Like any other business, restaurants open and close with monotonous regularity. For every successful new farm shop, say, there's a casualty. Will a new cosmopolitan restaurant be more popular than its predecessor, after a tweak to its interior and a new menu?

As regular readers to Matt and Cat's Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide will know, M and C like nothing more than poking their noses into a new eatery. They've far from exhausted the Island's existing expansive selection of restaurants, cafés and pubs; and keep their ears and eyes open for the new ones to add to the bottomless list.

Despite having a few chums in the industry, Matt and Cat aren't usually at the opening nights. Perhaps their anonymity precludes them from being on anyone's guest list? However, this year they finally managed to wangle a ticket to a restaurant's launch. So it was that at the end of June, Matt unbuttoned his work shirt and Cat smoothed down her hair with a drop of spittle ready for a night of schmoosing and free champagne at the Oceanblue Quay, Ventnor. Read on to see what they found - this isn't a review, by the way, that comes later!

Going to Totland Bay at midsummer must be like going to the moon. Matt and Cat blasted off from Newport and headed in a near-straight trajectory. Reaching jowl-bothering speeds of nearly 40mph (except through Shalfleet), they went west towards the setting sun. The light from our brightest star was dazzling and, to preserve their rheumy old retinas, the astronautical pioneers lowered the sun visors on the vintage BMW. Once they could go no further, they parked up and gawped at Dorset.

Finding themselves far from the metropolitan hustle and bustle, M and C had switched to holiday mode the moment that they crossed Yarmouth bridge. It was a particularly pleasant evening; the clouds scudded across the sun in a very picturesque way, a boy played with his dog on the sandy beach and gulls pecked at random stuff. As the Waterfront was the only venue around, Matt and Cat went in...

Making the most of the sunshine, M and C put on their paddling clogs and tippytoed at the Appley beach's water's edge, cooling their bunions in the limpid waters of the Solent. They interrupted this recreation for a cream tea at Puckpool Tea Gardens, eating their scones under a shady vine.

The leisurely day continued with dinner at Olivo, the new kid on Union Street's block. Situated in what was historically the old post office, the building's previous incumbent was the ambitious Smithfields. Alas, that restaurant closed for reasons not known to Matt and Cat, although they hypothesise that maybe the carrying capacity of Union Street for big, vaguely Mediterranean eateries had been exceeded. Or perhaps it was just too large a building to sustainably maintain. For whatever reason, it would be a brave or confident business that would take on such a vast venue. Now, one such has stepped forward. Does Olivo have what it takes?

The Guardian pronounces "the place feels apart from the Isle of Wight, let alone the UK". The Telegraph dashes up to claim "Ventnor has got its va-va-voom back". Every street is cluttered by rubbernecking DFLs clutching cuttings from Sunday supplements. Locals waft by in clouds of patchouli and wind chimes, distinctive in hand-tooled sandals and flowing garments. One thing has long been missing from this idyll: a curry house. But now the picture is complete - Chutney Express has opened on Ventnor High Street, providing not only a take-away service but a small restaurant too. Matt and Cat, keen Indian fans, paid it a visit.

I wrote about IW Festival food for M&C last year and am pleased to bring you this update for 2009.

Sunday morning:
Keeping my eyes peeled for Isle of Wight food vendors in amongst the countless concessions, the only additional one I've spotted is Yarmouth-based Harbour Seafoods in the big food area near the main stage. After their low-key début at last year's Festival they're now geared up for catering big events, with a large kitchen, and bold signage promising seafood chowder, paella and kebabs. They were doing great trade. Might check it out today.

It was about time the reviewing duo went to this well-established restaurant; previous attempts had seen Matt and Cat thwarted by the venue's popularity. However, Cat phoned ahead and was assured that a table would be available - and by arriving just after 6.30pm on a Monday they made sure they wouldn't be gazumped by the holiday-makers in this popular tourist area.

Pavarotti's is an established business in the Old Village and it sits well alongside the gifte shoppes. In fact, so confident have its owners been of its long-lasting appeal that the vast front window is a stained glass tribute to Luciano Pavarotti himself, instantly recognisable from his outstretched arms, one hand clutching his trademark white handkerchief and with his, er... stunted little legs (the window artisan must have run out of leg room). Certainly this shop could never be mistaken for any other with that prominent and iconic branding. Matt and Cat pondered the permanence of the window. Cat eventually decided that, in the year 2020 the restaurant could be turned into a poundsaver-type shop, when it would be called Tenner (tenor) World!! But enough of the dismal puns, what was the food like?

There are a few things about living on the Isle of Wight so axiomatic that Island residents will be bemused to even hear them discussed. Taxis are one. You never, ever take a taxi on the Island unless someone else is paying. As everyone knows, they are fearfully expensive and inefficient. Well, to be fair they may or may not be expensive and inefficient, but as nobody who lives here has ever been in one it's hard to say. Quite possibly the Island has the world's best value taxi firms, but we'd never find out. Isle of Wight Pearl is another. Wildly popular with coach parties, this mysterious building is terra incognita to Islanders. It could be the finest entertainment on earth - or not. We have no idea what goes on in there or why.

So, what else? Food on the ferries. Ah, yes. From early childhood, Island children are told 'No, you can't have any sweets/drinks/cakes/chips etc' as a regular part of their trips on the ferry. This stricture carries on into adulthood. Snacks, maybe, but few Islanders will willingly eat a full meal on the ferry, on the assumption, passed down from father to son, that the food will be of such extraordinarily high price and low quality that the experience might prove fatal.

Recently, Matt and junior reviewers Bill and Jack found themselves travelling homewards with some friends. It came about that the party were eventually in the position of having to put ferry fodder to the test. A long drive back was delayed to such an extent that the only chance of getting on the boat in a timely fashion was to eat dinner on board. Various increasingly unlikely scenarios were devised to attempt to avoid this, but the practicality of arranging pizza delivery in the marshalling-yard having defeated them, Matt and party finally bowed to the inevitable and prepared to be fleeced. Did Red Funnel rise to the occasion, or did the shipboard supper sink without a trace? Read on to find out.

Writing their food reviews is hardly an arduous chore. Matt and Cat enjoy eating out and part of the pleasure is chatting during their meal about what they might say about a venue. If a meal is good, they get the benefit of nice food. If a meal is dismal they get the benefit of giving a place a good kicking on this very website. Fortunately, the latter rarely happens. Most Isle of Wight eateries are of a very high standard with only one or two exceptions.

So, when they visited the newly reopened Wishing Well at Pondwell, Matt and Cat jabbered to each other about how they could say it's newly opened; and how, when chatting to the bar staff they learned that they had just taken on the venture (rather than it being a straight refurbishment). About how the venue had a clean if slightly impersonal interior, with vast picture windows. However, when reading their 2006 review, M and C were stunned to see that was exactly what they had written last time! So what new things can be said about this cavernous roadhouse?