Zaffron
Food for the taste
With a menu refreshingly clear of towers of this and beds of that, Zaffron is a culinary delight
‘WOULD you would like to see the menu?’ This opening gambit made by waiters is one I am constantly baffled by. The temptation is always there to respond with ‘No I’ll just sit here and suck on my napkin’.
So, having made my way to the recently-opened Zaffron Restaurant, I sat at my table and waited for the usual menu request only to be surprised by a chap who, despite his youthful looks, turned out to be one of a dying breed of maitre d’ in that he knew exactly what was cooking in the kitchen, had full knowledge of each dish and cleverly recommended from memory a selection of dishes for us to try.
Top marks went instantly to the goose liver pate, simply put, if you don’t like this, then you are indeed a poor benighted soul. This was followed by a generous portion of sautéed chicken livers (voted a close second) with fresh ravioli stuffed with porcini mushrooms in cream sauce and a taster of fresh scampi with hollandaise being on equal par.
Of course you can opt to order from the menu, which, as an item, is a delight to behold – it is short, crisp and to the point, devoid of any over the top nonsense about drizzling here and resting on beds of whatever there. Couple this with the absence of the eternally ghastly musak and you have a good restaurant experience that makes for pleasant concentration on the food.
On to the main course and another pleasant surprise. This place doesn’t go in for the exaggerated high rise presentation of tasty titbits, it’s seriously single storey only, so one doesn’t then feel a dipstick when the ladders and/or mountain peaks of veggies that accompany the current vogue for the skyscraper look, collapse in a rather scary manner with one prod of the fork.
My dining companion, who is no slouch when it comes to decrying bad, mucked-about beef, praised her horizontal pepper steak. My prone, non-elevated salmon with linguini vegetables and saffron sauce was tender and tasty. We also slipped in a couple of garlic marinated king prawns for good measure, which were cooked to perfection.
There’s a jolly good choice when it comes to vegetables; they come sautéed, grilled, marinated or ragout. Those with a ‘tattie’ addiction are well furnished with potatoes Dauphinoise, rosti, pomme neuf or just plain boiled.
After grazing contentedly through what seemed to be half the menu the vote was that this is indeed food that does not ask to be admired on the plate but only on the tongue.
I must also comment on the rather attractive lounge bar at the rear of the restaurant, here the highly professional bar lady will whip you up a pleasant aperitif. It’s all very comfortable and not so trendy as to be intimidating to the over 45s so, even if you aren’t tempted by the food (which would be a bit sad on your part), you can still pop into Zaffron for a pre or post dinner snifter, then you can pretend to be part of the in crowd as you lounge, lizard like, on (simulated) zebra skin chairs and watch as the plates of butterfly garlic prawns fly out of the kitchen.
We left in a pleasant fug of gastronomic and alcoholic excellence and just outside the restaurant there was one of those old guys about to enter clutching his basket of wilting carnations. This is another activity I have never really understood. Flower selling in restaurants? If you go to a florist you don’t expect some one to pop out of the back shop and try to flog you a lamb chop.
Speciality ‘Brilliant’ Pate and Garlic Prawns
Seating 50plus
Where 110 Tomb of the Kings Road (past Venus Beach coming out of Paphos on right hand side)
Contact 26 933026
Booking advisable (open daily from 7pm)
Price starters £4.15, main £6.50 to £12.95
