Nicosia

7 Kleidia is a small kafeneio-bar in old Nicosia with a wide range of Cypriot wines by the glass and craft beers, and an atmosphere that favours company and conversation over a strictly organised evening.

Spin is a small pizzeria serving sourdough pizzas, wine and music, and works on a walk-in basis.

BrewFellas takes no reservations and runs on a first come, first served basis. It pours draught beers from around the world and has a large selection of bottles and cans.

Swimming Birds is a café by day and a bar in the evening, serving wines, cocktails and Cypriot craft beers, with music. You can turn up and decide there whether to stay for one drink or make a night of it.

Limassol

Cinema is set in an old open-air cinema in Limassol’s historic centre, and you can go without booking. It serves signature drinks and small sharing plates by Jack Giannakou, with projections on the walls changing the atmosphere as the night goes on.

Freehouse Spritzeria offers a spritz on the pavement to start the evening.

Gypsy’s Western Saloon makes its own margaritas, which are reason enough to drop in and see how long you stay.

Sto Dromo, on Genethliou Mitella Street, is a bar suited to an evening that starts with one drink and takes it from there.

Tria Poulakia, a little further along, serves cocktails to music ranging from jazz and blues to funk and indie. It works without reservations and without a door policy.

Tzins is a denim-themed bar with cocktails inspired by iconic jeans, as well as wine and beer. You walk in, find a spot and order, and it is geared towards after-work drinks.

The brunch costs 36 euros for adults and 20 euros for children aged 4 to 12. Children under four eat free.

The buffet includes international cheeses and cold cuts, salads, smoked salmon and freshly baked pastries. At live cooking stations, guests can order omelettes with fillings of their choice, while a carving station serves Angus beef, herb-crusted lamb and pork belly. A range of hot dishes is also available.

For dessert, there are pancakes, waffles, croissants, cinnamon rolls and a selection of cakes and sweets, as well as smoothies, yoghurt with granola and fresh fruit.

The brunch is aimed at families, groups of friends and food lovers.

For information and bookings, call 22695111.

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.

For brunch: Beefbar

Beefbar’s Sunday brunch at the AMARA hotel gives the classic brunch a meat-heavy, upmarket twist centred on premium beef. It runs every Sunday from 12pm to 3.30pm, with Beefbar’s familiar dishes reworked for brunch in a smart but relaxed setting.

The menu includes Beefy Benedicts, with brioche, pulled Wagyu, poached eggs and summer truffle; a Steak-Frites Baguette with beef tagliata and Beefbar sauce; and a Le Relais Croissant with stracciatella, ribeye pastrami and Beefbar sauce. More playful options include Savory Angus Mini Donuts, which pair Angus beef with truffle mayo and aged balsamic, and the Crunchy Potato, a Hasselback potato topped with pulled beef, crème fraîche and herbs.

The highlight is the Sunday Roast: 180 grams of Wagyu topside with seasonal vegetables, crispy potatoes, Yorkshire pudding and red wine jus. A marinated chicken version is also available.

AMARA Hotel, 95 Amathountos Avenue, Agios Tychonas, 25 442222.

Modern cookhouse: Ravania

A new generation of mageiria, traditional Greek cookhouses, is bringing everyday home-cooked food back to the fore, blending Greek and Cypriot cuisine in more modern settings. In Limassol, Ravania follows this model, with tradition at the heart of its kitchen and food that recalls the familiar side of Greek cooking: the casserole pot, the baking tray and the family table.

34 Pavlou Mela Street, Limassol, 97 470111.

New Cypriot cuisine: Ōnar

The sister restaurant of Oniro by the Sea takes the first part of its name, and with it the promise of a high-quality night out. Its focus is Cypriot cuisine, which chef Stefanos Nikolaou updates for today, showcasing local produce with international touches. The short menu is designed for sharing and features dips, crisp salads made with fresh ingredients, main courses and desserts.

The wine list is made up exclusively of Cypriot and Greek labels from indigenous grape varieties, mostly from small wineries, among them Mavroudi, Morokanella, Promara, Vasilissa and Xynisteri. The restaurant also works with a local microbrewery and serves its beer on draught.

