Scooterists! If you're in Ryde for the 2010 International Scooter Rally, you'll be looking for somewhere to eat.

You won't be disappointed, because Ryde has the best range of eating places of any town on the Island. Many of them put on Scooter Special breakfasts and menus, but which to choose? Matt and Cat's handy guide gives you the latest tips for the top eating-places in town.

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There may be some who wonder how a Matt and Cat review is conducted. Are you haunted by thoughts of an obese couple shuffling around the Island’s chip shops in stained velour tracksuits and Crocs for their ever-widening feet?

Or do you fantasise about a glamorous pair of urbane sophisticates, rolling up to a venue in a safari suit (Matt) and this season’s harem pants and a bolero jacket (Cat), tipping the Maitre d’ for the seat by the orchestra? Alas, those fantastic bubbles must be popped; the truth is often far more pedestrian. Mostly Matt and Cat conduct reviews in their overalls having come straight from the assembly line, hair uncombed since earlier that morning.

Other times, like their recent visit to the Seaview Hotel, they are in their civvies and accompanied. Anyone keeping an eye out for a brace of reviewers may not consider that they would be amongst the vast party that descended on that award-winning restaurant one summer’s lunchtime. Concealed among the gaggle, whose ages ranged from the under eights to the over eighties, Matt and Cat went about their business. How would the hotel cope with the stress test of such a big and diverse party at the height of the season?

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

Summer's a busy time for food reviewers. New places open like flowers - and sometimes wither in a similar way.

Avid readers are keenly recommending new places for Matt and Cat to review, and as new eateries are popping up faster than the duo can visit them their list of potential reviews is longer than a very long thing.

This bodes well for the Isle of Wight's leisure economy and, with the promise of a heatwave this summer and the inevitable influx of day-trippers that always brings, it looks as though quite a few Island enterprises are already doing well.

Many of these 'new' venues are actually pretty old but, with a lick of paint and a new team behind the stove, they are reborn. One such place is the Waterside Café in Ryde. This seafront stalwart has a new tenant and is open again for business after a couple of year's languishing and even a threat of demolition. With so much competition along the Esplanade, will it be sink or swim for this municipal café?

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It's confusing enough that the Island has so many eating-places named The Boathouse.

Matt and Cat know of at least four. Of these, two clearly were once boathouses; one other, with some stretching of the imagination, could have once accommodated some modest vessels. But the fourth - the Boathouse at Puckpool - quite plainly has never entertained a boat in its life, unless it's a ship in a bottle on the mantelpiece: it's a solid Victorian pub.

It's also proven to be a fickle mistress for quite a few owners and managers, changing hands several times in the last few years, sometimes under less-than-favourable circumstances. Matt and Cat have had both good and bad meals there, and comments on previous incarnations suggested similarly mixed experiences. At its nadir, some years ago, the Boathouse was the place that people would just love to gossip about - regularly passing on to Matt and Cat stories of heinous crimes against food that cannot possibly all have been true. Once the reputation of a venue goes that far down, it's a very long way back. The Boathouse began its return journey to respectability last year with an infusion of sensible cooking and decent service from the Liberty's team. This year, yet another management team is at the helm and at last, the word on the street seemed to suggest that The Boathouse really had finally settled down. So Matt and Cat set out to see what was going on at Puckpool.

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Just when you thought that Dos Amigos had cornered the market in Ryde-based wild west-themed restaurants, the Alamo opened its saloon doors.

Although superficially similar, with their wood cladding, riding apparel and photos of long-dead cowboys, both restaurants have specialised in different aspects of this north American oeuvre. Dos Amigos has a distinctly Mexican feel while the Alamo is on the side of the cowboys. The food in each venue has a different emphasis too. Dos Amigos is a Tex Mex restaurant boasting Mexican, Texan and Cajun food whereas the Alamo is a steakhouse and grill. Matt and Cat saddled up and went pioneering.

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