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🍽️ Food & Drink

Paphos for Food & Drink Lovers — 3 Days of Meze, Village Wine & Halloumi

Market halloumi and carob syrup, slow-baked kleftiko, Kathikas hill wineries and hand-cut Yeroskipou loukoumi.

📍 Paphos, Cyprus 📅 3-day itinerary

Cypriot cooking in Paphos runs from brine-soaked halloumi in the Ktima agora to twenty-plate meze tables and foraged herbs in Geroskipou. Three days covering village wineries at Kathikas, loukoumi workshops and harbour fish taverns, all inside 25 km.

Local Markets & Neighbourhood Food

09:00
🧀 Paphos Municipal Market (Ktima Agora)

The covered 1940s market on Agoras Street trades Monday to Saturday roughly 06:00–15:00: barrels of cracked green olives, village halloumi in brine, carob syrup, dried figs and Kissonerga oranges sold by growers.

⏱ 2-3 hours 💶 Free entry; halloumi €10-14/kg
Ask for anari, the fresh whey cheese sold alongside halloumi — vendors sell out before 11:00.
12:00
🍲 Laona Restaurant, Votsi Street

A tiny Ktima kitchen serving whatever was cooked that morning: koupepia, louvi me lahana, afelia, tavas. The daily list is short, lunch-only, and cash is preferred. Tables fill by 12:30 with local office workers.

⏱ 1.5 hours 💶 €12-18 per person
There is no printed menu — walk to the pot counter and point at what you want.
14:30
🍬 Loukoumia Yeroskipou (Aphrodite Delights)

Yeroskipou holds Cyprus's protected-origin loukoumi status. The family workshops on the village square boil rosewater, bergamot and mastic syrup in copper pans, then cut and dust the slabs by hand while you watch.

⏱ 2 hours 💶 €5-9 per box
17:00
Ibrahim's Khan Courtyard, Old Town

The restored Ottoman caravanserai behind the market now holds small cafés around a stone courtyard. Order kafes sketos or glykys brewed in a briki with a glass of cold water, plus mahalepi in rosewater syrup.

⏱ 1.5 hours
Order 'metrios' if you want one sugar — sketos is unsweetened and locals drink it that way.

Signature Dishes & Restaurants

10:00
🍇 Vasilikon Winery, Kathikas

At 600 m on the Laona plateau, this family estate works indigenous Xynisteri and Maratheftiko grapes. Tastings run through the tank hall and barrel room; the flinty Xynisteri and the Ayios Onoufrios red are the house markers.

⏱ 2 hours 💶 €8-12 tasting flight
Call a day ahead — harvest weeks in August and September close the tasting room to walk-ins.
13:00
🥘 Imogen's Inn Taverna, Kathikas

A stone-walled village taverna serving a long meze built on mountain ingredients: wild asparagus omelette, snails in tomato, smoked lountza, grilled halloumi and pork cooked in red wine with coriander seed.

⏱ 1 hour
15:00
🍷 Sterna Winery, Kathikas

A small boutique cellar a few streets from the village church, producing a few thousand bottles a year. Tastings are poured by the winemaking family on a terrace looking down the Akamas valley toward the sea.

⏱ 2 hours 💶 €10 tasting, bottles €12-20
18:00
🌿 Seven St. Georges Tavern, Geroskipou

George Demetriades builds a 25-plus plate meze from herbs and greens foraged that week — caper leaves, wild fennel, mallow — plus his own wine, zivania and preserves. No menu; the kitchen decides the sequence.

Book several days ahead and arrive hungry; the meze runs over three hours and stopping early is expected.

Street Food, Bars & Food Culture

09:30
🥐 Zorbas Bakery, Tombs of the Kings Avenue

The Cypriot bakery chain opens at 05:30 for the standard workers' breakfast: sesame koulouri, tyropita, spanakopita, eliopita studded with olives and coriander, and flaounes in the weeks around Orthodox Easter.

⏱ 2 hours 💶 €1.50-3.50 per pastry
Eliopita and the halloumi-and-mint pittes come out of the oven again around 09:30.
12:30
🐑 Fetta's Corner, Ioanni Agrotis Street

A neighbourhood grill known for kleftiko: lamb shoulder sealed in a clay oven overnight until it pulls apart. Served with lemon potatoes, a village salad and pickled kappari. Portions are sized for two.

⏱ 1.5 hours
14:30
🐟 Ttakkas Bay Tavern, Coral Bay

Built on the rocks above a small cove north of Paphos, this fish taverna runs a seafood meze of octopus in red wine, grilled squid, whitebait and whatever the morning boats landed, priced by the kilo.

⏱ 2 hours 💶 €30-40 fish meze per person
17:30
🍺 Aphrodite's Rock Brewing Company, Tsada

Cyprus's first craft brewery sits in the hill village of Tsada, brewing with local carob and citrus. The taproom pours flights beside the fermenters, with brewery tours explaining the island's water and grain sourcing.

Tours run on set afternoons only — check the taproom schedule before driving the 8 km up from Paphos.

📍 Route map

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