Petradaki Tavern
Just the place for a serious Sunday lunch
One thing you can say about eating out these days is there is more choice and it seems that all human emotions and aspirations – whether wrapped in filo or drizzled with Balsamic – are now being catered for here in Cyprus. All of this mucking around with one’s taste buds and wallet is done in the desperate quest to entice customers away from their weekly mezze for £7.50 or cod and chips for under a fiver.
And if you’re talking about the expat crowd, they are generally solidly committed to frequenting the traditional taverna. After all, if they wanted to eat meaty lung slices and strips of tripe in liquor ala Mediterranean Sichuan fusion style, they would have all stayed put in Macclesfield.
However no self respecting, down-to-earth taverna is ever going to offer ground breaking gourmet experiences and that’s exactly why we love them so much; we know what we are going to get and that the good ones will consistently serve up decent, value-for-money meals.
It was a handful of small, family-run tavernas that first clocked on to offering customers a version of the Great British Sunday roast at a flat, all-inclusive price. Many even pulled off the difficult job of getting their Yorkshire puddings to rise to the occasion (albeit, most were bought frozen).
One taverna that consistently shows how it should be done is the Petradaki tavern, where chef/owner Charalambos Polemitis successfully moves from hearty winter to tasty summer Sunday lunches.
First it’s a custom-built stone structure on the outskirts of Kathikas village; a big balcony decked with umbrellas shades lunchtime diners. The whole atmosphere is very relaxed with calming views across the lush, tree-filled valley without a single retirement villa complex in sight.
Lunch is served promptly at 1:15pm, an indoor help-yourself buffet, with dishes only coming out upon arrival of the diners, all of whom have booked their tables and turned up on time. It is a professional, well-executed and smooth-running feeding station that combines quality ingredients, great flavour, a wide variety of different starters, tender roast beef, non cremated roast chicken and even roast pork perfectly presented with a decent (non hairy) coat of juicy crackling.
We voted the entire lunch a big hit, while particular favourites were the juicy giant beans in tomato sauce, moussaka that was mercifully only minimally swathed in b?chamel, a light cous cous, and a stifado that packed a proper punch with lashings of baked onions. A huge bonus were the perfectly-steamed piping hot vegetables – grass green firm broccoli, blushing carrots and crisp cauliflower all grown in the chef’s garden. I even spotted a few doggie bags – including a rather smart blue Tupperware container being surreptitiously passed around a couple of tables followed by the noise of remnants being scraped off plates.
If you have the room, there’s a range of puddings: home-made coconut cake, fresh fruit salad, fruit plus some seriously good pink blancmange along with a selection of sticky, calorie-loaded cakes flavoured with rose water.
Sitting on the balcony in the company of friends enjoying a bottle of locally-made Vassilikon red (at a non inflated price) one would be hard pressed to think of anywhere else you could enjoy such a repast – it’s not just about the volume of the food on offer, it’s the clever combination of quality, consistency, the peaceful atmosphere, easy parking, friendly staff, and the attractive price of £8 per person.
Just make sure you are there on the dot of 1pm and if you do bring a doggie bag, the management won’t mind in the least, they are after all very generous people.
VITAL STATISTICS
SPECIALITY Sunday lunch
WHERE on outskirts of Kathikas, situated on the left hand side of road en route to Polis
CONTACT 99 596528, 26 814191 fax 26 814190
BOOKING essential
PRICE £8 per person without drinks
