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Signature dishes of Cyprus in Cyprus

A full Cypriot meze runs to more than 20 plates and costs €25 to €30 per person. Here are the dishes worth ordering, the ones worth travelling for, and where along the coast to find them.

Guide
Food & drink
Length
9 min read
Updated
2026-08-12
Region
Cyprus
Table of Cypriot meze dishes with grilled halloumi and olives by the sea Table of Cypriot meze dishes with grilled halloumi and olives by the sea

Meze: the format, not a dish

Meze is a sequence, not a starter. It opens with dips and salads, olives, tahini, taramosalata, talattouri, which is the Cypriot yoghurt and cucumber, plus village bread and pickled caper shoots. Then come the small hot plates: grilled halloumi, koupepia, mushrooms in wine, snails, louvi beans with greens. Only after that do the meats arrive, and by then most first-timers are already finished. It is priced per person, usually €25 to €30, with a fish version at €30 to €40, and normally requires a minimum of two people.

The etiquette is to pace yourself and to say nothing when plates keep coming, because they will. Order it at a village taverna rather than a seafront tourist restaurant: Zanettos on Trikoupi Street in Nicosia has been doing it since the 1930s, and the tavernas of Zygi, a fishing village between Limassol and Larnaca, serve fish meze that arrives straight off the boats. Wash it down with a bottle of Xynisteri, a crisp local white, or with village wine served by the carafe for €8 to €12.

Halloumi and the cheese counter

Halloumi is Cyprus in a single object: a firm sheep and goat cheese, folded with mint, that squeaks and holds its shape on the grill. It received protected designation of origin status in 2021, so the real thing is made here, and the difference between a supermarket block and a village-made one is enormous. Order it grilled with a squeeze of lemon, or fried in a sandwich with lountza, the smoked and coriander-cured pork loin that is the other half of the classic Cypriot combination.

Beyond halloumi, look for anari, the fresh soft whey cheese eaten either salted with tomatoes or sweetened with honey and carob syrup for breakfast. Aged anari gets grated over pasta. Cypriot pork products are excellent throughout: pastourmas, hiromeri ham cured under pressure, and the coiled village sausages flavoured with wine and coriander seed. A cheese and charcuterie plate with village bread and a glass of red costs €10 to €14 in most tavernas and is a perfectly good light dinner after a heavy lunch.

The meat classics

Souvla and souvlaki are not the same. Souvla is large chunks of pork or lamb turned slowly on a long spit over charcoal for an hour or more, the Sunday dish of every Cypriot family; souvlaki is the small skewer, served in pita. Sheftalia, the third member of the family, is minced pork and lamb wrapped in caul fat and grilled until the wrapper crisps, and it is arguably the single best thing on a Cypriot grill. A pita of two sheftalia with salad and lemon costs €5 to €6.

Kleftiko is the slow one: lamb shoulder sealed in a clay oven for hours with bay and lemon until it collapses. Ordered properly it takes a day's notice at village tavernas, though many keep a batch ready by 1pm. Other essentials are afelia, pork cubes braised in red wine with crushed coriander seed; tavas, a clay-pot lamb and rice bake with cumin; and koupepia, vine leaves stuffed with pork, rice and mint. Expect €12 to €18 for a main portion of any of them.

Seafood on the coast

Cyprus is not a big-fish island; the eastern Mediterranean is thin water and much of what appears on menus is imported. Ask what is local and expect small, excellent things: red mullet, called barbouni, fried whole; picarel, or marida, eaten by the handful; grilled octopus tenderised and charred; calamari; and sea bream. Prices are honest when charged by weight, usually €50 to €70 per kilo for local catch, so ask for the weight before it goes on the grill rather than after.

Where to eat it: Latchi harbour north of Paphos, where Yiangos and Peter has been serving the boats' catch for decades and Anassa sits along the same bay; Agios Georgios at Peyia, on the cliffs above a working fishing shelter; and Zygi, whose entire main street is fish tavernas. In Limassol, the old fishing shelter beside the Old Port and the tavernas near Karnagio serve grilled fish with the sea a few metres away. A whole fish plus salad and wine for two runs €55 to €80.

