This striking Italianate-inspired villa on Ventnor’s elegant esplanade is a tasty proposition for glamorous gourmets. The owners Ashley and Tom Fahey, who also run Michelin-recommended bistro the Terrace in Yarmouth, have created a bouji guesthouse and off-licence where the focus is firmly on food and drink. So there are complimentary wine tastings every evening that showcase Tom’s 900-bottle cellar, and cheese and charcuterie boards and simple suppers every day. The self-taught chef Tom also produces spectacular Friday-night banquets, using predominantly ingredients from the island’s farmers and fishing community. The six bedrooms are a satisfying visual feast that work whether you’re a foodie or not.
Overall score 8/10
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Rooms and suites
Score 8/10
The villa’s Italianate turrets inspired Prince Albert’s designs for Osborne House, Queen Victoria’s beloved retreat in East Cowes. The revamp added a glamorous glass-box breakfast room that would get the royal seal of approval these days — and halved the number of guest bedrooms to six. Original windows and fireplaces are complemented by custom-made wood panelling and pretty Victorian-style tiling, with modern art, mid-century furniture and muted putty, peach and pine-green colour schemes introducing a contemporary breeziness — plus wine fridges to entice guests off the straight and narrow. Bathrooms are light and airy. Room One’s is a wetroom, with sea views. Room Three has a freestanding tub in the bedroom and all are stocked with sweet-smelling La-Eva sustainable and organic products. If you can’t bear to travel without your pet pooch, you’ll have to sacrifice architectural details for the less characterful annex room.
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Food and drink
Score 8/10
Tom was a restaurant critic for over a decade, dining out up to 300 times every year before swapping the notebook for the hotplate in 2020, initially to run the Terrace and later to open the Terrace Rooms, where he cooks on Fridays (£80 for five courses, matched wine £50). Communal dining is in the atmospheric Wine Room, with the menu often only decided on the day, depending on available produce, as Tom uses ingredients almost exclusively from the island (although he sometimes cheats and uses exotic fruits or olives). Expect five intriguing courses and, if you’re lucky, some of his signature failsafes: roast Carisbrooke venison with cherry, blue cheese, mushroom and beetroot condiment, paired with pinot noir, or roast Isle of Wight dairy beef, blackcurrant, eucalyptus, pumpkin seed and padron pepper condiment with Coonawarra cabernet sauvignon.
On other nights, the hotel serves simple one-course suppers and from Tuesday to Saturday collaborates with the award-winning pan-Asian restaurant Smoking Lobster, a two-minute walk away. A dinner and B&B package including a seven-course tasting menu at the Smoking Lobster costs from £350 per couple, with the option for wine pairing by Tom from £50pp. The Faheys don’t short-change you on breakfast either: it’s four courses culminating in Tom’s take on a full English with a delicious nostalgia hit of bubble and squeak.
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What else is there?
Very little, although it certainly offers the chance to damage your credit card at the on-site wine shop.
Where is it?
Score 9/10
Ventnor has a suntrap red shingle beach lined by vintage beach huts. Osborne House is a 40-minute drive away; the coastal path from Ventnor to Shanklin is three and a half miles of glorious views. Alternatively, yomp up Tennyson Down, where the poet Lord Alfred drafted The Charge of the Light Brigade.
Price B&B doubles from £200
Restaurant set dinner on Fridays £80; mains at the Smoking Lobster from £11
Family-friendly Y
Accessible N
Dog-friendly Y
Susan d’Arcy was a guest of the Terrace Rooms & Wine (theterraceventnor.co.uk)
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