Smiyies tavern — Restaurant in Neo Chorio

Messaged to make a reservation as some of the reviews say the owner can be grumpy but never got a response so attended anyway as we are only staying a 5 minute walk away so we decided to walk around on Monday at around 6pm, signs said OPEN, doors were OPEN but not a soul in sight, shouted but nothing…. Eventually a neighbour shouted over that it’s closed on Monday.

Fantastic !!! At time of writing this I’ve still not had a response to my message from roughly 58 hours ago. The opening hours need updating but to not even bother to reply over 2 days later Is poor ! They obviously don’t need the money which I guess is great for them and I’m more than happy to spend our money elsewhere.

Obviously this left me in a happy mood and willing to try again…… NOT

PS - Pavlaras Prengos Tavern further down the village is fantastic, at least they reply to messages and we actually got to eat delicious food with...

I visited this restaurant last Saturday, encouraged by glowing reviews and personal recommendations. It wasn’t a great experience I was expecting to be! Perhaps I was unlucky and caught them on an ‘off day’!

With little choice from the charcoal grill, we opted for the meze. Sadly, the dips tasted suspiciously like something sourced from the ‘economy’ aisle of a supermarket, the souvlaki was challenging on the jaw, and the sheftalia came heavily seasoned (with salt, rather than flavour).

The atmosphere was equally memorable: the owner chose to loudly reprimand a waiter in front of the entire dining room, which certainly set the tone. Guests seemed subdued, perhaps hoping not to attract similar attention.

All in all, not quite the lively Mediterranean evening I had in mind—more reminiscent of a wake than a night out. Unfortunately, a rather...

We arrived and found the place busy, on arrival we were told the meze was good, but offered menus. It didn't matter what we asked for from the menu as the only thing available was meat or veggie meze. The meat meze was predominantly pork with chicken kebabs being the only variant. As in the party the majority do not like pork we ended up with some veggie meze and some meat. Sadly no one explained which were which. The waiter was apologetic and seemed embarrassed and the owner dismissive/unapproachable. The food we found to be dry and lack luster which is a shame we have been to Cyprus for many years and generally the meze is a highlight of any trip. To be fair others around us seemed quite happy and it may be we had what was left at the end of service. We arrived before eight and didn't feel this was...