Being only 20 years old, when my boyfriend said he was going to wisk me away to the Isle of Wight, I was, understandably, less than enthusiastic!

To my suprise I had the best weekend ever, and recommend it to everone if you're wanting a bit of romance.

As the end of the wekend approached we found a cute little restaurant called La Scala on Sandown High Street. You have to look hard, because only the doorway is at ground level! Then you walk downstairs into what seems like a cave, open a door and walk into a lavishly furnished restaurant.

Lavish or maybe over decorated... a bit like walking into your Nan's and finding yet another oranament within the thousands that she already owns. Plus, there's a bit of Julio Iglesias in the background which after laughing at for 20 mins, it began to add to the romantic atmosphere.

After our coats were taken from us, we ordered the house red and nearly droppped dead when finding out that it actually tasted like a top quality wine. (I wished I had asked them what it was, I rarely find wines I want to drink again).

The menu is vast and varied. There is defintiely something to cater for all tastes, but not all budgets (luckily the other half was feeling frivilous). I had something I couldn't pronounce, which basically consisted of the buggest bit of sirlion I had ever seen, covered in mushrooms and red wine and copious amounts of garlic. Plus very thin french fries that only MacDonalds could better!

The pudding menu is not quite as vast, so in the end we both opted for strawberries and cream, which easily superceed Wimbledon quality but charged no more for the pleasure.

La Scala became slightly busy later in the evening, so I suggest that booking would be advisable. Check out their website for contact info and a map

www.lascala-restaurant.co.uk/

Great for a bit of romancing!