The three rules for survival are: never play cards with a man called Doc; never sleep with a man/woman whose troubles are worse than your own; and never eat at a place called Mom’s. It was the latter that came to mind after an invitation to eat at the Farm Yard restaurant in Kathikas.
Trepidation was based purely on past grim experiences after dining at places sporting names which try to seduce with memories of proper home cooking, sadly these Mom/Granny/Farmhouse styled eateries all ended up with an inability on my part to handle Mom’s hot-pot suspect special or Granny’s ghastly shepherds pie.
Not so for the Farm Yard. This restaurant genuinely proved a refreshing treat for the taste buds, for the wallet and also a bonus for any enthusiastic makers of soup (but more on that later). Savvas is both chef and owner, ably assisted by Rachel, his English fiancιe, while the building, although never a farmhouse, was once home to Savvas’ grandmother and still retains some attractive stone house characteristics.
The modern kitchen extension has become a veritable powerhouse of activity with Farm Yard dining now the ‘in’ thing with bands of Brits keen to sample good food distinguished by quality, home-sourced ingredients, clear flavours and more often than not superior cooking. A clue to this popularity is the a la carte menu, here one can see that Savvas displays a deep understanding for the British palate with dishes that not only titillate but also offer sufficient comfort food to more than satisfy the traditionalists with favourites such as chicken stroganoff, home made curry, baked salmon, pepperoni and mozzarella stuffed chicken and quality home made mousaka. We started with a sort of mezze of delights which included an aubergine salad with feta cheese and garlic, halloumi cheese perfectly grilled and feta cooked in olive oil tomatoes and oregano.
For those with mammoth hunger pangs the starter of choice has to be the whopping portion of spare ribs which landed on our table, a perfectly sauced pile of ribbed beauties offering diners the opportunity to pig out for the incredibly reasonably price of €8.
These days when butchers, supermarkets and delis are flying in food that often results in a single meal generating a carbon footprint an elephant could sleep in, it’s deeply comforting to visit an eatery where the vast majority of the ingredients have been sourced locally, and by local I mean the vegetable gardens right behind the restaurant, which have been lovingly attended to by Savvas, plus all meat has been bought in from local sources. That’s why Savvas can get away with charging such reasonable prices, this combined with his skill as a chef on how to fully utilise ingredients in the most cost effective way.
The menu is simple with sections dedicated to fish, meat, house specials, pasta, vegetarian, and also a grill and Cyprus speciality section. Diners are also introduced to the popular Sunday carvery and what sounds like a veritable meat-fest for €12, then every Tuesday evening Savvas lovingly prepares a substantial four-course buffet dinner for the ridiculously low price of €10.
Our main dishes of chicken kebab and steak were excellent but the huge platter of home grown vegetables and creamy mashed potatoes with hint of nutmeg truly defeated us, which was when my Scottish sensibilities took over and all the veggies were boxed up to take away. Next day I defrosted home made chicken stock popped the lot in the liquidiser and voila – delicious home-made soup. Not many restaurants can boast that they can keep giving (in a positive way) twelve hours later.
VITAL STATISTICS
SPECIALITY mix of European and Cypriot
WHERE Kathikas, Paphos
CONTACT 70009696, www.kathikasvillage.com
PRICE from €18
