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The island country of Cyprus is full of countryside and surrounded by water that produces a lot of it’s own food. Here are some delicious foods you must try when visiting Cyprus and where you should eat them.

Oranges & Lemons

The produce in Cyprus is delicious, everything tastes so fresh. Outside of the cities you can buy oranges from roadside stands using the honor system. The fresh squeezed orange juice is amazing. The lemons were perfect for squeezing over fresh caught fish.

Poseidonas Restaurant & Cafe – Salmon  

Salmon is probably my favorite type of seafood, so whenever I travel somewhere seaside I end up ordering it a few times. I liked the salmon that I had at Poseidonas in Paphos, but I wouldn’t say it was the best I ever had. I did like that it came with a few veggies, rice, baked potato and bread basket. The only downside of all that food was that I didn’t have enough room for ice cream afterwards!

SeaFare Restaurant – Sea Bass

In Latchi I had a really good seaside meal. 

I asked for a fish recommendation and sea bass was suggested. I went with it, not really knowing what to expect. A fish with its head still on arrived!

I usually stick to the headless variety of fish, so you can’t really tell it is a fish. But oh was it delicious, oozing in garlicky, buttery, lemony goodness! A greek salad and a bread basket also came with the meal.

Neromylos Tavern –  Moussaka & Katimeri

As much as I love seafood, I couldn’t just order seafood the whole time. I had to try some of the Cypriot specialties. During my Akamas Peninsula tour we ate at Neromylos’ (watermill) tavern in the village of Steni. The family who owned the place were so friendly and helpful. Again I asked for a recommendation, my only requests were something without cheese and with meat.

I ended up getting the Moussaka, a greek lasagna of sorts. I’m a little uncertain about precisely what was inside, but there was some meat, veggies and potatoes for sure.

Due to having a famous calligrapher in my tour group we received free Katimeri in exchange for him making the restaurant a new sign. The Katimeri, a traditional Cypriot pancake like dessert with honey & walnuts, was the best part of the meal for me.  

Kiniaras Taverna (Paphos) – Lamb Marinato

On my last night in Cyprus I knew I needed a really traditional Cypriot meal. I was enjoying all my seafood meals, but I was feeling like I hadn’t tried enough Cypriot cuisine. From my awesome tour I had a few recommendations where to go in the area of my hotel. I thoroughly googled my choices and choose one place. When I arrived I discovered that it was closed. No help from google on that aspect. I decided on my second choice…which was also closed. The hours on google are usually correct unless it is a holiday. It was Easter, but not the one primarily celebrated in Cyprus so I am not really sure the reason for the closures. I then found a place that looked nice, but it did not serve any food. I really wanted to avoid the contemporary restaurant by my hotel because I was previously told by my guide that it did not have traditional Cypriot food. On my rounds in the area I found a sushi place. I asked there to see if they had other options, but it was just sushi. In Kennedy Square there were two other establishments. One was solely a wine bar and the other seemed more contemporary with international food.

Throughout this whole time I considered giving up and going back to my hotel to eat some leftovers. But nothing makes me more determined than the potential of good food, so I soldiered on. One person recommended a direction for me to head down.

After only a few minutes of walking out of nowhere came Kiniaras Taverna. It looked cozy inside and the menu appeared to have all the traditional items on it.

And boy am I glad I stumbled upon this place! I ordered the Lamb Marinato and the cook said to me, “I will make a really good lamb for you.” Delicious food and extra attention from the owner made it one of the best meals of my trip.

I even received a surprise free dessert. When it arrived I was a little concerned about its appearance to yogurt, but it was sweet and tasty with these little orange jelly sweets. 

Visiting Information

Locations

All the restaurants where I ate listed above. 

Poseidonas Restaurant & Cafe: Apostolou Pavlou Ave 120, Kato Paphos, Cyprus

SeaFare Restaurant: On the marina, Latchi, Cyprus

Neromylos “watermill” Tavern: Steni, Cyprus

Kiniaras Taverna: 91 Makarios Avenue, Paphos 8010, Cyprus

Recommendations

In addition to the places above, here are a few places in the old town in Paphos that I didn’t get to go to that were recommended to me.

Agora Tavern – for traditional Cypriot food

Fettas Tavern – for traditional Cypriot food

Muse – this place doesn’t have the traditional Cypriot food, but it has a good contemporary menu and is best for cocktails and the view.

Laona – This one wasn’t recommended to me, but before my trip when I was doing some research this place always came up as a delicious traditional choice. Except for a couple of nights, it is only open for lunch.

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