We’re often asked where is the best place to go for a specific type of meal; a roast dinner, say, or a cream tea. The other top request is breakfast. Cat’s – and the hipsters’ – particular favourite is smashed avocado and poached egg on toast, a surprisingly difficult... Read more
Food eh? You push it into one hole and squeeze it out of another. Gravity and peristalsis assist it on its journey until, released from us human tubes, it bobs its way to Sandown for processing – but hopefully not out to sea (that’s a whole other article of... Read more
It’s grand, it’s old, it’s the Duke of York. And it’s even half way up a hill. A few steps away from the lively town-centre pubs of Cowes High Street is the Duke of York. A family-run venue, this pub has a convivial atmosphere, and is very much a... Read more
This month’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak‘s face looks rather familiar to us (assuming he is still in the role at the time of publication). Wasn’t he the geezer who exhorted us to ‘Eat Out to Help Out‘ during the summer of coronavirus? At his urging, after months of quaking... Read more
If you follow the main road from Newport towards Sandown, or perhaps more wisely the opposite way, you’ll see at Hale Common some alluring new signs proclaiming FARM SHOP. Accept this invitation and you’ll travel down a long driveway, through some industrial-looking quarry landscape until you arrive at what... Read more
Ready to expand your international dining credentials again? If you’re following Matt and Cat’s advice you’ll have recently enjoyed some Sri Lankan cuisine in Ryde, Asian flavours at the Smoking Lobster Cowes, and now you can add Filipino food from Newport to your Island eating-out repertoire. Kusina Restobar is... Read more
Aside from the Bitesize donut kiosk in Newport, Drunken Lobster must be a candidate for the Isle of Wight’s smallest eatery. Back when it was El Toro Contento, about a third of the bistro was taken up with a kitchen, and not an inconsiderable amount of space on the... Read more
Somehow, Shanklin has escaped the worst ravages the grim reaper has visited upon the hotels of Sandown. One can still stroll down leafy Queen’s Road and take one’s pick from little family-run guesthouses, boutique hotels, and bed-and-breakfasts. Sure, the inevitable blocks of flats have cropped up; but Shanklin of... Read more
We are often asked ‘Where is the best place on the Island to go for seafood?’. This is a very popular question, particularly of summer visitors, who seem to imagine that the Isle of Wight should have its equivalent of Rick Stein, Padstow’s dominant fish peddler. Years ago we... Read more
