John's Restaurant — Restaurant in Pano Platres

We used to visit this place almost every time we’ve been in Platres and had great grilled meats. 15 August is a big public holiday in Cyprus and visited last year when we had great lamb chops so we thought of repeating this year and went there after making a reservation. We were given the menus but when we were about to order we were told they run out of lamb chops, out of pork and chicken kebab, even out of tahini since the previous night so our options were limited to mostly ready made dishes such as souvla and kleftiko! Running out of such popular plates especially at such a busy period means bad scheduling and hence, lack of professionalism! What came as a surprise though is that when we were about to leave, we noticed other tables being served with the dishes we were previously told that run out. I asked about this and they told me that their butcher came by for replenishment! My impression has been that they were rather trying to push ready/pre-cooked dishes which were not up to par before start serving other ones!

Service at this place has never been great: phone not answered to make a reservation, waiters not very willing to serve you but the great food made it up! Today there was even a particular waiter that has been rather rude, looking annoyed and frustrated when asked for something!

That was it for us at John’s, we need to find a new spot at Platres as I don’t intend to...

We arrived here pretty late on a Sunday off the back of a long hike. Most of the menu was not available. However we were hungry/thirsty and there were few other options around, so we decided to stay.

The food was ok, although expensive compared to other village restaurants.

However, what we found most disappointing is how this restaurant attempts to rip its customers off with water.

We ordered 2 x 1L bottles of water which arrived unsealed and without labels on. We asked the waitress about this and were told that it was local water that apparently all of their customers prefer.

Not being locals we were not sure, but changing them was apparently too much work. The waitress told us that they do this but don't charge for it. So we decided that was fair enough.

Except when the bill came they attempted to charge us 6 euro and had the audacity to get annoyed when we questioned it!

6 euro is already a rip off for 2L of water, but an absolute joke for 2L of water that came from a mountain or a tap, offered in a restaurant to dining customers, in bottles that had previously been used and...

Nice looking place in the busy center of Platres in the Trodos mountains. If you like being treated like a nuisance then this is a good place to spend your hard earned money. Our waiter was clearly not enjoying his job and didn’t try very hard to hide it from us; Rolling eyes, long heavy sighs, not a smile in sight. You might think: difficult customer perhaps? Perhaps, but we didn’t ask for any customizations nor asked difficult questions about food preparation (Cyprus is home away from home, we know the food and how it is supposed to taste). We did need about thirty extra seconds to think of an alternative to the lamb souvla which was sold out (no complaints about that!). How about the food, was it worth being treated like an uninvited guest? No, it wasn’t bad though the pork chop (brizola) and souvlaki (pork skewer) were over cooked , no I’m not kosher. So the food didn’t in any way make up for the treatment we got. My advice to the owners is to find another trade which does not involve customers nor...