Agiou Kendea, Paphos, 26 322444.

The menu is built around handmade, slow-proved dough. Pizzas run from classics to more inventive combinations. The Margherita comes with tomato, mozzarella, parmesan and basil. The Tartufo has black truffle cream, mozzarella, goat’s cheese, Portobello mushrooms, parmesan and caramelised onions, and the Prosciutto e Rucola has mozzarella, parmesan, prosciutto and rocket. There are richer combinations too.

Garlic focaccia is also on offer, along with pasta and sandwiches on homemade sourdough bread. The sandwiches include the ‘With Pork’, with slow-cooked pork cheeks, goat’s cheese, spicy salami and rocket. Pasta dishes include a Gassareghi Carbonara with pancetta, Portobello mushrooms, cream and parmesan, and linguine with prawns, tomato, basil, ouzo and gremolata.

Desserts are made on the premises. They include a sweet pizza with Nutella, mascarpone and banana, or with lemon cream, meringue crumble and homemade red berry sauce, and homemade ice cream in seasonal flavours.

December9 is open from Wednesday to Monday, 4pm to 10pm, at 6 Ioakim and Annis Street, Agia Anna, Larnaca district. Telephone: 97 479999.

Menu

The new menu focuses on modern Mediterranean cuisine, combining familiar favourites with fresh ingredients. Dishes include courgette fritters, linguine with stracciatella, selected cuts of meat and fresh fish.

Weekly programme

On Wednesdays, dinner is accompanied by DJ sets. Herodotos Miltiadous performs live on Thursdays, and Hovig appears with Christina Miliou on Fridays.

Constantinos Christoforou performs on Saturdays, while Sundays continue with the JOLIO Sundays concept.

Saturday lunch

OLIO is now also open at lunchtime on Saturdays.

Details

OLIO is at 26 Stasikratous Street, Nicosia. Telephone: 99 997700. More information is available on the restaurant’s Facebook and Instagram pages and at www.olio.com.cy.

FOR STREET FOOD
Stavri’s Kitchen

Stavri’s Kitchen proves that quality doesn’t need to be over the top, and its juicy pork fillet makes the point. It is served on sweet potato purée, with fragrant chives and an equally fragrant lemon butter stealing the show. With its focus on authentic flavours, carefully chosen ingredients and a welcoming atmosphere, it has built a loyal following of regulars who keep coming back. A place that combines simplicity, flavour and excellent value for money.

Kalymnou 6B, Larnaca, 24 255592.

IN THE HEART OF PAPHOS
Onar

With its contemporary look and creative take on Mediterranean cuisine, Onar has carved out its own place on the Paphos food scene. It has also won a place in our hearts with its creamy spinach and leek risotto, made with Vialone Nano rice, scented with lemon and finished with pistachios and a velvety goat’s cheese cream. Onar’s carefully crafted menu, its focus on seasonal ingredients and its welcoming atmosphere make it an ideal choice. The same goes for its excellent Maple-Makarono, an original dessert of maple biscuit, vegan crème pâtissière, walnuts, apple compote, cinnamon liqueur and maple walnut ice cream.

Agiou Kendea, Paphos, 26 322444.

BEER & COCKTAILS
The Hide

Tucked away in the backstreets of old Nicosia, The Hide is one of the city’s most distinctive spots for beer and cocktails, and serves some of its most iconic burgers. A laid-back courtyard, a carefully curated soundtrack and imaginative creations from behind the bar make for a venue with a style that is casual yet refined. The focus is on a careful selection of craft beers from microbreweries, along with rare gins and whiskies.

Talou 10, Nicosia, 22 333390.

The restaurant has an open kitchen, two parallel food bars, connected indoor and outdoor areas and a soft-industrial setting.

The menu offers contemporary takes on familiar flavours. Among the lighter dishes are oysters, raw fish of the day with lemon confit, olive oil and piment d’Espelette, beef tartare with bone marrow gremolata, and a salad of tomato, radish, brine pickles and manouri cheese.

