Where good food and elegance meet
Neon Phaliron
One of the most elegant restaurants on the island, Neon Phaliron bills itself as “a different place to meet”. It’s also a very different place to eat.
Outside of the top hotels, I haven’t found such dedication to preparing and presenting fine dining in any other restaurant I’ve visited in Cyprus. I have tasted food just as good if not, in the case of certain dishes, even better. But it has always been in a simple, rustic setting and has always involved traditional Cypriot cuisine.
Neon Phaliron does feature our island’s deservedly famous cooking but it does it with a more sophisticated attention to theatrical display, so that when the keftedes are placed before you, you might not immediately recognise a dish you’ve been enjoying for years. The chef also indulges our wanderlust with visits to the cuisines of Italy, China, Japan, Austria, France and the Caribbean. Again, all dressed up in high style and tasting well worth the extra bit of gold you’ll be separating from your wallet.
We began with an excellent recommendation from the maitre d’: the Italiano Salad, assembled with hand-cut coriander, rocket and rockolino greens, sun-dried tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and leaf-thin slices of Parmesan cheese all expertly doused in an unobtrusive but intensely flavoured balsamic dressing. It was the perfect appetiser as it awakened and instructed the palate for the finely articulated taste sensations that were to follow.
I chose the Pepper Steak and was pleased to find the lightly marinated beef was a filet mignon-style cut, quite thick and without any artery-clogging fat or gristle. The enhancing pepper sauce had depth of character but was a bit too much on the mild side for me – but then I use liberal splashes of Tabasco in my hot chocolate. The accompanying potatoes, sitting up proudly in their own porcelain vessel, were worth five stars alone. I don’t know the preparation involved, whether they are soaked, then fried, then baked, but the result is quite divine.
You have to remind yourself that there is other food on your plate to be consumed – not only that impressive portion of steak but also a fanciful construct of vegetables whose individual components are at first glance not easy to identify. There was definitely broccoli in there, some cauliflower, I believe, an unusual variety of turnip perhaps and some fragile sweet fibres that I wrongly guessed to be lightly fried threads of onion. The seemingly always accessible maitre d’ informed me, with pride, as if he had created them himself, that they were carmelised carrots. Suffice it to say that intelligent planning, by a chef with well-travelled taste buds, had gone into designing the whole ensemble.
This was also true for my wife’s sage choice, the Fisherman’s Variety (just call us “Turf and Surf”). This was made up of delicately barbecued octopus, spice-infused broiled shrimp, crab-dominating seafood croquettes, fried calamari so good we had to negotiate over them, crab legs, a Mediterranean spring roll, some small pan-fried local fish and, the most satisfying: salmon kebabs, which were apparently timed over the grill with a stop watch, they were so delectably perfect. Again the vegetables on the side were nothing less than inspiring.
We had no room for dessert but on the rolling tower display of sweets I glimpsed an unusual fig cake that I have promised myself to try next visit.
One of the justifiable boasting points of Neon Phaliron is their wine list which features 330 varieties from all the serious wine-producing regions of the world. They’re a bit pricy if you’re accustomed to eating only in tavernas but you’d be stretched to find a more interesting and comprehensive selection in Cyprus.
The annexed wine lounge looks so comfortable you’ll contemplate searching for new employment in the neighbourhood just so you could pop over from time to time for a rejuvenating glass of Bordeaux and a medium size Havana if only to break up the work day. Of course, with the plush leather booths being so embracingly cozy, and the wine-by-the-glass tasting menu so wisely chosen and tempting, you may not get back to the office at all.
Neon Phaliron is a place you take a first date to impress, a business client to soften, a loyal old friend to celebrate or a beloved spouse for an anniversary renewal of romance. It’s difficult to imagine anyone involved in the above circumstances being disappointed here.
VITAL STATISTICS
SPECIALTY Fine Cypriot & International Cuisine
WHERE 135 Glastonos Street, Limassol
CONTACT 25 365768 www.neonphaliron.com
PRICE Dinners 12 to 20 Euros
BOOKING Necessary
