Over the long, long months, even years of the COVID-19 crisis we’ve been consistently amazed and delighted by the spirit and optimism of the Island’s food and hospitality venues. Not just keeping open in difficult circumstances, some restaurateurs have even gone so far as to set up entirely new... Read more
One of our favourite games is ‘Either/Or’, which is inspired by the famous conundrum of whether you would rather fight a horse-sized duck or one hundred duck-sized horses. Our version is, naturally, more food based. For example, if you could only have one thing to accompany your desserts for... Read more
One thing which the Isle of Wight does, and has always done well, is be an incubator for enterprise. Much has been said about the death and resurrection of the high street, but if you were hoping for a return to the butcher, baker and candlestick-maker, the old model... Read more
The Ryde-based comfort-food of Pudding and Pie is something new and different. Until recently a delivery service of this kind would not have existed, unless you subscribed to meals-on-wheels. Who would order in a meal of piping hot pie, complete with veg, mash and yes, a delicious tailor-made gravy?... Read more
Years ago we proclaimed that Ryde was the international cuisine capital of the Isle of Wight, with at that time Tex Mex, Italian, Caribbean, Thai, Indian, pub grub, American-style steak plus full English on the menu somewhere in the town’s leisure strip. Amazingly, the pandemic has not damped the... Read more
Confession time: Cat has never cooked a roast dinner. Nigh-on twenty years as a vegetarian – followed by an astonishing volte-face in 2003 leading her to eat (things with) faces – plus many years as a food critic experiencing other peoples’ cooking, means that she’s never bothered to learn... Read more
Have you noticed how every Indian takeaway menu in Britain is almost always the same as every other Indian takeaway menu? And probably not even Indian. For reasons too culturally nuanced for us to bother exploring, even Indian restaurant menu writers usually include an unornamented section called something like... Read more
Back in the day, BC – Before COVID – Wootton Leisure Strip at Christmas was a sight to behold. Alongside the twinkling twin takeaways of Miga and Balti King, Terry’s fish and chip shop had a refulgent festive lighting display that warmed even the coldest of heart-cockles. As we... Read more
We’d been recommended a curry house in Shanklin as worth a try, so for our next round of COVID-19-safe meals, we wondered if Cinnamon would be willing to deliver all the way to Ryde. It turned out that they would. A polite chap arrived at our door and passed... Read more
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
