Best restaurants in Paphos: where locals actually eat

The honest Paphos restaurant guide — tourist traps and where to avoid them

Paphos has a restaurant problem that most guidebooks do not address honestly: the harbour. The kilometre of restaurants along the Paphos harbour waterfront — Kato Paphos — is one of the island’s most reliable tourist traps. The views are undeniably pleasant, the menus are extensive, and the prices are high for food that is frequently mediocre. Touts stand at the entrance of many restaurants actively encouraging you to sit down. These are warning signs.

The best food in Paphos is found in the old town (Ktima), 15 minutes’ walk or a short taxi ride uphill from the harbour, and in the surrounding villages and coastline. This guide separates the genuinely good from the conveniently located.

Old town Paphos (Ktima): where to eat

Ktima is the upper town — the administrative and residential heart of Paphos, removed from the tourist strip. It has a genuine local life: a covered market, kafeneions where retired men play cards, bakeries, and a handful of traditional tavernas that serve Cypriots, not tourists.

Andreas Restaurant: one of the most consistently recommended traditional tavernas in Paphos. Set back from the main tourist areas in the old town. Full meze (€20–24 per person), honest souvlaki, good house wine. No touts. Reservations advisable for weekend evenings.

Fettas Corner: a local institution — a small, informal space with excellent grilled meats and one of the best-value meze in Paphos. The kind of place with mismatched chairs and no menu card because the owner tells you what is available. Cash preferred.

Seven St. Georges Tavern: slightly more polished than the above, with a good wine list and an emphasis on Cypriot slow-cooked dishes (kleftiko, stifado, afelia). Set in a restored stone building in the old town area. Good for a slightly more formal meal.

Old Town Paphos market area: the covered market building has stalls with fruit, vegetables, halloumi, lountza, and local sweets. Worth a morning visit to buy provisions — the stall holders are knowledgeable and direct about what is locally produced versus imported.

Harbour area Paphos: navigate carefully

Not everything near the harbour is bad. The issue is the high-volume tourist restaurants on the main waterfront strip. A few operations near the harbour are genuinely good:

Cavallini: Italian-influenced restaurant near the harbour with better-than-average quality. The fish dishes are reliable. Prices are harbour-level (high) but the kitchen delivers.

The range near Apostolou Pavlou street (walking between the harbour and the old town): a better zone for restaurants than the direct harbour front. Several Greek-Cypriot-run tavernas here serve the local civil servant crowd at lunch — a reliable quality indicator.

The harbour fish tavernas on the north side (near the lighthouse and Tombs of the Kings road) tend to be slightly less tourist-oriented than the main strip.

Seafood near Paphos

For the best seafood near Paphos, you need to leave the city.

Latchi harbour (30 km north, about 35 minutes): a small fishing village with a cluster of genuine fish tavernas. Kalamies, Finikoudes, and several unlabelled fish places around the harbour serve the catch of the day — grilled sea bream, octopus, calamari — at prices significantly below Paphos marina. This is where Paphos residents go for a seafood occasion.

Pissouri village (40 km southeast, about 40 minutes): the village above Pissouri beach has several excellent tavernas with panoramic views and good food. Bunch of Grapes Inn is a longstanding local favourite. Less overtly touristy than most Paphos options.

Neo Chorio and Pomos (north Paphos coast): small fishing villages on the way to Latchi, with informal fish restaurants that cater mainly to locals. Quality is high, prices are low, English menus may not exist — bring a translation app.

Village restaurants near Paphos

Several villages within 20–30 minutes of Paphos town offer distinctly better food than the city:

Kathikas: mountain village above the Akamas. A small traditional taverna (name changes ownership occasionally — look for the one with chairs outside) serves excellent village meze and has its own wine. Combined with a Paphos winery visit.

Droushia: another Laona plateau village with a characterful café and occasional traditional restaurant events.

Coral Bay area (Peyia village): not the resort strip on the beach, but the village of Peyia itself (5 minutes inland) has several good kafeneions and one or two tavernas with local clientele.

Cafés, breakfast, and casual eating

Paphos old town square (Plateia Kenedity): the main old town square has several café operations where locals take morning coffee. Less touristy than harbour-adjacent cafés.

