Ryde's trendy gentrification hotspot, Monkton Village is home to the Happy Chef, a classic old-fashioned cafe. The venue has reassuring wipe-clean plastic gingham, attentive service, and even a chatty scaffolder coming in to get his mid-morning snack.

The chef did indeed sound perfectly happy. As he knocked up our breakfasts he expounded his interpretation of Maslow's hierarchy of needs - "We're not too badly off, really" was his suitably optimistic conclusion.

A three-egg omelette with symmetrically-numbered filling of ham, cheese and mushroom arrived. Cat had swapped out the promised salad for a huge portion of hot baked beans. Leaves for breakfast? She ain't no Gwyneth Paltrow.

Alongside came a pile of chips; Matt knew he would be called to help out - and he was right, but not before Cat made a substantial dent in the robust and satisfying omelette.

Plenty of cheese was the magic ingredient that held the whole thing together, emphasising a nice saltiness that hinted at being cooked with butter.

Isle of Wight County Press:

Matt's extra large breakfast was a terrific feast, and stunningly good value at only £5.95. The breakfast had been cooked hot, as it should be, giving that hint of seared fat about it that marks a true greasy spoon.

You can't simulate that taste at home, however hard you try. There was plentiful everything, including black pudding and fried bread both finely judged to avoid greasiness but still retain the structure necessary to absorb the other elements.

Tomatoes soaked delightfully into the bread, and fried eggs drooled enticingly over the buttered toast. Matt actually left some, there was so much. A roundly satisfying breakfast.

Monkton Village has a community feel that has outlasted many changes in the passing trade, from fisherfolk, to tourists, to locals, to Down-From-London downsizing second-homers.

The Happy Chef sits comfortably at the heart of the area, and seems to be providing a much-appreciated service. Maybe in years to come the beach goods will finally be put away in favour of jars of nocellara olives with hand-extruded bronze-die pasta, and the incredible scale and extent of the bargain Mega Breakfast will simply be a story that nostalgic parents tell to wide-eyed children on cold winter nights.

Or maybe the Happy Chef will prevail. We hope so: it's a very good example of its genre.

Matt and Cat's bill

Omelette £5.25

Extra large breakfast £5.95

Tea £1

Coffee £1

Total £13.20

RATING: Three stars - A decent place that we’d recommend

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