5 Best Restaurants in Cyprus

In an ornate dining room with beautiful filigree metalwork screens and painted walls and ceilings, authentic Syrian cuisine is prepared by a brigade of hard working chefs. Dips such as moutabbal (grilled aubergine with tahini and yogurt), prepare the palate for the stars from the charcoal grill. Shish tawouk, marinated chicken breast, and shukaf, the lamb equivalent, are tender and smoky, infused with spices, while the kebabs are the best in the city. Leave some room for their baklava and mastic-flavored ice cream.

This restaurant has not only the most delicious food in Paphos, but it is also the most charming place to dine. Everyone from locals to tourists in the know come to experience owner George's inventive Cypriot cooking, which includes a preponderance of fresh, seasonal, and often organic ingredients, and lots of options for vegetarians and vegans. St. Georges has no written menu, just a prix-fixe offering of mezedes—a seemingly endless parade of small plates from cheeses to vegetables from the restaurant's own garden to meats smoked in-house, along with tasty homemade wine. The friendly servers will keep bringing the food until you tell them to stop.

It's worth venturing a block inland from the beach for well-prepared Cypriot food in a charming traditional setting—an old tavern that was formerly a livestock pen, now decorated with overhead grapevines and a waterfall. Mandra is especially known for tender souvla (lamb cooked over charcoal and served on a skewer) as well as a filling meat meze for a fixed price; they also offer a tasty prix-fixe seafood meze for a bit more. Vegetarians will appreciate the veggie moussaka, a rarity in meat- and fish-centric Cyprus.

One of the oldest eating establishments in the city, in the heart of Engomi, offers up to 30 different meze dishes, including such unusual items as snails and okra with tomatoes. From humble beginnings in 1970 as a kebab house, it has grown into one of Nicosia's favorite tavernas.

The Limassol Marina is where it is happening; superyachts dock and tenders zip in and out of the harbor, their wealthy clientele perusing the big, international brands on offer at the shops that sit cheek by jowl here. At the heart of it all is Pyxida, directly on the water with a pleasant, airy, wooden terrace overlooking the water. The freshest fish and seafood is the strategy here; aquariums bubble with live lobsters and oysters imported from France, cockles and clams sit on ice alongside the catch of the day. Choose to have your fish freshly grilled, or, more theatrically, wrapped in vine leaves, baked in salt and then cracked open at your table.