Sunday lunch
The Paphos Amathus Hotel serves up a cracker
Most restaurants deserve to be reviewed on the basis of one visit, because that is how most of us experience them. The big difference with a hotel restaurant is that residents will, over their two-week stay, invariably chose to eat lunch and or dinner there at least three or four times.
The Paphos Amathus has recently employed a highly professional new Food and Beverage manager in the form of Christos Papamiltiadous, a man passionate about customer service, food, wine and the quality of ingredients used in dishes. He has a made a start on what we hope will be a whole host of changes aimed at raising the hotel’s rather jaded dining reputation.
There’s also a new and talented chef who has created a team in the kitchen that seems visibly hot to trot to take on the huge challenge of weaning back customers both from in house and also from the local community.
A Sunday lunch buffet is always a joy to behold. If done properly it should be something that totally bypasses all this trendy themed nonsense. What punters dearly wish from any hotel-based Sunday lunch is to walk in and be rewarded with the deeply reassuring sight of normality; of roast rib of beef perfectly cooked, piping hot Yorkshire puddings and crisp pork crackling. They will also demand an option of lamb, fish and chicken, if possible there should also be the makings of different ‘cooked on the spot’ pasta dishes for youngsters and for those not into the carnivorous delights on offer.
For starters there just has to be smoked salmon and at the Amathus they now smoke their own imported fish and very nice it is too. Salads abound, there’s also a good selection of dips, home-made breads, crisp steamed broccoli with carrots, perfect pilaf and at least three different types of potato dishes (do opt for the creamy Lyonaise).
Each week the chef rotates certain dishes so residents don’t face an identical buffet each Sunday but all the set favourites are always on offer. So, on any Sunday during the winter months eaters can now eat well at the Paphos Amathus for £14 (and you can return to the buffet as many times as you like).
We started with cooked prawns still in their shells, green shelled mussels and a generous hillock of smoked salmon. We went back for some asparagus, dips and a plate of salad (including a Caesar) picked a bit at the charcuteri platter, nibbled on home made pate’s and felt extremely virtuous walking off with a side plate of fresh local raw veggies.
Of course we ended up not eating them, not because they were bad but we had determined that no way could we fill ourselves up with veggies when there was a thumping sized roast rib of beef sizzling away close by. It had obviously been ‘well hung’ and was cooked correctly to give a choice of rare, medium and well done. Also on offer was a tasty dish of pork tenderloin smothered in a piquant blue cheese sauce, succulent lamb chops and salmon steaks with tomato crust. This buffet works because it doesn’t over stretch itself, making the Paphos Amathus well worth another try.
VITAL STATISTICS
SPECIALITY Excellent beef
WHERE Paphos Amathus Beach Hotel, Poseidon Avenue
CONTACT 26 883300
BOOKING advisable for Sunday lunch
PRICE £14 per person without drinks
