Matt and Cat\'s Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide
The Taverners, Godshill

The Taverners, Godshill

Reviews 0

The Taverners has for over ten years been a consistent favourite – not just with us, but with multitudes of Island diners who relish its hearty gastro-pub food and convivial atmosphere. Our first visit to this hostelry was way back when it was called the Cask and Taverners. One... Read more
So… Yummy, Ryde

So… Yummy, Ryde

Reviews 0

Anyone at all who has been in a café or restaurant in the last couple of years will know that the trend has been for venues to eschew traditional soft furnishings such as carpets and curtains, instead streamlining interiors with hard surfaces and firm seating. The upshot of this... Read more
Happy Chef, Ryde

Happy Chef, Ryde

Reviews 0

Long ago, Monkton Street was the bustling thoroughfare down which hordes of visitors travelled between Ryde Pier and St John’s station – which was until 1880 the nearest railway. A few local amenities still linger en route in what is now Ryde’s trendy gentrification hotspot, Monkton Village. One of... Read more
Quay Arts, Newport

Quay Arts, Newport

Reviews 0

After months of lockdown, punctuated with the compassion behind #ClapForCarers and diligent social distancing, girls – and boys – just wanna have fun. And while for some people that might mean the pub, for us it is a cafe. So, on the first day bars and restaurants reopened their... Read more
Castle Inn, Newport

Castle Inn, Newport

Reviews 1

A town pub can go one of two ways. A few weeks ago we found ourselves in London, enjoying a drink in one of the city’s many street-corner hostelries. The Victorian pub was a single small room with a bar, and that was about it. No food was served,... Read more
White Lion, Niton

White Lion, Niton

Reviews 0

Niton used to have two pubs, the White Lion and the Buddle. After some prevarication the White Lion closed for good, and there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth amongst the Crab-Nitoners. Left without a pub in the village itself, drinkers were faced with a steep walk down... Read more
Muzza’s Kitchen, Sandown
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
Peach Vegan Kitchen, Newport
Another day goes by, another vegan restaurant opens. If plant-based dining in this country has spent the last few centuries cowering in the shadow of the all-conquering meat and two veg, its time has surely now come. Vegan food is out of the powdery cupboard, into your streetfood, and... Read more
Crown Inn, Shorwell

Crown Inn, Shorwell

Reviews 3

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
Prezzo, Newport

Prezzo, Newport

Reviews 2

With a gaggle of excited chums we hit the pub after work, followed by dinner at the big Italian chain of Prezzo in Newport High Street – where the post office used to be. Matt’s calamari starter was curious, as if some misguided chef had found a way to... Read more