Palia Plateia
Beefing it up in Aglandja
Which American Presidential candidate famously skewered his opponent with the line “Where’s the beef?” The answer, according to Google, is Walter Mondale in 1984, who used the phrase (actually the slogan for a hamburger ad) to attack challenger Gary Hart’s lack of substance. Hart duly withdrew from the race – though Mondale himself turned out to be beef-less, losing the election to Ronald Reagan.
Walter Mondale would be happy in Palia Plateia, a restaurant in the old town of Aglandja which has been chugging along for years but hit on a happy idea a couple of months ago: each week, an entire side of beef is imported from France, then added to the restaurant’s charcoal-grilled repertoire. The meat is turned into sirloin and T-bone steaks, with fillet steaks added as a freebie if you’re a large group and order lots of beef. We had a T-bone the night we went, properly medium-rare – not always a given in Cyprus, where chefs tend to assume you ordered medium-rare but actually meant burnt to a crisp – and packed with flavour.
I thought the beef would be more of a feature, being what distinguishes Plateia from your garden-variety taverna, but it gets little build-up on the menu, which is non-existent anyway; there’s a faded board with a bill of fare, but we didn’t know what the kitchen had to offer till Akis Farmakalidis came by our table to list the various viands. The place is apparently a coffee-shop by day, perched on the dolled-up Square in old Aglandja opposite the better-known Spiti tis Aglandjas. It’s small, just a couple of rooms, with eclectic design bric-a-brac: old posters, black-and-white photos of donkeys (why?), even a bicycle slung up on one of the walls.
Akis is in charge, and started proceedings on an excellent note by shaking my hand heartily as we arrived. (In fact, so hearty was the greeting my dining companion was convinced he must’ve mistaken me for someone else, but I like to think he was just being hospitable.) Bread, salad and dips came unbidden. Dips included tachini and lush, choppy aubergine paste. Breads included one of the highlights of the meal, a pair of fried slices fragrant with olive oil and oregano.
In fact, the only slight hiccup in the service was the time it took to order drinks and mains. Clearly, the thinking is that patrons will be happy with the appetizers, negating the need to look after them straight away – which is absolutely true, but it would’ve been nice to have some wine to sip with the dips and salad. Fortunately, the wine, when it arrived, was something of a triumph. The wine-list is all Greek and Cypriot (including some I wasn’t familiar with, like the local Shoufas range), and Akis strongly suggested we try the Palyvos Nemea, a little-known Greek wine at the discounted price of £10. My mind went to Rule No. 475b of Restaurant Going – “Beware the wine waiter trying to steer you towards ‘special offers’” – but I took Akis’ advice, and didn’t regret it. The Palyvos was splendid, a smooth wine with enough heft to complement the grilled meats, yet light enough to sip on its own as the meal wound down.
I should’ve trusted Akis, who’s worked in hotels for 25 years – mostly Hiltons and Meridiens, from Zurich to Dubai and beyond. He also took a few years off (he explained) to pursue a second career as a jazz pianist, and took advantage of the fact that chefs – who’d never share their secrets with another chef – didn’t mind opening up to a humble musician. Those handy tips duly found their way into Palia Plateia.
Some would expect the place to be fancier, given all those decades of build-up. In fact, we had perfectly serviceable dishes of sausage – the Cypriot loukaniko – and grilled chicken, brilliant chips on the side (crispy on the outside, fleshy on the inside) plus a rather disappointing plate of tasteless grilled vegetables, capped by the famous steak (which came with a selection of mustards) and a toothsome dessert of sweet quince with ice-cream. ‘Where’s the beef?’ ask picky readers looking for the Next Big Thing, and I guess it wasn’t a meal for the ages. But the wine was good, the food was tasty, the ambience was cosy and the service delightful. All this, and a hearty handshake too.
SPECIALITY Beef steaks, grilled meats
SEATING 40-50
WHERE 5 Kyriakou Karaoli Sq., Aglandja, Nicosia
CONTACT 22-337128, 99-609597
PRICE Around £35 for two, with wine
