Onar Pafos — Restaurant in Paphos Municipality

I have visited Onar many times since the day it opened If my review would have been written when opened almost 2 years ago it would have been 5 starts for the food and 4 starts for the service - visited at least 5-6 times for lunch and the food quality was always on a very high quality If my review would have been written last winter then it would have been 1 star for the food and 3 stars for the service - visited twice so it was not a coincidence since both times especially the food was inedible Today and after visiting again last night (we were invited) my review headline would SCAMMERS!!!! We were a group of 8 persons (4 adults and 4 kids) and because of the restaurant menu structure all plates are meant to be shared and therefore we decided to order 3 T-Bone (35euros each) steaks which based on menu description they weighed around 500 grams as well as quite few other plates in order to share Our serving waitress advised that they run out our T-Bones but they had 3 last Porterhouse streaks (55 euros each) also waited around 500 grams - basically the same like a T-Bone but with a larger fillet portion versus a T-Bone We agreed and ordered the 3 “last” Porterhouse steaks only to be proven when brought to the table that they were nothing more than standard T-Bone steaks since the fillet part of the steak was nowhere near a Porterhouse steak should be! When raised the issue with our waitress we were referred to the restaurant head who rudely responded with a laughable and naive argument that what they brought us are Porterhouse steaks and that if we wanted he could show us the related invoice from their supplier !!! I advised that his argument makes no sense because even if he did present us an invoice this could be for anything without proving that the specific served steaks are indeed Porterhouse. Moreover we responded that the served steaks are more than obvious that they are T-Bones and therefore we should be charged on that basis which again the response we received was negative We even took pictures and uploaded them to ChatGPT to be sure and of course as expected the answer was that the served steaks were T-Bones! Other than that the overall food taste was very average and bland but at least edible, the service non existent despite the unfortunate discussion with the rude restaurant head since the waiters were never available and we even had to chase them to bring us the bill Finally the whole atmosphere especially towards the end was very very bad because the sewages were overfilled and smelly water was coming out in front of the restaurant and the whole smell became unbearable Eventually we decided to stand up and go to the cashier and pay since we could not any longer wait for the bill to be brought to our table and in the meantime to breath the bad sewage smell… After tonight for sure there is NO WAY coming back again to...

Awful and unpleasant. Here's why:

Food:

We ordered 6 dishes: a greek salad, a hortopitta, laxanontolmades, kolokythokeftedes, fried potatoes and pork cheek.

In terms of presentation, everything looked stunning.

In terms of taste, the salad and kolokythokeftedes were fine. The pork cheek was also interesting, with warm earthy flavors (although a more diligent work with cleaning the burnt eggplant would have been expected).

The leafy greens in the hortopitta were super bitter. The greens were also not properly cut which made chewing unpleasant (i pulled out a stem which could have been a whole tree). The laxanontolmades had an unappetizing smell (which i was happy to get past as it was made with cabbage and prawns) but as soon as i took a bite, all i tasted was boiled rice. This dish (which included 3 ntolmades and cost 17€) was completely unacceptable. The fried potatoes were a version of loaded fries but cut in chunks instead. I don't know if they were pre-boiled from a couple days ago or if they were just never boiled prior to being fried but they were hard on the inside.

Service:

The maitre d' switched another couple to what would have been our table even though we were next in line to be seated and when I pointed it out, he responded with a sarcastic comment. He also came mid-meal to check if everything was okay by rudely interrupting and asking us so very loudly, very close to our faces. We were startled.

We were obviously rushed through our food as the waiters kept coming to pick up plates before we were finished.

Before we were even given a menu to look, we were rushed to decide if we wanted desert as "they had to give the order in before the kitchen closed". Having worked in the service industry for years, we were taught that a customer who had a whole meal was entitled to have desert regardless of what time they finished the said meal (for reference our reservation was at 8:45 which I don't think justifies the rush - if you cannot serve customers by 10 it is not the customer's problem).

Overall a terrible experience, and at the price point of this restaurant, simply...

The worst experience in Paphos that ended with food poisoning, please read carefully:

First of all, the music is super depressing and loud which creates an unpleasant and uneasy atmosphere.

Secondly, if you expect lovely Cypriot food this is not the place - they advertise is at Greek-Cypriot but trust me there is nothing Cypriot in this restaurant- it’s expensive as hell, portions are small, and the food is not fresh or nice.

We ordered a summer greens salad which had only pickled things in it - pickled onion, mushrooms and beetroot, extremely unpleasant and inedible really.

The so called meze menu is a total scam, they serve spanakopita under a different name to make it seem more fancy, and they call pastirma pie some dough rolls with a little bit of meat and cheese, something you’d have for breakfast and definitely not at a “fancy restaurant”.

The aubergine spread is tasteless and bland. But the most appalling moment was when we found out they charge SIX EUROS for bread without giving a notice.

Complete scammers, they have nothing in common with Cyprus - literally any other place in the old town is 2x cheaper, better and the food is incredible but we wanted to go for a nice dinner on Sunday so most other places were closed.

We went there because they obviously invest a lot in marketing online and their instagram profile seemed appealing. Also I have to note all the people around us were disappointed in the food too, to the point where people stopped talking and eating and looked seriously depressed.

We wanted to stay a bit longer at least enjoy our cocktail which was the only nice thing we got but our stomachs felt unwell and we had to leave immediately.

Really horrible experience and a massive waste of money....