Restaurants in Cyprus (Ayia Napa, Protaras and Limassol)

Restaurants in Cyprus (Ayia Napia, Protaras and Limassol)

Hello everyone! Today I am bringing you the final post about Cyprus, my latest discovery which has been totally worth visiting. I already told you in the first post that one of the reasons that I fancied visiting this island was for its gastronomy. As you can imagine, Cyprian gastronomy is very similar to that in countries such as Greece and Turkey, where there are mainly dishes with fish and seafood; as well as their famous shishes, yoghurts or cheeses. Today, I want to recommend three restaurants which I had the pleasure to eat at during my trip. I hope that you will take note of them if you are planning a trip to this Mediterranean Island. Let's go!

Vassos Fish Tavern

If what you are looking for is to eat good quality fish, you should look for restaurants which have the word "tavern" in their name, since they are usually the best ones. We decided to go to Vassos Fish Tavern because a local recommended it to us in Ayia Napia, specifically someone who was giving a boat tour that we went on in this area of the island. Local people always know the best places so we decided to listen to his suggestion.

Vassos Fish Tavern is right next to the port so we barely had to walk for 5 minutes after getting off of the boat to get there, maybe even less. It is a very big restaurant, well-decorated and with views of the boats which are docked in the Ayia Napia harbour. They have a terrace as well as inside seating, but we decided to eat in the terrace since there was a slight breeze, so the temperature was bearable. As well as that, they had parasols so that you could be in the shade and so that the sun wasn't bothersome.

We got the menu and there was an infinity of dishes: fishes, meats, seafood, salads, burgers, etc. Here, I'll leave you a picture of what we ordered.

I ordered a very comprehensive salad, where the star ingredient was the renowned halloumi cheese, which is typical of Cyprus. It has a very sweet flavour, grilled and it gives a sweet touch to the salad. It was honestly big and not at all expensive, since it had other quality ingredients such as avocado. Angel ordered a dish of fried calamari with hummas (creamed chickpeas). It may seem a strange combination but it was honestly really good. And a smoked salmon dish too. It was simple but very good. They also gave us a snack of toast with olive oil, salt and black pepper. The waiters were really nice and they bought us the food really quickly.

We didn't have dessert, but we did have a coffee. Angel had Cyprian coffee which is like Turkish coffee. This coffee is quite special since at the end of the cup, you can see the ground coffee. The first time you have it, it has a texture which is a bit like sand. It is quite strong in terms of flavour so if you are not used to drinking coffee alone, I don't think you'll like it.

In short, very good service and food in Vassos Fish Tavern: bring a tip. As well as that, it was a very chilled environment, good weather and it was great. I would recommend it 100%. The best restaurant I visited in Cyprus.

Spartiatis Restaurant

We went to this restaurant on the second day. It is located in Protaras, specifically in Konnos Bay, one of the bays that I talked about in the previous post, which you can read by clicking here. We found this restaurant on the internet and it couldn't have worked out better for us, honestly. It was a little difficult to find it, since we had to go from the beach to the main road area, where it is located. The route wasn't signposted and in the end, we ended up at a hotel, in a private area where everyone was sunbathing and going in the pool; and we thought that we weren't going to be able to find it. Finally, we went back and saw a different route which led us to the restaurant.

One of the best things about this restaurant was the views, since from our table we could see the bay completely, the blue sea... as you can see in the upcoming photo. As for the menu, I ordered fried calamari and Angel had grilled salmon. It was all really good and tasty, and they also gave us a bite of toast with olives. The truth is that it surprised us that they gave us this in these restaurants since this "tapas" culture only exists in Spain... In central European countries it is definitely not something that occurs. We were relaxing and admiring the views, until we had coffee. Finally, we went because we wanted to keep on going with our route around this part of the island. I also recommend it.

Kalymnos Fish Tavern

This restaurant is closer to Larnaca. We came across it the day that we visited Governer's Beach; a very unique beach since the texture of the stones is similar to the chalk you use to write on the blackboard. Right on top of this beach, is this restaurant. It had an area with a cafe, ice-cream shop and finally the restaurant. It is an enormous restaurant, with the typical tables and chairs that are used in weddings. The views from Kaymnos Fish Tavern were amazing because it looked directly over the sea. Also, that day it was great because there was a light breeze which eased the heat a little. Here are some photos. The place is really lovely.

As for the menu, it has lots of options, such as fish, seafood and meats. Angel had salmon again and I had a seafood salad. The salad was enormous, I couldn't eat it all. It had cocktail sauce and included prawns and octopus, amongst other things. The only negative about this restaurant is that they took quite a long time to serve us the food, and it was only us two eating there. However, I think it is one of the best ones in the Limassol area. The location is perfect because it's next to the beach and as soon as you have finished eating, you can go for a dip, since the restaurant has stairs which give direct access to Governor's Beach.

As a last general point about Cyprian gastronomy, I would say that this island, which is famous for its fish and seafood, is also a meat expert. The general recommendation is that if you want to eat fish, eat it at the coast. But they say that the best place to eat good meat is in the mountainous towns. Traditionally, they cook meat on low heat, on hot coal. They cook it for the whole day and there is a reason for this. Formerly, the island of Cyprus had big war conflicts so the locals couldn't make big fires to cook on because they would be discovered by their enemies. So, they had to cook the meat very slowly so that the smoke that came off would be invisible to the eye. A year later, they kept cooking it this was due to tradition and also because the flavour and texture of the meat are a lot nicer if you cook it slowly.

And that's it for today, my final post about Cyprus. As a conclusion, I have to say that I love Cyprian cuisine. There is lots of fresh fish, seafood and also vegetables and olive oil. Mediterranean food is most definitely one of my favourite cuisines. I hope you've liked this post and I will see you for the next one. Thank you for reading until the end. Best wishes!

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