As Matt and Cat never tire of pointing out, this website started as a hobby, is independent and takes no money from restaurants.

This gives them the freedom to air their honest opinions, and the liberty to please themselves without anyone pulling their strings.

Having written a fairly enthusiastic review of what was then the new Phileas Foggs back in 2009, they didn't see any need to write another one in any hurry. Not because they didn't want to go back to this very nice venue - on the contrary, they’d had some good food in a lively atmosphere. However, as each review involves a modicum of preparation, usually an evening spent in a restaurant and then several more hours crafting their opinions and processing photographs, M&C tend to target their revisits for mercurial places where the review might no longer be accurate, or which elicit polarised opinions from commenters to this website. The new owners of Phileas Foggs implored Matt and Cat to "visit us soon, we need an up-to-date review" - but, as the word was that all was still rosy in the house of Fogg, it took a bit of time for them to do so.

Eventually, of course, it happened. Matt and Cat made no mention of their impending meal to the new owners, who naturally enough got the anonymous review treatment. The big question is, has Phileas Foggs lost its way or does the earlier positive review still hold muster?

Read more »

Matt was once described by his university professor as having a Rolls Royce brain with Morris Minor engine. Cat, who used to be pretty punctual and organised, has adopted Matt's languorous attitude over the years they've been together. This lackadaisical leaning means that they have never quite managed to book a table for dinner at the award-winning Hillside Hotel, of which they've heard many good things. This is because a degree of premeditation is required to eat at the hotel's illustrious restaurant; admittedly just the minimum of a day's notice but, for slackers M&C, even that has so far proven to require too much foresight. So they were delighted to be able to swing by Hillside's newest venture - Ventnor's Hillside Bistro - without giving any notice whatsoever.

Read more »

Some of the Island’s iconic buildings are intrinsically associated with their previous celebrated occupiers.

What would Dimbola be without pioneering photographer Julia-Margaret Cameron? Can you image Osborne minus the pervasive presence of Queen Victoria? And surely Farringford can only be known as the home of poet laureate Alfred, Lord Tennyson?

But perhaps Tennyson’s old hat now: despite Farringford being his signature venue for over 150 years, someone else is staking a claim. And that someone is confident young chef Justin Brown, who has well-publicised aspirations for his ‘Justin Brown at Farringford’ restaurant. Is this starry-eyed chef a mere a flash in the pan or has he got what it takes to usurp over a hundred years of Tennyson's association with this landmark property?

Read more »

A legend used to be an unverifiable but historical tale, handed down the generations in a tradition of story-telling.

When it opened, Newport's House of Legends was a themed eatery focussed on showbiz 'legends', such as film stars, musicians and the like - whose faces Matt and Cat were exhorted to identify on a branded House of Legends paper placemat. However, the word legend has been devalued through overuse (along with 'genius') and is applied as a very mild superlative - occasionally to describe someone of distinctly dubious virtue, eg 'Raoul Moat You Legend'.

Matt and Cat have had widely varying experiences at Legends. A weak start was followed by a pretty decent meal - but then a painfully over-protracted visit to HoL in early 2011, where the pitiful service, food and ambiance all left much to be desired. This led Matt and Cat to rue the day they'd sent their 'recommended by...' stickers to this over-ambitious venue.

But, a year later and like Pizza Hut before it, Matt and Cat decided to give Legends yet another chance. Taking a young family with them to give the place a bit of a stress-test, they stepped trepidatiously over the threshold.

Read more »

Pizza Hut is a brand which, here on the Island, has a history of not being particularly good - and this tradition has been carried on pretty enthusiastically for some years.

The last time Matt and Cat ate at Pizza Hut Newport, back in 2005, they were shown to a table with a dead fly on it. Their original 2005 review was succinctly damning, saying amongst many other criticisms "The meat on the pizza is not dissimilar to Friskies". But late in 2011 word went round that there was a new broom sweeping through Newport’s moribund Pizza Hut. Perhaps, seven years after their dreadful experience, it was time for Matt and Cat to cross the gaudy threshold once more and see if the ghost of that most notorious dipteran debris could be laid to rest?

Read more »