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.

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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.

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That's it folks! Matt and Cat might as well hang up their reviewing hats as the Isle of Wight's ultimate cream tea has been found.

After years of arduous searching, involving the consumption of gallons of tea, rock-hard to fluffy scones and the butter/no butter debate, the acme of cream teas has been located. Not among the West Wight's rolling hills nor with a view of the county's stunning coastline, but on the outskirts of town on the main road to Newport. For 20 years, on her daily commute to the salt mine, Cat has driven past the Roundhouse Tea Rooms with barely a second glance. However, a recommendation from the Island's primary friend to the stars John Hannam (sorry Den, you're a close second!), led Matt and Cat to the Roundhouse's door one sunny Sunday in October.

Built in 1750, this distinctive cottage was once the gateway to Newport. The road has since been relocated eastwards and the old toll road is now a dead end, providing parking for the tea rooms. Not the most trumpeting of entrances but enticing enough for M and C.

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The Isle of Wight is a place of balance and harmony. Its shape is satisfyingly symmetrical and even its eastern and western rivers have the same name.

In summer 2010, Cowes - the Island's most northerly town - offered the incongruous yet successful marriage of the municipal and the Michelin, with Robert Thompson at Northwood House. In the autumn of the same year, Matt and Cat tried out the southerly version of the grand restaurant embedded in a council park; the Royal Hotel has expanded its empire into Ventnor Botanic Garden, rebranding the tea room as the Royal Garden Café.

Matt and Cat were in the deep south for the launch of Hoppiness, an alcoholic union of the garden's hops and a local brewery. Among the hop fayre's rural crafts, beer-hawkers and local produce was the grandest barbeque M and C had ever encountered. OK, so the equipment was pretty standard; but the man flipping the burgers was none other than Alan Staley, head chef at the Royal Hotel. The smell of the singeing meat wafted into Matt’s nostrils and it took a mighty strength of his will to walk past the bbq en route for lunch in the café on the lower terrace.

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Visit the website: http://www.botanic.co.uk/pages/cafe.htm

Matt and Cat love Culver Down. The views from the top are magnificent, whether looking across to Sussex or lying on your back on a summer’s evening watching the Perseids meteor shower overhead. Culver’s pretty good at the base too; the Bembridge side has a family-friendly sandy beach with rockpools to explore, coloured cliffs, plus the Wonky Café.

The southern side of the chalky promontory has equally interesting geology; the red and white cliffs tower above and the beach is littered with fossils. If Matt and Cat have guests they often take them to this end of the Island and, on the day The Cat’s Mother deigned to visit they took her and the accompanying entourage to this easterly point. However, before they could explore the area they chose to have a hearty lunch at Yaverland Kiosk.

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