Sun worshipping on Cyprus

It’s a 3-storey apartment block, and we were on the top floor overlooking a very pleasant pool area. A small but adequate balcony gave us sun most of the day and a perfect spot to see some superb sunsets.

The apartment wasn’t top-of-the-range, but it was spacious and moderately well maintained. A lounge-dining area had a table for four, a couple of comfortable chairs, and a bed settee. The kitchenette was basic, having a small fridge, a four-ring cooker, a toaster, and a kettle. There was sufficient crockery and cutlery for four people, and we found it more than adequate for breakfasting and a midday snack. If you were looking to cook your main meal here, I think you would have been found wanting, but that was never part of our plan. A real bonus was that it had a teapot - what more could a tea-loving English holidaymaker want!

The large bedroom had two comfortable twin beds, and when I asked for extra pillows, they were delivered to our room within hours. Tiled floors throughout created a cool feel to the place, but use of the air-conditioning (an essential in the heat of summer) will put another £4 a day onto your bill. There was a safe in the bedroom, but, again, this was an extra £1 a day.

A shower over the bath proved a "drizzle of water," but we weren’t in a hurry, and so were prepared to wait for the water to finally emerge from the nozzle. Towels and bed linen were replaced twice a week, and the apartment was cleaned every other day, with the bins emptied every day, not a bad maid service when compared to most self-catering apartments.

On-site there was a small shop catering to those essential every day items, but it was a bit overpriced and a 5-minute walk to the nearest supermarket would give you significant savings. A poolside bar/café provided basic meals and overpriced drinks, and every Saturday you could be treated to a Karaoke Night. In all honesty, that didn’t go down well, and they would be better abandoning any thought of entertainment.

The pool area could have done with a bit of TLC, but there were plenty of loungers with comfortable mattresses (it looked as if they were recognising the need to replace some cushions and chairs).

Hilltop Gardens provides reasonably priced accommodation within easy reach of the town, but far enough away to give some peace and quiet. It was adequate, but nowhere near top-of-the-range.

We were greeted by the owner as if we were long lost cousins and sat at a square, rustic table on wicker chairs with plush cushions. A plain-green tablecloth over a country-green check was complimented by heavy eating irons and white plates.

We started off with a large bottle of Keo (a local beer), and although we could buy it cheaper elsewhere, this was chilled to perfection. They bestowed certain fragility on the female of the species, assuming that a small glass was more in keeping. The head waiter/owner was very affable, and although his English was limited to some set phrases, he was really anxious to please.

I started with houmos nicely presented on a "wholesome" salad with warm pita bread, but the bread was a little late for my wife’s onion and tomato salad. Still, however, she was able to make use of the locally baked bread to soak up the tasty olive oil that had be carefully drizzled as a dressing over her salad. We found the waitress a little surly, but, to be charitable, "she was only young" and her systematic serving was well compensated by our genial host.

As our main course we opted for lamb Kokkinato, not a recipe I’d heard of before, but it was truly incredible. It was a huge potion of beautifully tender lamb that just flaked off the bone with an exquisite sauce blended with a variety of herbs tomatoes and onions that tickled the taste buds with every mouthful. There was hardly room for the accompanying fresh vegetables, potatoes, and fluffy rice. Our appetite was truly sated, and yet we were still face with the third course of a dessert. These were nothing special, but they did the job of rounding off a near-perfect Greek meal. The crème caramel was fresh on the palate, and I found the three-flavoured ice cream just sufficient. We’d had ample, and with the bill we were treated to a complimentary brandy or Grand Marnier.

We ate a couple more nights at Rigas: the Lamb Kleftico was divine and the Dolmades were superbly blended herbs, rice, and meat. You’ll never leave here feeling hungry and without the owner’s rehearsed witticisms ringing in your ears. This place deserves to succeed, and if you’re in Pafos, give it your best shot!

The tables were decked with peach-coloured tablecloths, with a bottle of wine placed provocatively on the table (we stuck with Keo!) and an extremely elaborate lit candle display flickering evocatively. Chairs were guided into position for us by the waiter and napkins placed onto our naps, and, whilst we considered the menu, we noticed the smartly dressed waiter in their white shirts and black dickie-bows. Impressive white statues depicting Greek wine carriers adorned the garden entrance, whilst decorative butterflies clung to the rear wall and large pot plants were strategically but seemingly randomly placed throughout the restaurant. The atmosphere was created and we were ready to order.

My Greek salad was presented virtually as a work of art, with a sculptured spring onion on top, but the dressing was a wee bit disappointing. However, my wife was well chuffed with her Greek hors d’oeuvre with hot pita bread. Again, the presentation was excellent, but the overall effect was lost a little with chips on the white dishes. Perhaps if we’d paid full price they may have been a little more careful in the selection of the crockery!

