem destined to endure longer than most marriages: variety stalwarts Morecombe and Wise’s relationship was only curtailed by the untimely death of Eric. Other seemingly inseparable double-acts, such as the legendary Lennon and McCartney, are torn asunder through creative differences, never to be reunited.

Matt and Cat, whose juxtaposition seems at first glance to be predicated only on their rhyming nomenclature, have prevailed to date because of their common affection for the Island, and a shared idea of what’s good and what’s not when eating out. However, a visit to Tuscan Hills, Newport’s latest eatery, may be the wedge that drives the duo apart - at least for one review.

Read more »

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