Lysia Meat Tavern — Restaurant in Pyla

To be honest I don't understand the positive reviews. We came here because of the high ratings online, but left unsatisfied. As a starter we had chicken soup, salad, sausages and tzatziki with bread. The soup was not bad, it was a good broth full of flavour! Simple. Bread was dry but the tzatziki was ok. Sausages were also ok, not special. Then we had porkchop (dry), chicken (tender), moussaka and pastichi (very dry). I had tasted moussaka and lasagna in different Greek restaurants in Larnaca and Paphos and I loved it. It was so juicy and fresh there, so I was looking forward to having another one at this well rated restaurant. What a dissapointment. The moussaka was extremely dry. The eggplant was bitter and the rinsed meat tasted old. There was no sauce or cheese in it. I tried the pastichi of my table partner, also bad. I tasted some porkchop, also dry. Most of the dishes were dry. We were so hungry, we ate it all. We asked for mayo, waiter forgot us. Our first round of drinks were empty for a long time and we wanted a second round. Nobody came to us allthough I had my hand up several times. Service ignorant and cold. This was the first restaurant in Cyprus we have experienced bad service and we had went to 6 different Greek restaurants this week. Where we noticed Cypriot people were so friendly and generous. Normally when the food is not that good but service is great, we could have had an ok experience. This was not the case. I went to the bar myself to pay as nobody noticed us. I paid and he gave me not the right amount of money back. Maybe he thought he was getting a tip (I was not planning to give one). But giving 5 euros less is just stealing. I gave the feedback to him but it looked like he didn't understand it or wanted to listen. People have different taste in food, maybe this was not the best restaurant for us. That can happen, however this was really bad food with bad service so a letdown. Presentation of food and ambience of the restaurant is simple. Both are not very inviting. Luckily the bill was...

Absolutely awful. It is hard to decide if the food or service was worse. We read reviews afterwards and realised our error....we were British. It would appear the restaurant do not like tourists, this explains a lot. We were left to seat ourselves, we were told the items we wanted were not available then saw them served to others. I ordered skewered chicken and my partner ordered pistachio. Both were utterly awful, the chocked was full of tiny bones. The restaurant staff saw my face of horror and just watched l, I had to feed it to a cat as it was not fit for a human, the staff watched this without offering any help. The pistachio was a micro meal while other local diners meals looked fine. Our drinks were served in tiny hotel bar spirit bottles?!? We had no service from and of the team, they did not communicate with us when they put the food down or when they brought the bill, they just made us extremely uncomfortable. Avoid the place unless you are local.

Only positive the halloumi was fine...

Beautifully cooked food (over charcoal), amazing waiters, sea air, trees with flowers, cheap cold beer, and the best tahini and lamb souvla I have ever tasted.

The salad is €2.25 and big enough for two. The baby calamari was cooked to perfection. The bread and olives are free and the bread tastes like home made. Meat comes with potatoes but you can substitute with bulgur wheat or salad. The afelia are very tasty and soft (marinated in quality red wine). The tahini (€2.75) is made by them with real garlic. Finally, the halloumi (€2.10) is a large slice of pillowy grilled cheese that is the softest and lightest halloumi you have ever tasted. It is so addictive you have to order more.

Lots of vegetarian options, like giant beans, eggs with zucchini (€4.95) etc.

They have ice cold beer (€3.95 for large bottle), and they also provide house wine if you don't want to order the bottled kind. You can even ask for a taster before you order.

Overall, it's the best value for money...