Anesi Restaurant — Restaurant in Peyia

Based on the very good reviews, we decided to visit this restaurant, but a series of disappointments began as soon as we arrived.

We came as a couple and after being seated, we noticed a different approach towards groups of three or more compared to couples. Faster service, better communication.

Another issue was that the menu listed all drinks except non-alcoholic ones, and there were no side dishes mentioned either.

So much time passed between our drinks being brought and our food order being taken that we could have ordered another drink. (We even considered moving to another restaurant.)

In the end, we gave it a chance and ordered food and another drink.

When the drinks arrived, our previous glass was left on the table (although this is a minor detail, it emphasized the following issues for us).

After a long wait, we received our food, but we didn't know what surprises awaited us...

My girlfriend: the meat was under-seasoned (not even salted) + the fries were bland and very greasy (the fries at the bottom were soggy from the oil).

Me: the chicken with Parmesan turned out to be eggplant with a few grams of chicken and the side dish? A potato that wasn’t even seasoned (we would have expected at least butter to soften it/salt) but maybe we were expecting too much...

we were attended to by three waitstaff (1. Probably the owner/manager - only took food orders and helped serve the food Took drink orders and served food The bartender - cleaned tables, prepared drinks, handled payments - basically did everything and...

Our family came as we saw the restaurant got good reviews. We ordered the fish meze, moussaka, and bolonegse pasta. Bottom line the food is very bad. Portion sizes are good, and the prices are also fare, but non of that matters if the food is not good. The fish meze started with pita and dips and each one of them did not make you want to take another bite. Next dish was raw smoked salmon (plain smoked salmon straight from the box), and a sort of shrimp cocktail that included extremely chewey, bland most likely frozen shrimp covered in a ridiculous amount of thousand island dip sauce. This shrimp actually disgusted me and was probably the worst dish of the evening. Mussels and shrimps in a cream sauce followed, mussels were ok and shrimp in the cream sauce were nice. Only bite I enjoyed the entire evening. Baked whole sea bass followed, cooked ok but quite bland. And the last dish of the meze was a fried fish, again absolutely drained in a pool of store bought sweet chili sauce.This fish could have actually been nice but the teribble sauce made it unedible. The mousaka was greasy and heavy and lacked actual flavor. bolonegse sauce was extremely watery resulting in pasta swimming in tomato water, which was also flavourless. About the atmosphere, the place is large but decorated very weirdly. Led lights that did not belong, with 80s' rock music in the background that did not suit a holiday dinner. Service was very nice but slow. In conclusion Every dish we had ranged from slightly disappointing to plain out disgusting, do...

We visited on Friday 31st May 2019.

When we visited we didn't realise there was a special opera event going on with a table d'hôte. However, the owner said we could still eat there with the normal menu, which was very nice of him.

For starter I went for the potato wedges, which came with two dips - a sour cream one, and a chilli one. They were the right amount of crispy and the chilli dip was to die for!

My main was the Beef Stifado, which had the option of coming with homemade chips, rice, or vegetables I went for the homemade chips. The Stifado was nicely presented and tasted beautiful. The beef was cooked perfectly, and the sauce was delicious. The homemade chips reminded me more of potato wedges but just a bit more crispy, and were also good.

For dessert I had the strawberry cheesecake, which was very light but the strawberry sauce was a bit rich, not that this was a bad thing. You could certainly tell it was homemade which added to it I think.

Someone on my table asked for cheese and biscuits for dessert, which wasn't featured on the menu. However, the owner was more than happy to bring out a fairly large plate full of crackers and different cheeses. It's great that he went the extra mile to make our dinner even better. I had no faults with the service as it was fantastic.

I thoroughly recommend a visit to the Anesi Restaurant, as you won't be...