Restaurants in Cyprus Guide

No holiday in Cyprus would be complete without trying out the local cuisine. Cyprus has top class restaurants just waiting to delight your taste buds, along with local restaurants where the welcome is warm and friendly. By hiring a car from AutoDirect car hire, you can visit these best restaurants easily at your convenience.

The first thing that strikes you about a good Cyprus restaurant is the sheer quality of the ingredients. Cyprus produces a wealth of fresh fruit all year round, from sweet red tomatoes to crisp cucumbers. Since the produce only has to travel a few miles from field to table, a Cyprus salad will always be fresh and tasty. The island also produces fabulous fruit, from sweet-oozing figs to juicy peaches, and the famous citrus groves yield masses of fresh limes and lemons. Traditional Cyprus food is healthy, too, thanks to the locally produced olive oil. The ideal accompaniment to a good meal in Cyprus is a bottle of excellent Cyprus wine; Cypriots have been growing grapes for wine in the foothills of the mountains for centuries.

The secret to eating well in Cyprus is look at what the locals enjoy eating. Top of the list is meze, up to 20 small dishes made with seasonal ingredients and served in succession with a couple of main dishes. True meze is all about taste, so while each dish may be small, it will be packed with flavour.

Surprisingly for an island, fish dishes in Cyprus are not cheap. The general rule is, the more exotic the fish, the more likely it has been frozen and shipped. The best fish dishes in Cyprus are often to be found at small coastal restaurants, especially around Polis on the west coast, where the fish is caught just offshore. Don't expect to recognize the fish species, just enjoy the flavours of your simple "grilled and served" dinner instead

The staple of most Cypriot meat dishes is lamb, and the traditional favourite is kleftiko, lamb shank roasted in a special oven. However, running a close second is souvla, a less fatty version where the lamb is cooked on a spit. Most Cyprus restaurants will serve such dishes, Remember that having a rental car from AutoDirect Car Hire will make things much easier!

Ice cream is a favorite dessert in Cyprus, and the Italian style ice-cream is particularly good. Traditional pastries make a great dessert too, from nutty, syrup-soaked baklava and its shredded-wheat cousin kataifi, to the most famous island sweet of all, sugar-dusted chunks of Cyprus delight.