No wonder restaurant trade is down

We  have lived here for the past seven years and are happy with our home and lifestyle. Obviously things have changed over the years, not many of them for the better.

However, regarding your article about restaurants being 40 per cent down (July 31) I would like to make the following points.

The other night, we visited a tavern in the Venus Beach area which had recently been taken over by a local Cypriot family, who we were familiar with. My husband said “let’s give it a try”. Never again.  

We ordered a main course salad and a lamb chop meal with jacket potatoes.  The salad was large but tasteless and accompanied by a small microwaved jacket potato. Four lamb chops were presented “naked”, no vegetables and again a small microwaved jacket potato.

Imagine our surprise when we were presented with the bill, that we were charged €3.08 for the potatoes.  The total bill for the food was €17.  Not a lot, you might say – but in sterling pounds it amounted to £14.  It was poor quality and poor food.

No wonder the tourists are shunning local tavernas. Come on tavern owners – buck up your ideas, you can do better – and of course on top of this you are making a good profit on the drinks!

L.H. and A.H

Peyia

After reading the Cyprus Mail online, I am not surprised that restaurants in Paphos are complaining that business is down.

We came to Paphos on holiday last year and all we found in the restaurants were huge TV screens and loud music. Not all visitors want to watch football while eating their evening meal. So get back to how things were a few years ago.

Barbara Shepley

Lincolnshire

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.