Pizzeria Italiana La Sardegna Da Gino

One of the best part about being on vacation is that there is never such a thing as eating too much, or drinking too much. While some of us tend to be quite careful about what we eat and the activities we take up for a healthier life style, all of this commitment and mentality seems to be left at home when we head out for holidays. We are still here in the coastal town of Paphos, in Cyprus, for another adventure of culinary delights. This time though, to change it up a gear from my previous posts on most Greek Cypriot cuisine, as well as my mention on The Lodge, a South African and African continental style cuisine, I would like to share with you now something that's more familiar to us all : Italian.

The restaurant that I would like to share with you now is a restaurant that I first got to try out in 2003. Like many of the places that I love here in Paphos, Pizzeria Italiana La Sardegna Da Gino is one of the few places are still going on strong. This speaks volumes to the quality of the place, since it's now almost recognised solely on its strong reputation. Anyhow, that aside, this restaurant is a great place for delicious pizzas, pastas / spaghettis, salads and starters of all sorts. For this very post, I would like to share with you all some of the dishes that we had the last time we visited the restaurant back in September of 2014.

Before we get started with the food here, let me first explain where this Italian place is located. So I will start off on Tombs of the Kings Road and King's Avenue Mall as our starting point. From here, you want to continue along the road adjacent to that crossing Tombs of the Kings Road, which is the very same one you would take if you were going towards Kato Paphos Harbour. At this point, you want to go on the opposite direction, towards Town Center basically. From here, you will get pass the entrance to the mall's parking lot, and you see loads of restaurants just on your left hand side, the same side of the mall essentially. With this, slow down if you are driving, because you need to make a left turn into the restaurant complex. I must admit that parking can be quite difficult to find at times, especially during the peak period of dinner. And don't even mention how the parking situation gets on Friday nights, or Saturday nights, because you will literally hunt for one. That aside, it's very easy to get to the restaurant, both by bus (bus stop is just a few meters from Roman Hotel, just opposite King Avenue's Mall), on foot, and of course, most convenient but at times also most painstaking, by your private vehicle.

Now we can safely move onto my meal. To kick off our dinner, we ordered a starter of local eggplant in house made tomato sauce, then topped with various herbs and of course, baked until the cheese at the top is nice and melty. There is no argument that this was just the right way to start out Italian meal. The egg plants were grilled first before thrown into the home made tomato sauce, which was light and fresh, and very well seasoned. The cheese on top is nothing to complain about either, as anything with tomato sauce then topped with cheese is bound for greatness. Other than that, we got to really enjoy this starter thanks to the basket of bread that was given to us. There is not a lot that's more painful than not being to wipe all the delicious sauce at the bottom of the plate with some good, warm bread. From this point onwards, we just knew that everything else with the base of this home made tomato sauce would be good.

I love spaghetti, pasta, fettucini, penne and basically everything under this umbrella. Actually, I'm just in love with Italian food and it's authenticity. I am a massive fan of dishes with cream based sauces, but my mother on the other hand doesn't like them since she feels that they're too thick at times and that they don't always bring out that Italian feel. Well, I agreed with her then, so we ordered a spaghetti with tomato sauce dish to share. The dish wasn't only just tomato sauce, of course, but was spaghetti, cooked al dente, with a tomato, seafood sauce and parsley on top. Wow, slow down there buddy. You guys may think that I just came off from writing another post about avoiding seafood here in Paphos, since there is no such thing as fresh seafood. When a restaurant says that they serve fresh seafood, they're either lying or they're really committed that they pay extra money to get real, fresh seafood from who knows where. In saying this, we ordered this particular dish because the seafood was just one of the three components along the actual spaghetti and the sauce, so if one component doesn't live up to the two, it doesn't necessarily mean that the dish will turn out to be a nightmare.

In fact, the spaghetti dish was very good. Even though the kitchen uses frozen seafood, the way in which they make something frozen into a delicious final product is the most important aspect for me. Good chefs and good teams should be able to, per say, make due with what they have and make the best possible outcome from it. This is actually what they do behind the kitchen doors here. The spaghetti was real, but I have no idea whether they make it in house or not, but nonetheless it was cooked al dente, so that means the right balance. The tomato sauce, as I have praised before already on various occasions, was great. The seafood was frozen, but was given the right boosts to enhance the taste. Overall, the seafood spaghetti dish in tomato sauce was very nice.

