Stripped is, and long has been, one of our favourite places to eat, ever. It has been years since we first stepped into the former Midland Bank in Ventnor and enjoyed what was, and remains, the Island’s best burger. When it was trading from a mobile van we pursued... Read more
Lockdown has thrown a shadow over the hospitality industry everywhere, but the Island is shining a few rays of light. Courageous chefs and proprietors are still launching ventures and trying new ideas. Who would have thought that the team at Ventnor’s Tramezzini – a High Street restaurant that only... Read more
Burger King has opened on the Isle of Wight. A corner of that monstrous leisure shed that used to house Staples has been walled off into another of those bizarrely-misshapen spaces that characterise big box retail these days, and in it has appeared the Island’s first ever branch of... Read more
Who’d have predicted Sandown would be the place where the Island’s newest big hotel would be built? As we walked in town we were amazed to spot not one but two massive cranes at work on the seafront. We pressed our noses on the glass at the under-construction Boojum... Read more
There’s nothing we like better than a nice surprise. It’s a treat that never gets old when we wander into some venue anticipating an indifferent meal, and our unambitious expectations are blown away. Perhaps the best example of this in recent years was the tragically short-lived fried-fish wagon of... Read more
Sometime soon, if the futurologists are to be believed, we’ll be shuttled around in driverless electric cars – our every move monitored and tagged by our robot overlords. But until that particular utopia arrives, we’ll have to make do with more prosaic ways of getting about. And, in Ryde,... Read more
There was a time when each cafe sold us the same thing, and we had to put up with it. Brutally potent tea, camp coffee, dry sandwiches and an ashtray on every table were universally understood and expected. But oh, how things have changed. On the Island a few... Read more
With Cat unexpectedly incapacitated, Matt had to find himself an alternative dining-out companion. First in line was barbeque-enthusiast Kieron, an old pal who has many times plied Matt with more perfectly-grilled meat than a normal human should ever eat. The well-matched duo set off towards Ventnor on the hunt... Read more
Is pub grub an actual genre of food? It probably is. Leave aside the rather chummy and dated feel of the word ‘grub’, and the conveniently rhyming description gives a clear expectation to the prospective diner. Sizeable portions of hot food, usually a focus on meat and chips, and... Read more
