Dionysus Mansion, a restaurant in a stone-built mansion in central Limassol, has won successive awards in the Cypriot cuisine category of the ‘Cyprus Golden Chef’s Hats’ gastronomy awards. Its chef, Dimitris Chaidemenos, reworks traditional Cypriot recipes using modern techniques and produce from local suppliers.
Chaidemenos settled in Cyprus almost 20 years ago and saw potential for local cuisine beyond the traditional taverna. His aim was to open a restaurant that honoured the island’s history and flavours while presenting them through modern techniques.
Since it opened, the restaurant has worked with Cypriot smallholders, livestock farmers and farms. Local cheeses, meats and vegetables form the basis of its cooking, and it has revived halitzi, a traditional product of the Tillyria region.
Among its most popular dishes are gyoza stuffed with halloumi and mint, served with pea guacamole and grape molasses teriyaki, and dumplings filled with Lefkara-style lamb ttava, served with potato cream and tomato sauce.
Other dishes on the menu include koupepia with tuna sashimi, a grouper tartare in the style of giouvarlakia, resi wedding pilaf prepared like a risotto with wheat, vegan afelia with chestnuts and an anari cream millefeuille.
Chaidemenos’s cooking is built on three principles: quality, creativity and technique.
The restaurant has an indoor dining room and a garden courtyard with tall trees, swings and a fountain.
Dionysus Mansion is at 5 16th June Street, Limassol. Tel: 25 222210.
