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This three star hotel offers ocean views from most of its rooms and has a good reputation for restaurant food. Most of the ingredients are sourced from the island and food has a French influence. There is restricted parking available, with the nearby public parking often a more a convenient alternative. Accommodation and dining deals are available that include the Red Funnel ferry crossing.

Starters include homemade seasonal soup, prawns and scallops cooked with mushrooms, tomatoes and tarragon in a creamy white wine sauce (£7.50), and oak-smoked New Forest meats marinated with juniper berries served with a sweet mustard sauce (£8.50).

Main courses in the restaurant average around £13. Guests speak very appreciatively of the quality of the food, the good wine list and the attentive friendly service of the staff.

Seven main courses include local sea bass in champagne and dill sauce (13.50), whole lemon sole on a bed of crevettes and fine spinach (£15.50), steak in Stilton brandy sauce (£14.50), and steak and ale pie. The prices include fresh vegetables. Hot and cold desserts are available, including delicious local ice cream and sorbets.

If you're planning a trip or a romantic weekend getaway to The Isle of Wight, you have probably already heard of The Royal Hotel. Set in the coastal town of Ventnor, with outstanding views of The Isle of Wight's breathtaking coastline, it is also the only AA 4 star hotel in the isle. Lodged in this magnificent Victorian style edifice, is the Appuldurcombe Restaurant - an elegant space that presents exotic cuisine in truly outstanding ways.

Head Chef Alan Stanley and his team of chefs have been awarded 2 AA Red Rosettes for their culinary skills in the last 11 years. A smoked duck and fresh orange salad with apricot and ginger chutney makes an excellent starter. The roasted fillet of cod on crushed new potatoes and crab, served with saffron and mussel cream sauce could tempt even the most dedicated carnivore, to be followed perhaps by a passion fruit tart with raspberry sauce. There is also an extensive wine list and the service is perfectly in line with the four star rating. Relax, and revel in every bite. You're in the veteran hands of the award-winning Appuldurcombe Restaurant.

It's amazing how much excitement can be packed, in an island which measures just 23 miles by 13 miles. With Roman villas, medieval castles and historic houses, the Isle of Wight manages to make the most of its space. And there's no better way to savour its pristine beauty than to find your way into one of the rooms above The Hambrough Restaurant. With seven elegantly minimalistic rooms, the restaurant offers some of the most breath-taking views of Ventnor Bay and St. Boniface Down. But that's not all.

The Hambrough Restaurant is almost always packed with foodies and justifiably so. With the recent arrival of Chef Robert Thompson, the restaurant has gained massive appeal for its outstandingly tasty cuisine and inventive presentations. It comes as no surprise that Thompson was awarded a Michelin star at the incredible age of 23. Begin with the risotto of ceps with carpaccio of sea bass autumn truffle, followed by the Dunsbury lamb and conclude with the blackberry soufflé with Ventnor stout ice-cream, though any other combination works just as great.