This is an archive review. Lockslane is now closed. As 2016 gets into its stride, flamboyant kitchen revolutionaries are feted for their third wave burgers, dirty French cuisine, and haute dogs – served with Champagne, natch. We hear that hybrid is the new fusion and that chicken is making... Read more
This is an archive review: Olivo is now closed. We’ve all got one of those mates; the one who insists on calling satirical 1980s puppet show Spitting Image ‘Spitting Images’. Or the relative who every Christmas makes us want to scream as they suggest a game of ‘Trivial Pursuits’.... Read more
That Spanish plume, eh, coming over here enhancing our English summer. With its thermometer-popping temperatures and Mediterranean humidity, providing the perfect weather for eating outside. For most of you that probably meant bending over a hot barbecue, trying not to splash your novelty apron with the ejaculant of a... Read more
This is an archive review; Kynge’s Well is now closed. Brading was once an essential destination on the clockwise coach tour. For a while, although the town is not quite suffering from the malaise that has hit neighbouring Sandown, its attractions have been somewhat diminished. The twenty mile an... Read more
One Holyrood, Newport
Uncategorised 12th December 2015 1
As is the modern way, Matt and Cat wear several hats. As well as their eating out hobby which takes up considerable time, they also have day jobs. Juggling all of their activities is part of what the neologists call portfolio working. Running a business from a smartphone is... Read more
Remember the days when pubs were full of character? Not that murmuring old gubber perched at the bar, his gnarly teeth like a rural cemetery. No, the sort of atmospheric character that has accreted over the years with decades of smoking, drinking, laughing and crying. Trendy towns like Brighton... Read more
Social mobility is the thing. These days, we British like to imagine we’ve left the chains of class behind us, but of course, a faint rattling can still be heard. And sometimes not so faint. Take that ubiquitous eating out experience: pizza. You might imagine that the lowest common... Read more
Cantina in Ventnor is one of those places that Matt and Cat get asked about a lot, and recommend a lot, too. But those conversations don’t always go to plan. It’s not unreasonable to ask what kind of food they serve at Cantina, but there’s no easy answer, because... Read more
Well, what do you know – the boy has done it again. He’s only gone and opened a restaurant right in the middle of Newport. What, Newport? Seriously, the place where there are two Wetherspoons? That’s the one. Not only that, but in a former cafe overlooking the bus... Read more
Ganders, St Helens
Uncategorised 31st August 2015 2
The gravy pooled on the plate; it was not piped, spotted or smeared into a comma. There was no danger at all of bread appearing in a cloth cap, nor vegetables in a flowerpot. Even chips in a bucket seemed a little unlikely. Nothing was deconstructed – on the... Read more