Comfort dishes include a ‘Spanakopizza’ with barrel-aged feta and cappelletti cacio e pepe with anari and parmesan. Italian influences continue with spaghettini with gambero rosso and a creamy bisque, and an amatriciana with guanciale, stracciatella and peperoncino. For sharing, there is a 700g USDA Prime bone-in striploin with béarnaise sauce.

The bar serves cocktails built on Mediterranean ingredients with nods to the classics. Rubi’s Aperol combines Aperol with peach, bay leaf and tomato, and the Rosafico pairs gin with fig, rose petals and peppercorn. The Mediterranean Gimlet mixes gin, pear, chamomile and grapefruit, while the Greek Martini is made with gin, vermouth, olive bread, feta and Greek salad.

Rubi is at 47 Stasikratous Street, Nicosia, and can be reached on 22 270202.

Giorgio Locatelli is going through a time of big change. One chapter of his professional and personal life has closed, but two exciting new ones have opened: his role on Celebrity MasterChef UK and his new venture, Osteria Locatelli at the National Gallery in London. We met him at Ristorante Locatelli at AMARA to talk about the new challenges of a career that keeps evolving.

This year has brought a lot of change. One is your role as a judge on Celebrity MasterChef UK. What excited you about it?

It’s more of an entertainment show than a cookery programme as such. What interests us is seeing someone’s character in different circumstances. People often know celebrities only through the image they present in public. This show gives viewers the chance to see a different side of them. I loved the sportspeople, they were amazing! But they were all brilliant: the comedians, the YouTubers. After all, it’s that distinctive character that made them popular in the first place.

How is your approach different from the Italian MasterChef?

On MasterChef Italia I feel I can really make a difference to these people’s lives. If someone wins, their life can change, or at least take a big step in that direction. On Celebrity MasterChef, on the other hand, we’re dealing with people who are already very well known. But it’s still a competition, and everyone wants to show their best side. Nobody wants to come across badly. There’s something else I find interesting, too. Every time they cook a dish, there’s a family story behind it, a memory, something personal. That’s the beauty of cooking. And these people, especially the actors and comedians, are very good at telling that story.

Another change, and a very visible one: your new look! How did you decide?

Filming for Celebrity MasterChef started in January and finished in March. I had a two-week gap and then filming started on the Italian MasterChef. Almost six months of filming altogether. And in the middle of all that, my hair had become a big issue. Shorter, longer, tied back, styled, and back to square one. On the last day of filming in Italy, at the final, we were at the party in the evening and I thought: “I’m cutting it off!” I said to my hairdresser: “Have you brought your kit? Let’s cut it!” She said: “I’m not doing anything unless Plaxy agrees.” So we rang my wife and got the green light. It was so liberating!

The headline of a recent interview with you was: “I want to be known as a good chef, not for a bloody haircut!”

Everyone went mad over the new haircut. People started posting photos and writing about it. It was absolutely crazy! Even the Italian press got interested in my hair. The biggest Italian papers, including Corriere della Sera, ran stories about it. That’s exactly when I said the line that became the headline.

How do you feel about being a celebrity chef?

It’s nice to be important, but it’s much more important to be nice. I always keep that principle in mind. You should never believe the image your PR people create for you, and you must always keep your feet on the ground. When you’re that recognisable, you have to use it for a good cause, to give something back to people. Chefs didn’t have this role in the past. The media have done a lot for us, and it’s a position we should use properly.

I like the idea of a chef who has influence and can make a difference, but we have to remember we’re still cooks. We make food; we’re not doing brain surgery. The people who do that job deserve Nobel prizes, not us. What I’d like to do in future is work more in education, teach others, help people. Bring a little “magic” through food.

For more than 20 years, Locanda in London was a huge chapter of your life. When it closed, did you feel you had lost a part of yourself?

The first few months were hard. Twenty-four years is a whole lifetime! But at the same time I felt a sense of freedom. It was a huge weight, not just for me and my wife but for the whole family, our children. The restaurant shaped our lives in a way that was very different from a “normal” family, if there’s even such a thing. But it was also a wonderful experience. I had a very special relationship with the customers, and that relationship is still there. I’ll remember them for the rest of my life. These people came to Locanda and became part of its story.

