Seaview Hotel

I got engaged at the Seaview, several years and at least one owner ago, so for as long as I remain married to the current Mrs B it will have a special place in our culinary hearts. The Seaview has a formal restaurant and a bar that operates on a first come first serve basis; I have more often than not eaten at the latter. The bar has a short unpretentious menu majoring on fish, its a small and very lively bar much loved by the yachting fraternity. I have never had a bad meal there. If you don't know the island well, don't expect a view of the sea, you can hear it but you can't actually see it. Returned recently to the formal restaurant sadly before the new man from The Savoy arrives, not good on any level. Food dull and over cooked, service wilted under the heat, decor now looks jaded, bill much too large. Should have stuck with bar?

My wife & I recently (mid-week, January 2009) spent three nights here. Off season, obviously. Even so, the restaurant managed to attract around 20+ guests each evening, many plainly locals. Out of season, the menu choices are rather restricted to around 4 in each course. However, the chef has recently introduced a new option – a 5-course tasting menu, which he says will be geared to your preferences. My wife & I decided to have this on each night of our stay, and the chefs managed to come up with 15 different dishes, without too much fish (I’m not too fond) and with no fois gras (my wife doesn't like it). After the first evening, we were asked if there was anything we would particularly like for the third evening and we asked for duck, which was not on the menu – the rest of the dishes were, so far as I could tell, ringing the changes on ingredients that were available for regular menu dishes. The duck came in a savoury sauce, with an almost burnt taste, that went strangely well. Other highlights for me were belly of pork in a black pudding sauce, beef and fried Isle of Wight cheese. We were here last year and felt that the food then, although quite good, did not show much imagination. That has certainly changed. Service is from smart mostly young people, who appear to have been well trained. The wine list is surprisingly wide ranging for what is, after all, a seaside hotel. Perhaps it is not so surprising – the restaurant manager used to be the sommelier at Chapter 1 in Kent. If you plan to stay, I can recommend the rooms in the new block, which are very modern and benefit from free wired broadband (I am not sure they have enough bandwidth since it seems to slow to an unusable crawl on occasion) and an interesting lift. The only disadvantage of these is that you have to walk through the small, unattractive car park to get to the main part of the hotel. Money where my mouth is – my wife & I have booked to return for another three nights in February.