Prior to our trip to Cyprus, I did honestly very little research on where to go, where to eat, what to do. I had remember reading somewhere that Samantha from Foodiva was Greek-Cypriot-British, so off I went to her site and found this. 

We actually printed this out (yes, on paper!) and for the next four days in Cyprus, I had this like I was reading a map.Unfortunately, we only managed to do one of all the spots she had recommended, due to it not fitting into our schedule (plus a night of craving for Chinese food ;)). Ps – on Monday while we were in Nicosia, we actually drove to both Zanettos and To Tavernaki tou Pampou but was too early (5:00pm!). Sad!

All that aside, our food highlight was dining at Ta Piatakia in Limassol on our first night in Cyprus. Best meal out of all, beating Meze Taverna where we went for mezzes on the second night.

If you’ve booked yourself a lil getaway to Cyprus, definitely go there for a meal. 

And here’s the ‘I’m so excited I’m here, I better tweet it’- tweet 😀

Prices are sorta mid-range, and to be honest it was the most expensive meal over our time there (60 euros for two, including 2 beer and 2 reds) but well worth it.

The amuse bouche was really quite simple, to us it was ‘cheese and crackers’ and this was the part where G said to me – that was 1 euro each? He he.

It went up up up hill from there.

Each plate came out one by one, simple and small but absolutely delicious. I’ve never really appreciated eating big chunks of cheese, even after attending the Italian Dairy Products event (lovely post by Mitzie Mee here) but the halloumi wrapped in bacon with mango chutney was divine. I could have more of it, anytime.  In fact we had halloumi and bacon sandwiches for lunch for the next two days.

The scallops was large and tasty, then came our mains.

Halloumi wrapped in bacon with mango chutney

Scallops

Amous Bouche

Decor

Venison pie

Look at that pork shank. The meat just fell off the bone. G and I reckon it was the best pork shank we have ever had. Slow baked for four hours in honey, soy sauce, star anise and espresso, it was just right – not too sweet, not too salty. 

We destroyed the venison pie as well. Just so you can appreciate that we really did eat everything, here’s the not-so-glamourous photo that you don’t normally see on blogs 😉

I was stuffed but really keen to try out their desserts. The selection was quite typical, and thought we’ll try the Cyprus version of our pavlova (yes, it’s from New Zealand, not Australia :P)

A lil bit of a let down, it was way too sweet, it being covered in chocolate and caramel. I guess we prefer it the old fashioned kiwi version ay. PS – Tom and Serg does a good fruit pavlova, followed by St Tropez in MOE  😉

So there you go. Our take on Ta Piatakia. Service was just right – the lovely girl from Bulgaria (I didn’t get your name!), and Adam, cheers for taking care of us. The chef himself  Roddy Damalis came out to say hi to us (and to everyone else) when we were there. What a nice touch. I was too shy to ask if I could take a photo with him. Damn! 😉

Cheers to Foodiva for her recommendation. On hindsight we should have stuck to the rest of the list, for our other nights in Cyprus!

• Ta Piatakia
• 7, Nikodimou Mylona, Limassol, Cyprus
• +357 25 745017
• http://www.roddydamalis.com