Sweets, coffee and the sugar hour

Cypriot sweets lean sticky and syrupy. Loukoumades, yeasted dough balls fried and drowned in honey and cinnamon, cost €4 to €6 a portion; daktyla, meaning fingers, are almond-filled pastries; bourekia are cheese or anari turnovers dusted with icing sugar. Glyko tou koutaliou, spoon sweets, are whole fruits or walnuts preserved in syrup and served on a saucer with cold water, a village hospitality ritual you will meet in Omodos and Lefkara. Soutzoukos, strings of almonds dipped repeatedly in thickened grape must, hangs like candles in mountain shops.

Coffee has its own vocabulary. Cyprus coffee, brewed in a briki and served with the grounds settling, is ordered sketo without sugar, metrio with a little, or glyko sweet; it costs €2 to €2.50 and comes with a glass of water. In summer everyone switches to frappé, whipped instant coffee over ice, or freddo espresso, at €3 to €3.50 on a seafront terrace. The kafeneio, the old-fashioned village coffee house, is where the day slows down and where nobody will hurry you off your chair.

Wine, zivania and beer

Commandaria is the trophy: a sweet amber wine from sun-dried Xynisteri and Mavro grapes in the Limassol foothills, claimed as the oldest named wine still in production, with roots traced to Crusader times. A glass after dinner is €4 to €7. The modern story is better than most visitors expect, with boutique wineries such as Vlassides, Zambartas, Kyperounda and Tsiakkas working the Troodos slopes with Xynisteri whites and the tannic native red Maratheftiko. Cellar-door tastings usually cost €10 to €20 and include a plate of cheese.

Zivania is the pomace spirit, roughly 45 percent, served ice-cold in shot glasses and frequently produced by the taverna owner's uncle; treat with respect. On the beer side, KEO and Leon are brewed in Limassol and are what locals drink, at €3.50 to €5 in a taverna and around €1.20 in a supermarket. The Limassol Wine Festival in the Municipal Gardens each September is the cheapest way to taste widely, and the wine villages of Omodos, Vouni and Koilani make an easy day out of it.

Frequently asked questions

What people ask before they set off on this one.

What food is Cyprus famous for?

Halloumi above all, the squeaky grilling cheese that earned protected designation of origin status in 2021. Beyond it, the signatures are souvla, slow-spit-roasted pork or lamb; sheftalia, caul-wrapped grilled meat rolls; kleftiko, lamb baked for hours in a sealed clay oven; and the meze format itself, a parade of more than 20 small dishes. Commandaria, the sweet dessert wine, is the drink.

How much does a meze cost in Cyprus?

Expect €25 to €30 per person for a full meat meze and €30 to €40 for a fish meze, usually with a minimum of two people ordering. That covers 20 or more dishes and typically leaves people unable to finish. Drinks are extra, though house wine by the carafe is cheap at €8 to €12 for a litre.

Is Cypriot food the same as Greek food?

Overlapping but distinct. You will recognise moussaka, souvlaki and stuffed vine leaves, but Cyprus has its own repertoire: halloumi, sheftalia, kleftiko, afelia with coriander seed, louvi beans, and the pork-heavy grill tradition. There is also clear Middle Eastern influence in tahini, koupes and the spicing. The wines, including Commandaria and the native Maratheftiko grape, are entirely Cypriot.

Where do locals eat in Cyprus?

Away from the seafront strips. In Nicosia that means the old town tavernas around Faneromeni and Trikoupi Street; in Limassol the streets behind Saripolou and around the Old Port rather than the tourist row; in Paphos the grills of upper Ktima near the market rather than the harbour. For fish, Cypriots drive to Zygi, Latchi or Agios Georgios at Peyia.

Is there good vegetarian food in Cyprus?

Yes, though you must order deliberately, because the grill dominates most menus. Ask for a vegetarian meze and you will get halloumi, talattouri, tahini, olives, louvi beans with greens, koupepia made without meat, mushrooms, and pulses in olive oil. Lent produces a whole tradition of vegan cooking known as nistisima, which appears in tavernas in the weeks before Orthodox Easter.

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