Do I miss it? When I think about it romantically, yes, I do. But straight away I remember all the day-to-day difficulties of running a restaurant like that and… I come to my senses! It’s important to be able to change, to move on and do something different. The economic climate has become tough, so it made sense to create something else. At the same time, my television career is going very well, both in England and in Italy.

It’s also interesting that Locanda kept its Michelin star right up to the last day…

It’s true, we closed Locanda still holding the star. We never lost it. We wanted our food to be above the ordinary, to offer a really good experience, and we kept that up consistently for 24 years. But as market prices and rents went up, profit margins shrank, and that made it unviable.

Do you think the restaurant model as we know it needs to change radically?

It’s already changing, and it always has. Think about what people ate in the ’50s, or even the ’90s. Every decade brings something new, shaped by everyday life, which changes too. A restaurant reflects the world around it and responds to people’s needs and wants. The changes over the past 30 years, from the ’90s to today, have been truly remarkable. A restaurant has to adapt and respond to what its customers want. We always tell people to follow their dreams, but a restaurant that wants to stand the test of time also has to adapt to the economic conditions it operates in.

I don’t believe, though, that this is the end of fine dining, as some people claim. People will always want to go somewhere that makes them feel they’re somewhere special, and they’re willing to pay for that experience. These restaurants may change their food and the way they operate, but the appetite for that experience remains. Personally, I like restaurants everyone can go to, not just one particular type of person.

You’ve never liked elitism in fine dining…

I’ve always believed a restaurant should appeal to as many people as possible and offer something anyone can enjoy. Whether you’re a rock star or a farmer, everyone should feel welcome.

What draws you to your new venture, Osteria Locatelli at the National Gallery in London?

It’s an osteria: a small, simple place with a menu that changes often, based largely on what we did at Locanda but presented and served differently. It’s not a destination restaurant or somewhere for special occasions. The idea is that people visit the Gallery and, among the thousands of visitors, some want a good meal while they’re there.

I didn’t expect us to be chosen for it, and I was especially pleased they went for Italian food, because I want to remain one of the ambassadors of good Italian cooking. The prices are affordable and people seem to love it. With rents in London rising so steeply, it’s extremely hard to run a restaurant. This model lets us offer good quality at reasonable prices.

Is it true that when you worked at the Savoy in the late ’80s, the Gallery was your favourite place to spend your break?

My colleagues would go to the pub for an afternoon drink and I’d go to the National Gallery. It meant a great deal to me to have such easy access to a place like that in my everyday life. That’s culture! I’d look at the Italian art, and there were incredible works, from Canaletto to Caravaggio, who is one of my favourite painters. And now, with the Osteria, that access has become even easier!

You’ve spoken about your family’s anti-fascist background. Do you have strong political views yourself?

My father’s brother, Gionino, was just 21 and a partisan. They arrested him and shot him. I remember my grandmother bringing us up telling us over and over not to get involved in politics, because the family had already paid a very heavy price for its political choices. She didn’t want to see history repeat itself with any of her children or grandchildren. But it mattered that we grew up with those values: me, my brother and my cousin. I have strong views on things; I’m not someone without opinions. But I believe you can keep politics separate from your working life.

You’ve talked about the need to change the culture in professional kitchens. What’s the philosophy in your kitchen?

At some point I realised I was paying my staff almost twice the going rate. Because we wanted to give people a real chance to progress. For me, my staff are my family. We all eat together, my children included. I look after them and I want them to be healthy and happy, just as I want my own family to be.

When I read what was written about Noma and that whole debate, I thought how important it is for people to know what really goes on in kitchens. Everyone in my generation has experienced bullying and humiliation in kitchens, but you can teach someone without humiliating them. Of course mistakes happen, and at some point you may lose your patience, but that doesn’t mean you should insult or belittle anyone.

How do you feel each time you come back to Cyprus and Ristorante Locatelli at AMARA?

