This is an archive review. El Toro Contento has closed. Matt and Cat welcome all suggestions for new venues so keep ’em coming! On this site’s well-populated ‘suggest a venue‘ page have been two requests for M and C to review El Toro Contento Tapas Bar, Ventnor. So, on... Read more
Archive review: Sameannes Cafe and Takeaway, Ryde
Uncategorised 13th February 2007
Note: Sameannes is closed. The cafe has now reopened under different management with a different name. Readers of Matt and Cat’s eating out guide will have noticed a slant towards the eateries of Ryde and could infer (correctly, as it happens) that M and C live in the area.... Read more
Archive review: Joe’s (formerly Joe Daflo’s), Newport
Uncategorised 4th January 2007
Archive review: this venue is closed. Known for many years as “Joe Daflo’s”, the Ryde branch of Joe’s was for a long time one of Matt & Cat’s all-time favourite eateries on the Island. Another branch offering a similar experience exists in Newport – this review is about that... Read more
Caffe Society, Newport
2nd January 2007 4
Caffe Society Matt and Cat’s have passed by the curiously spelt Caffe Society many times, en route to Superbuys. It was on a return trip from that discount emporium that they decided to pop into Caffe Society for a spot of post-January sales lunch. From the outside the cafe... Read more
Gossips Cafe, Yarmouth
18th December 2006 7
As the reviews on Matt and Cat’s Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide bear testimony, the quality of food in Island cafes is wonderfully variable. The economy-class cafe might offer meagre portions, passive smoking and a long wait on an uncomfortable chair. Thankfully, to continue the airline analogy, most... Read more
Troubadour Hotel, Ventnor
16th December 2006 1
When they’re not working down the salt mines, Matt and Cat could occasionally be thought somewhat languid. They sometimes loll around for hours, eat their breakfast at noon and attempt to find somewhere for lunch that will serve them after 15:00. On one such indolent day, they found themselves... Read more
Somerfield Cafe, Ryde
14th December 2006 5
Imagine that you had a huge plot of vacant land in an elevated position with a stunning northerly outlook overlooking a beautiful Victorian town, with the glistening and bustling Solent in the mid-ground and, in the distance, the shimmering metropolis of Portsmouth and Southsea. Assume that you had permission... Read more
Seabreeze Cafe, East Cowes
1st December 2006 7
Having just missed the ferry to Southampton by a whisker, Matt and Cat found themselves with a hour to kill in East Cowes. And it was lunchtime. In its prime, East Cowes must have been a very busy place with the Columbine Works, Westlands, and Trinity House at full... Read more
La Croute, Ryde
26th November 2006 3
La Croute, Union Street, Ryde Hungry visitors to Ryde will not want for places to eat. In Union Street alone there is a world of choice including Indian, Malaysian, Turkish, Moroccan, Mexican, and American cuisine. And, if you are of the type that loves a good English fry-up, there... Read more
BLT Cafe, Newport
24th November 2006 2
Visitors to any area may find themselves, when looking for eating-places, wondering where the locals go. Look no further – it would be a daring lunch-seeking tourist indeed who wandered by accident into Dodnor industrial estate, a forbidding land of used car lots and high barbed-wire fences. But the... Read more
