Armyra by Papaioannou
Amara Hotel, Limassol, Cyprus (Visit: 4th October 2020)
One fine afternoon, during our mini-moon stay at Amara Hotel in Limassol we decided to have lunch at Chef George Papaioannou’s restaurant here in Cyprus. Armyra is a a dedicated seafood restaurant which first launched in Greece with the freshest fish, seafood and many more culinary delights prepared with the region’s purest ingredients. We were lucky enough a couple of nights before to enjoy the experience of the tasting menu when the Chef visited from abroad for that particular event tasting and it was fantastic – full experience of the special tasting will be shared on the Blog very soon so keep an eye out for this space!
As always, warmly welcomed at the open-air fish restaurant by the staff with some fresh homemade bread.
The selection of bread..
Gluten-free bread freshly made by the Hotel as well as a wide variety of different types of bread for my husband to devour.
Butter: sun-dried tomato butter Dip: red pepper, feta and black olive dip
We decided to opt for sharing a couple of cold and warm starters. We started with the Fish of the Day Ceviche which happened to be: amberjack ceviche which was so refreshing and light it paired beautifully with the Gin Mare and rosemary G&T cocktails we were enjoying with our lunch. Next off – was the crayfish tartare. This dish was one of my personal favorites as it wonderfully combines pink grapefruit and lime sorbet with crayfish. We then had the lobster salad which was bursting with exotic fresh flavours, citrusy yet filling at the same time with delicious chunky pieces of lobster, grilled lettuce and almond flakes. I was very impressed in general with how generous their potions are.
Grilled squid
We selected a main dish to share – the grilled squid with olive-oil and lemon dressing. It was cooked to perfection and I love how it was cleaned immaculately and so tender to cut. Well done, Chef!
Just when we thought it was over, Chef Constantinos was very nice to surprise us with two extraordinary dishes on the house. The one was the smoked eel with politiki salad. It was the first time I had tried smoked eel and I loved how the flavour of the fish was not overpowered by any other flavours. It paired very well with the politiki salad which almost resembled a refreshing light slaw.
Suprise number 2 was in fact one of the highlights of the lunch. He served us a dish which had not been introduced yet onto the menu as it is a new dish to be presented soon. Tuna from Alonissos paired with peaches prepared 3-ways…
Thank you so much to the Chef(s) and the staff for making our experience at Armyra a one-of-a-kind flavourful journey. It was the perfect ending to a perfect honeymoon retreat.
Keep an eye out for next week’s new Blog article – where we will be sharing full details of our experience for the “From Piraeus to Amara” Tasting Degustation Menu on our Exploring Flavours Website under an entirely-new category for Blog Articles – looking forward to sharing this journey with you!!!
Thank you and Bon appetit! xoxo