AMARA is a special place. Even when I come here for work, I feel calm from the moment I arrive at the hotel. Yesterday, for example, I had real trouble with my flight from London and got here after midnight. I opened the window and there was complete silence, just the sound of the waves. It was beautiful. Maybe now I’ll get the chance to come more often and stay longer.

I love that my people at the restaurant have settled into life here, too. Dario Sutera, for example, was with us in London, then went to Dubai, and then came to Cyprus to run the kitchen at Ristorante Locatelli at AMARA. When he came here he had no children, and now he has three! He’s built his life in Cyprus and, as I joke with him, he’s a Cypriot now.

How has the restaurant’s identity evolved over the years?

Over the past five years, Cyprus, and Limassol in particular, has taken a huge leap forward in food. What’s happened is incredible! Obviously there’s more competition, which we expected, of course, but it helps us evolve. The hotel has four very different restaurants, and it’s important for us to offer something that suits the place and the expectations of the people who come here. They’re not coming to a restaurant in central London. There’s a holiday feeling here, a carefree feeling, so our approach is different. We stand for Italian elegance, but also for warmth and conviviality, letting people enjoy each other’s company. There’s live music in the bar, but in the restaurant we’ve created a space where relationships can flourish, whether it’s a family, a couple or a group of friends. We want the atmosphere to bring people closer together.

Our restaurant team has also been with us for eight years now and has really matured. People come to the restaurant for us, and they’re very happy with what they find. We represent fine Italian dining in Cyprus, probably at one of the highest levels on the island, and what we produce is genuinely very good. At the same time, we’ve started to feel more confident about bringing some local ingredients onto the menu, and we’ve experimented with them in London too. For example, we’ve created a zivania sorbet! I’m trying to bring these two cultures together, and we also do that through the events we hold, such as wine events, to make the whole experience even more interesting.

Has Cyprus influenced your own approach to food?

This multiculturalism, this mix of cultures, makes room for experimenting with food. Maybe that’s why I find what’s happening in Limassol so interesting. People from different places come to Cyprus, bring their own experiences with them and build a new life here. The city now has a strongly international character. Different people and cultures living side by side is an opportunity, especially for food, because it makes room for new ideas and influences. Some see it as a threat. I don’t. War is a threat.

If you were starting over today, would you make the same choices?

Of course! I’d certainly avoid some mistakes, but we are the sum of everything that has happened to us, and the hard experiences have taught us far more than the pleasant ones. And the idea that failure is a bad thing is absurd. Failure matters. If children don’t learn to fail, they won’t know how to deal with it when it finally comes. When you fail, you fall down and then you get back up. It’s deeply human. But looking back, and judging some people by the way they treated me, perhaps I’d handle them differently. I’d be more careful and wouldn’t trust them so much.

“Success is being happy” was the headline of our previous interview, five years ago. Do you still stand by that?

Absolutely! Success really is being happy. It doesn’t matter if you have millions in the bank. I’ve met so many unhappy millionaires and, at the same time, so many happy labourers. Life shouldn’t revolve around our finances. People seem to have completely lost the plot. They’re trying to get rich and powerful, and at the same time they’re so unhappy.

Ristorante Locatelli, AMARA Hotel, 95 Amathountos Avenue, Limassol, 25 442222.

The restaurant’s philosophy starts with the memories made around a table, people’s bond with the land and the pleasure of sharing food. It is set in a classic Cypriot courtyard beside a small chapel, in a picturesque neighbourhood that takes you back in time without any pretension.

The village of Mia Milia has a special place in the story. It lies in the Mesaoria, the fertile plain that for years was Cyprus’s breadbasket, and it holds particular sentimental value for the taverna’s team. That connection reaches the plate through flavours that are familiar, generous and deeply rooted in Cypriot tradition.

The oven is lit early and charcoal takes centre stage. Well-cooked meat with clean flavours makes up much of the menu, and pork belly and lamb chops are among the house signatures. Traditional Cypriot produce also has its place, such as halloumi served warm and soft, along with less common choices such as bone marrow, for a generous take on meat eating.

116-118 John Kennedy Avenue, Pallouriotissa, Nicosia, 99 670073