Cliffhanger Cafe

Great food and service and choice for the kids, we ended up having a great breakfast with fresh orange juice and full waitress service, I had the Kippers which are the best I have ever tasted impressed so we came for dinner with friends all round a great eating house cafe in the day and restaurant at night, loved the views and food so have booked a tribute night next year to see the Beatles.

Having visited the Cliffhanger 4 times last week I would reccomend them to anyone. We have enjoyed Breakfast, lunch, dinner and afternnon cakes at the venue. Firsty the Breakfast was excellent. Freshly prepared, visually appealing and very very tasty. Especially the sauasages which i am told were locally sourced. When we went in for lunch we found an excellent range of dishes on the menu and felt spoilt for choice. I had an excellent Beer battered haddock & chips, while my wife and the most fantastic fish pie. Both dishes were served within 10 minutes even though the restaurant was relatively busy, and the waitress who served us was incredibly friendly. The atmosphere in the restaurant was really really good, there was a good buzz. We went on to have desserts which again were served very quickly. We had a chocolate blockbuster (huge chocolate sundae to share) which came out looking fantastic, and tasted just as good.
As we had enjoyed both Breakfast and lunch we decided to come back for dinner the next evening. The cafe we had been to for Breakfast and lunch had been totally reformed into a contemporary evening restaurant. A totally different menu which offered dished such as Duck, sirloin steak and a fish of the day. Again we were greeted by the most friendly staff and quickly dealt with even though again there were quite a few tables. We ordered the arbroath smokies & fishcakes as starters. Both were served within 5 minutes looking absolutely amazing. Both tasted just as good as they looked. For main course I ordered a chefs special wa=hich was a “duck sizzler”. This was a duck breast stir fried with fresh vegetables and sweet chilli sauce, which came out sizzling in a red hot skillet, what I thought was a really good touch. It also tasted fantastic. My wife had the sirloin steak cooked to perfection, which came with the most fantastic hand cut chips. For dessert we were both quite full but decided we should try a dessert so tried the “cliffhanger cheescake” which was presented just as the rest had been (absolutely fantastic).
All in all I would reccomend this restaurant to anyone for any occasion. The staff were amazingly friendly, the food was fantastic and the general ambience was amazing. I think the staff have done a really excellent job here, with a restaurant in the most beautiful location over looking the isle of wight and the shores of Dorset.

The Cliffhanger has a fantastic view out towards the Isle of Wight and down along the Dorset coast. Good place for lunch or coffee after a walk along the beach (accessible from the restaurant). Good range of local fish – we had the fresh dressed local crab with new potatoes and salad, very well priced at £9.95. The fish pie looked good too, as did the lemon sole. The wine list is short but decent and prices are reasonable.

The service is terrible (VERY slow, they made loads of mistakes and didn't even apologise) and the decor is dull, characterless and outdated, but the food is good. Definitely more of a lunch place than a dinner place.