Bakeries: several good bakeries in the old town produce traditional Cypriot bread, flaouna (cheese pastries), and sweet rolls. The bread sold at these bakeries is significantly better than the tourist restaurant equivalent.

Souvlaki kiosks: some of the best eating in Paphos costs €3–4. The souvlaki kiosks and small grill restaurants around the old town market area serve lunchtime souvlaki (pork skewers in pitta with salad and tzatziki) to the local working population. Quality is consistently high. Seek them out rather than the harbour versions.

Insider knowledge: how to eat well in Paphos

The lunch advantage

Cypriot culinary culture peaks at lunch, not dinner. The best taverna cooks in the Paphos area prepare their slow-cooked dishes — kleftiko, stifado, afelia — overnight and serve them at lunch. By evening, the same kitchen may be serving food that was cooked hours ago and reheated. The most authentic and best-quality Cypriot cooking experience in Paphos is therefore a long lunch, not a late dinner. If you can reorganise your day to put the main meal at 13:00–15:00, you will eat significantly better.

This also has economic implications: lunch at a good village taverna costs 30–40% less than dinner at an equivalent resort restaurant, partly because the clientele is working local population rather than tourists with flexible budgets.

Cypriot hospitality cues

A good taverna in Cyprus will bring unsolicited small extras: a basket of village bread (better quality than the tourist-strip equivalent), a small dish of olives, sometimes a glass of zivania (the grape spirit) or local wine at the end of the meal. These are genuine hospitality gestures, not additions to the bill. Accepting them — and expressing appreciation — creates the kind of interaction that leads to better service, extra recommendations, and occasionally an impromptu tour of the kitchen.

The opposite cue: if a restaurant gives you an English-only menu with photographs of every dish, it is optimised for tourist turnover, not for repeat local trade. Not always bad food, but rarely the best experience.

Paphos fish and seafood specifically

The Paphos coast is a fishing area, and fresh fish is genuinely available — but requires knowing where to look. The harbour fish restaurants claim fresh fish; some deliver it, some do not. The more reliable approach:

Ask specifically: “What came in this morning?” A genuine fish restaurant knows exactly what is local and what day it arrived. A tourist-optimised operation will tell you everything is fresh without specifics.

The Friday morning fish market at the Paphos harbour area sells direct from the morning catch — buying and cooking it yourself (or asking your accommodation’s kitchen) is the freshest option. Paphos’s fish market is smaller than Latchi’s but more convenient from the resort strip.

Octopus is a Paphos specialty — the traditional preparation (sun-dried octopus, then slow-cooked in red wine and vinegar) is one of the island’s most distinctive dishes and appears on good taverna menus at very reasonable prices.

The Paphos food calendar: seasonal highlights

Paphos’s restaurant scene has a seasonal dimension that visitors staying only in peak summer miss:

Spring (April–June): the best season for Paphos food. Wild asparagus appears on taverna menus (gathered from roadsides and fields), fresh herbs are at their peak, and the lamb season produces excellent kleftiko and grilled chops. Artichokes (anginares) are a spring specialty — the Paphos district grows them extensively, and they appear in stews and as a simple braised vegetable at this time of year. The lentil season (summer varieties dried from the previous harvest) produces the best red lentil soup (fakes soupa) in April–May.

Summer (July–August): peak tourist season means peak prices and the heaviest traffic at harbour restaurants. The compensation: the summer vegetable harvest is in full swing. Cypriot tomatoes — a distinct local variety, less watery than the European commercial equivalents — are at their best in July–August. Fresh figs appear at markets and occasionally on restaurant menus. Grilled fish is at its summer best when the warm sea produces active fishing.

Autumn (September–October): arguably the most interesting season for Paphos food enthusiasts. The grape harvest begins in late August and runs through September — wine villages north of Paphos are in harvesting mode, and some restaurants offer grape-must products (pasteli, petimezi syrup) as seasonal specials. Pomegranates appear at markets. The mushroom season begins in October as the first autumn rains arrive. Several old town tavernas in Paphos serve a mushroom stifado in October that is a genuinely seasonal local dish.

