Dinner at Nicolas Tavern

As always, excellent dinner at Nicolas Tavern.

For starters, chicken soup and mushroom soup.

Main course,  kleftico, lamb cooked slowly, slowly, slowly in a wood-fired clay oven. Served  with potatoes and a side salad.

For sweet, walked to patisserie amelie and had their excellent ice cream and a cappuccino.

Nicolas Tavern was not busy. No reflection upon Nicolas or the food, a reflection on the dire state of the tourist industry.

Restaurants opposite Nicolas Tavern, one had a handful of people, the other had closed down. Walking to patisserie amelie, restaurants were not open, either had closed down or closed early for lack of business.  Those that were still open, all but empty (though by now late at night).

Dinner and party at Nicolas Tavern

delicious food

Greek salad

tea and cake

Chicken soup, followed by kleftico, followed by baclava.

Many claim to do kleftico, but if it is not cooked in the traditional way, slow-cooked in a  clay oven, then it is not kleftico.

At Nicolas Tavern, kleftico is slow-cooked in a clay oven.

live music

Nicolas, staff and guests

A 40th anniversary wedding party, around 60 guests. Live music until half-past midnight, followed by DJ until the early hours of the morning.

• PHOTOS Dinner and party at Nicolas Tavern

Nicolas Tavern

chicken soup

Greek side salad

For starter, excellent chicken soup, far better than the chicken soup at Marcello’s a couple of days ago.

I had sea bass. I had sea bass last May, which I enjoyed. This time I did not though much enjoy it. There must be a nack to eating the fish, I made mess of it.

Others had grilled salmon and kleftico, which they said was good.

As the vegetables are never very good, a Greek side salad, which was excellent, far better than the side salad at Marcello’s a couple of days ago.

It was quiet, eight o’clock is probably early for a Greek-Cypriot taverna. It soon filled up, though not packed, it was very busy.

Although busy, Nicolas Tavern was not as busy as in the past or as busy as I would expect on a Sunday.

Hotels all-inclusive, is having a devastating impact on local businesses and damaging the local economy.

It is time the government got its act together and outlawed all-inclusive.

Nicolas Tavern is also being hit by fake reviews on TripAdvisor.

Nicolas Tavern, is a traditional Greek-Cypriot taverna, more or less opposite Capo Bay Beach Hotel, at the Ayia Napa end of Protaras.

Dinner at Nicolas Tavern

chicken soup

salad

Dinner at Nicolas Tavern.

Excellent chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup, followed by sea bream and pork chops.

As a few night ago, I had hoped to enjoy kleftico, but as little left and it is a house speciality, decided not to deprive others who may have been there for the kleftico.

Nicolas Tavern is the restaurant in Protaras for kleftico, cooked in the traditional way, slowly, slowly for many hours in a wood-fired, clay oven.

Fake reviews are being posted on TripAdvisor. These stand out like a sore thumb. It does little for the credibility of TripAdvisor that they are failing to root out these fake reviews.

Top Story in The Cyprus Holiday News (29 September 2012).

Nicolas Tavern

Nicolas Tavern

chicken soup

side salad

kleftico

dancing to Greek music

Walk along the street in Protaras, a coastal resort in the east of Cyprus, and you will see signs outside restaurants advertising kleftico cooked in an oven.

Of course it is cooked in an oven, but is it a clay oven?

Nicolas Tavern is the only restaurant with a wood-fired clay oven. The oven is fired with logs midday. Kleftico, a traditional Greek-Cypriot lamb dish, is cooked slowly slowly over many hours. It melts off the bone. If you have not eaten kleftico at Nicolas Tavern you have not eaten kleftico, merely a pale imitation.

I ate a couple of times at Nicolas Tavern.

My Russian friend Lena and I went along one evening. We had tasted kleftico the week before when we had had drinks at Nicolas Tavern. It was delicious. We were looking forward to our kleftico.

We asked for the best medium-dry red wine. We were served Status 99.

We then ordered kleftico, only to learn it had proved so popular that night they had sold out.

We decided on fish. I had sea bream, very tasty. Lena a baked fish.

Ideally a white wine to go with the fish. Status 99 is a full-bodied red. Ideal for kleftico.

We were pleased though we had ordered Status 99 as an excellent wine. It comes, as do many of the wines served at Nicolas Tavern, from a small family vineyard, this one Kolios Winery near Paphos. Quality wines to go with the quality food.

We were sufficiently impressed with the Status 99, that we ordered a second bottle which we took away with us when we left.

For starters we had chicken soup. The most delicious chicken soup we had ever tasted. The soup was served in an enormous bowl, plus pita bread.

To go with our main dish we ordered a side salad, which again was very tasty and delicious.

For desert we had strawberries and cream. Cypriot strawberries are not a nice as English strawberries and Lena added not as nice as Russian strawberries. I would have preferred Greek yoghurt to cream. Something I acquired a taste for on Mykonos.

On Mykonos I stayed in a villa belonging to the deputy mayor overlooking the beach. I would climb down the cliff to a nearby taverna on the beach. Here I would have breakfast. My breakfast was strawberries and raspberries and Greek yoghurt.

Ask any locals where to eat and they will tell you without hesitation Nicolas Tavern. It is very popular, with people often making the trip from Nicosia.

A few days later I ate again at Nicolas Tavern, and this time yes, I did get to eat kleftico. It was delicious, melts off the bone.

On that night, one long table with Greek-Cypriots. After my meal I relaxed with a brandy sour, a Cypriot drink. My entertainment was the Greek-Cypriots dancing to Greek music.

If there is one criticism to make it is that the portions are too large.

At times the service is a little slow. But what is the hurry, there is nothing else to do? The evening is relaxing, eating a meal. It is not a fast food outlet. You are there to enjoy a gourmet meal.

When dining out at a place worth eating, you spend the evening enjoying your meal.

Nicolas Tavern is the place to eat in Protaras. Whilst there may be other places to eat, Nicolas Tavern is in a league all of its own.

• Nicolas Tavern – TripAdvisor

Kleftico at Nicolas Tavern

The choice was Cypriot night at the hotel or kleftico at Nicolas Tavern. No choice really, so kleftico at Nicolas Tavern it was.

Traditionally kleftico is cooked slowly slowly in a wood-fired clay oven. This is how it is cooked in the villages and this is how it is cooked at Nicolas Tavern in Protaras, the only Greek-Cypriot taverna in Protras to use a clay oven.

If in Protaras and you wish to try Greek-Cypriot cuisine, then Nicolas Tavern is the place to eat.