And ladies and gentlemen, how can you say that you've had an Italian meal without getting your hands on some pizzas? We did just this, because this is the face of Italian cuisine to many, as well as the very symbol, the pride, and the best menu item here at the restaurant. In saying this, there wasn't a moment of doubt that we should order pizzas. The only problem we had was choosing which pizza to get. We thought about it and planned out our so called game plan. We had already a delicious starter with tomato sauce and cheese, then a spaghetti dish with again tomato sauce, so we stuck to our little pattern and got an oven-baked pizza, simply with that tomato sauce (yes, just one last time), cheese, and some sort of ham from a very specific part of Italy. It could have easily been parma ham, but at that point, we really couldn't have cared less. The most important thing was more if it tastes good, rather than which part of Italy it hails from, or what the official name is.

Either way, the pizza was delicious. I really enjoyed the flavours from the pizzas, with everything from the actual cut of meat, to the tomato sauce, and of course, the melted cheese that you really need for a good pizza of this sort. I think the unsung hero of this dish is the crust, or you could say, the dough of the actual pizza. If you think of it this way, without the base, there will be no pizza. I have had pizzas else where, where the maker had no idea what they were doing and had given us a pizza with such a moist and hard crust. As you could see from the photo I took of this pizza, the crust is nice and burnt (not entirely). It is crusts like these ones that turn none-crust eaters into crust lovers. I love to eat the crust of the pizza, and the ones here do not disappoint!

And there we have it, a complete Italian feast with a proper starter of grilled eggplant diving under house made tomato sauce then baked with cheese on top, a delicious spaghetti dish of seafood and the very same tomato sauce, and of course, the heart and soul of our meal, a stunning pizza simply constructed with the famous tomato sauce base, cheese and our unknown ham of some origin. And just on the side, we also had a bottle of local olive oil on the table to dip our breads in. A pinch of salt into the olive oil with some warm bread and you really have the best sides one could ask for. Forget your french fries, your mash potatoes and your rice. This restaurant is the way to go if you're itching for an Italian meal.

You may be wondering at this point, but where's the dessert and the sweet factor? Well, after all of the mentioned dishes, I forgot to say that this meal was just for my mother and I. The two of us took care of almost everything on the table (I was responsible for most of it), to the point that we did not have room for dessert. If you're interested, I think they also make their desserts in house. I think at the time, they had cheesecake, and I really love cheesecake. I was really tempted to get the cheesecake, but failed to do so. Perhaps you can go for the full option with a stater, a spaghetti, a pizza and a dessert and share with us your experience!

I am sure that you could reserve tables here. Give them a call on 26933399 and let know of the time and the amount of people you would like to book a table for, and there shouldn't be a problem going about just that. I must say that the majority of the clienteles here are local residents, who like me, have been loyal customers since, way back when. Other than the delicious food which is always consistent for my case, I have a strong feeling that this is also because of their friendly service. They have that chill, laid back and very casual service mentality, something that I find very appropriate for these places in the Mediterranean.

All in all, I am confident from my past visits to Pizzeria Italiana La Sardegna Da Gino that a meal here will not disappoint. Should you have difficulty finding the place or parking spaces, then look out for this address before you visit so that you have a clearer idea of where the place is. Do come with a full wallet here since it is sure not a cheap eat, but just bare in mind that what you pay is what you get, and you will get a quality meal, prepared with love and affection! They also do take aways and maybe in delivery, but better call them to check for these two options.

Pizzeria Italiana La Sardegna Da Gino Paphos - Ratings :

• Accessibility - 7. 5/10
• Price - 8/10
• Selection - 9/10
• Staff Friendliness - 9/10
• Cleanliness - 8. 5/10
• Overall - 8. 5/10

Tripadvisor customer comments for Pizzeria Italiana La Sardegna Da Gino.

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