The main courses were served on plain white plates in a nouvelle cuisine style, with vegetables (the standard green beans and carrots) served in a separate dish. My beef steak was a little more medium than rare, but still very succulent and tasty, but my wife’s kleftiko was spot on with the meat dropping off the bone. The staff, which had initially seemed reserved and aloof, seemed to mellow as the evening progressed. The scented candle teased our olfactory organs, the additional Keos impacted our sensibility, and the food tantalised our taste buds whilst the gentle piped music played with our auditory senses. In short, all our senses were being bombarded!

The baklava was my chosen pudding – not the best I’ve ever tasted, but still a decent blend of nuts and honey, if a little bit insensitive to the teeth and gums. My wife’s "chocolate bomb" was synthetic and uninspiring.

This was a pleasant place to dine in and the food presented well. The beer was expensive (£2.15 a large bottle) and you can get better overall quality food down the road. However, if you fancy splashing out, it did have an extensive wine cellar and the ambience was spot on. Overall, it’s worth a visit, as it’s probably the classiest restaurant on the avenue!

Soon the place was throbbing with diners. However, in my mind, the Duomo is a little bit greedy for customers, as there was very little "personal space" between tables, acceptable if you want to get up close and personal with strangers or if you’re happy to have other’s smoke wafting up your nostrils whilst you attempt to enjoy the flavours of your meal. You will detect that I wasn’t too enamoured with the ambience of the place!

My wife opted for a set menu of garlic mushrooms and spaghetti bolognaise. Whilst we waited, we tried the very unusual "butter" that accompanied our bread rolls. We decided that it contained sun-dried tomatoes, although we weren’t that sure! Her starter was served on a salad bed, and the small taster that I was allowed to try was both hot and tasty – not too heavy on the garlic, but you knew it was there.

My T-bone virtually filled the plate and was incredibly succulent. Served with flavoursome mushrooms, a nicely prepared jacket potato, a small bowlful of curiously flavoured pasta (just a reminder that I was eating Italian), and a selection of undercooked vegetables (cauliflower, carrots, and beans), it made for a demanding meal. My wife’s spaghetti was a substantial dish and was rapidly and adeptly devoured with enough fork twiddling to make even the Italians dizzy. The remaining sauce was drunk like soup, and her one and only criticism was that "it could have been hotter"

As soon as the last mouthful was eaten, the table was descended upon in a vulture like motion by two waitresses – if we’d have blinked we would have missed the removal of our crockery. We rounded our meal off with a superb ice-cream dish in a mock cornet with lashing of chocolate sauce and cholesterol-full cream and a Tiramisu. My wife tells me that the Tiramisu was spot on, and I can confirm that the ice cream hit the spot. We’d eaten plenty and asked for the bill, which, when it finally arrived, was incorrect. It was queried and put right without any hassle, but I was just left wondering.

Duomo offers quantity and reasonable-quality food, but is nothing really special. I wouldn’t rush to return there!

We sat ourselves at the side of the busy thoroughfare on a Saturday night and pondered the menu. If you sit downstairs, they give you a free carafe of local red wine – upstairs was full so it really was elementary that we should take them up on the offer. It’s only a couple of glasses worth and will help remove unwanted plaque from your teeth! A pint or two of Keo (at £1.30 a pint) helped remove the taste of the complimentary wine!

Our starter, avocado prawns, was adequate. The avocado was superb but short on prawns, and the accompanying salad can only be described as an apology. The accompanying sliced bread was seriously "lacking in body" and would have been better smothered in jam to give it some taste!

Our choice of main course was grilled swordfish. This as you probably know is a "seriously fine textured meat" and the portion filled the plate. However, I’ve tasted much better – this was bland and uninteresting and the accompanying vegetable was "fresh out of the freezer". The only positive was that the portion was generous and it sated my appetite. My wife had opted for the filleted Sea Bream, one of her favourite fish, and was most disappointed with both the potion and the fact that many of the bones had been left in the fish. Comment was made to the waiter, who shrugged indifferently and remarked that it was a fish! At the time my wife commented on the taste of the fish, nothing she could be sure about but… The next day she knew exactly what that taste was – the fish was evidently off and her body was letting her know. Need I say more!!

At the end of the meal we were provided with complimentary drinks but this could not persuade us that this was anything other than an incredibly disappointing meal. It’s interesting to note that an acquaintance who was also holidaying in Cyprus that same fortnight, ate at this same restaurant and had the same problems with food quality. She too was ill! Not a place I’d recommend – shame really because the setting was fine.