Taverna Zenon — Restaurant in Larnaca

(DEUTSCH unten).

Worst Cyprus experience ever!

DO NOT GO HERE, if you do not want to get bullied and fooled.

If you have seen any of my other reviews here, you may know me as a very polite and easy to satisfy customer, who likes mostly every restaurant. NOT THIS TIME, no, sir!

My wife and me, we came here 5:25 pm. Just one more table was occupied, besides, we were the only one. I had to wave the waitress, to get her attention (being in clear sight), who was playing on her phone and doing other things. This should have given us a warning ...

We had to leave at 6:30 to catch a flight. I told this to the waitress and asked: "Can you serve in time so that we can catch the flight?" She left, asked the cook and came back and said "yes, no problem". So, we ordered a Cypriot sausage, a halloumi as primers and 2 times the Grilled Meat platter.

At 5:50, I got a bit nervous, because we even didn't get the primers. "Yeah, yeah, all will work" - and we got just the 1 sausage, some minutes later.

By the way, no other guests since our arrival. Around 6:10, we still even didn't have the Halloumi primer.

Meanwhile, the (probably) boss appeared (a bold guy around 50), so I went in and told him "sorry, we pay what we got, pay the drinks and the sausage, but that's it, we have to cancel the rest and leave, now!"

First, he tried to fool me with "grilling this meat takes that long" (35 min???). When I told him "I have grilled meat, myself - that takes less than 15 min, I don't want to get fooled and will leave now, just paying drinks and the sausage (all we got).

He got mad, then. He will not accept the cancelation and would hold us there, with police or by himself and the food is ready now (which wasn't true, nothing was on dishes, it still was on the grill).

I would have loved to see that, but ... we had to get the flight. So I smashed a 50,- (only one in my wallet) on the table and left.

Decide yourself if you would like to deal with persons like that.

I was in 100 Restaurants on Cyprus, from 4 Seasons to little tavernas. My minimum was "OK". This one was not. Worst experience all over Cyprus.

We got the flight, but hungry.

DEUTSCH:

SCHLECHTESTE ZYPERN-Erfahrung überhaupt!

NICHT HIER HINGEHEN! Schon gar nicht, wenn man "nur" eine Stunde hat und zum Flughafen will!

Wer vielleicht meine anderen Rezensionen kennt, weiß, dass ich leicht zufriedenzustellen bin und ungern meckere. Hier schon.

Meine Frau und ich kamen um 17:25 an, ich musste erst einmal der umherirrenden Kellnerin im ansonsten leeren Restaurant winken, damit sie überhaupt kam (wir waren natürlich in Sichtweite). Hätte schon ein Warnsignal sein sollen ...

Ich sagte an, dass wir spätestens 18:30 zum Flughafen müssten. Sie ging in der Küche fragen und sagte "That's OK, will work". Gut. Wir bestellten eine cypriotische Wurst und einen Halloumi-Käse als Vorspeise sowie zwei Grillteller - einfache Gerichte. Dachten wir.

Um 17:50 waren noch nicht einmal die Vorspeisen serviert. Ich frage nach, wir bekamen immerhin darauf das eine Würstchen.

Gegen 18:10 war der (vermutlich) Chef eingetroffen, ein Herr mit Glatze um die 50. Übrigens keine weiteren Gäste seit unserer Ankunft. Ich ging hin und sagte ihm, wir gehen jetzt und bezahlen, was wir bisher hatten.

Unser Essen sei jetzt fertig, meinte er. Nix an fertigen Tellern zu sehen. "Das dauert nun einmal", meinte er. Ich erwiderte, er soll mich nicht zum Narren halten.

Ich sagte, wir zahlen Getränke und Wurst.

Daraufhin wurde er ruppig, baute sich auf murmelte "Polizei" und "andere Mittel". Leider mussten wir den Flug bekommen.

Also knallte ich 50,- auf den Tresen (mein kleinster Schein, leider) und wir gingen.

Ich liebe Zypern und war in 100 Restaurants auf der Insel, und sage schnell mindestens "war OK". Hier nicht. mit weitem Abstand die mieseste Erfahrung auf der Insel.

Den Flug haben wir hungrig, aber...

Can you go to Cyprus and not go to a traditional tavern? No! I trusted to go there for the good reviews, and everything was great. I started with a delicious Egg Katsoura, my mistake was that I requested 2 pieces, 1 is more than enough as starter! Could I leave a greek restaurant without having a greek salad? No! The salad was fresh and tasty. As main course I had Kleftiko (Lamb kleftiko is a rustic, traditional Greek recipe made with slow-cooked lamb that’s first marinated in garlic, olive oil and lemon juice), it was a dream!! Tender and full of flavours. The lovely man who was looking after me offered me a slice of cake, unfortunately I had to refuse as I was so full!! LOL This place is situated in a local area of Larnaca, you can't fail! Be back...

After checking on the Internet the price for the grill meze, I called and it was confirmed to me that it was €14/person. I had invited 15 people for a Sunday lunch, unfortunately, we all agreed that: The service was very slow, the waiters not friendly, the quality of the food was very poor, the portions were small, we were not served with everything which was mentioned in the menu for meze and on top of all the above, after paying and going home, I checked the receipt and found out that I was charged with €17/person(total overcharge €42). I called to complain, the girl who answered the phone was very polite, she promised to relay the message to her boss, who definitely would call me back. Fortunately, I am not holding my breath, as he never responded!...