Winter (November–March): Paphos’s off-peak season when tourist restaurants thin out and the best local places are more accessible. Traditional winter dishes dominate: avgolemono (egg-lemon soup), warm bean soups (fasolia), kleftiko prepared the traditional way (overnight in a sealed clay oven), and the cold-weather sweets such as loukoumades (honey puffs) served warm from street stalls at village festivals.

The Paphos market experience

The Paphos central market (Agora) building and the surrounding street stalls represent the most direct food-buying experience available to visitors. Worth understanding what is worth buying:

Halloumi at the market: the stalls sell both local-produced halloumi (from small dairies in the Paphos district) and supermarket-grade industrial product. Ask specifically whether it is local production and from which dairy. Real local halloumi has a slightly more complex flavour, a more irregular shape (hand-pressed rather than machine-cut), and is often still slightly warm from the dairy. The price is slightly higher than supermarket halloumi but the quality gap is significant.

Carob products: the Paphos district is traditional carob country. Carob syrup, carob powder, and carob-based confections at market stalls are worth buying — they make excellent unusual gifts and the carob syrup is a genuinely useful cooking ingredient (dark, sweet, fig-like flavour, good with grilled meats or yogurt).

Local honey: Cyprus produces excellent honey from thyme (thymari), wild herbs, and citrus blossoms. The thyme honey from the Paphos hills has a distinctive aromatic intensity different from the standard commercial varieties. Market stalls that specify the floral source and provenance (look for “Limassol district” or “Paphos hills” labelling) are selling genuine local product.

Olives and olive products: the Paphos area has significant olive cultivation. Market stalls sell marinated olives (in various preparations — cracked with herbs, in brine, with citrus), olive oil, and olive paste. The local olive variety (primarily Lakkada) produces a peppery, robust oil quite different from Italian extra-virgin equivalents. Buy a small bottle to taste before committing to a litre.

Budget guidance

• Village taverna meze: €18–22 per person
• Harbour restaurant meze: €28–38 per person
• Latchi seafood: €25–35 per person
• Souvlaki kiosk: €3–5 per wrap
• Wine: house carafe from €6–8 (village taverna) to €18–25 (harbour restaurants)

For context on what traditional Cypriot food involves, see the traditional Cyprus food guide and the Cyprus meze guide. For a curated food experience in Paphos, the food tours below are well-reviewed.

What to book

Paphos: Full-Day Cyprus Food Tour Authentic Paphos: Culture, Flavors & Traditions From Paphos: Taste of Cyprus Day Trip

Frequently asked questions about eating in Paphos

Is the Paphos harbour worth eating at?

Only if convenience outweighs quality and value. The harbour views are pleasant for a drink, and some of the less overtly touristy places near the north end of the harbour are acceptable. For a genuinely good meal, the old town (Ktima) tavernas are significantly better and 30–40% cheaper.

What time do restaurants open in Paphos?

Lunch typically runs 12:00–15:30. Dinner from 19:00–22:30 (later in summer). Cypriot locals eat later than northern European or US visitors expect — the peak dinner hour is 20:30–21:30. Many tourist restaurants open continuous hours in summer to catch earlier diners.

Are there vegetarian or vegan restaurants in Paphos?

Dedicated vegetarian restaurants are rare. However, most traditional tavernas have significant vegetarian content — dips, grilled halloumi, stuffed vine leaves, vegetable dishes, salads — within the meze format. Several of the old town tavernas will adapt a meat-free meze on request. The food tour operators often accommodate dietary requirements with notice.

What should I pay for a good meal in Paphos?

At a village taverna or good old town restaurant: €20–28 per person including wine and a full meze. At harbour restaurants the same experience costs €35–50. A light meal (souvlaki, salad, beer): €8–12 per person.

Can I eat the catch of the day fish in Paphos?

In Paphos harbour itself, yes — some of the fish restaurants source locally caught fish and the catch of the day is usually genuine. Confirm with the server that it is locally sourced rather than imported frozen. For the best fresh fish experience near Paphos, Latchi harbour (30 minutes north) is the superior option.