Restaurant review: To Kafe tis Chrysanthi’s, Larnaca
I’m usually a sucker for lunch by the sea or somewhere with a view. I feel content and it enhances my dining experience. However, for an ad hoc lunch after roaming the streets for a bit of festive shopping, the priority was finding somewhere to refuel ourselves!
After reaching the finish line of Ermou, we remembered a little place that always seems to be busy and very close to where we were. It is on a road with quite a bit of traffic passing through but I was still happy to go there.
To Kafe tis Chrysanthi’s has been around since 2012 and was quite busy but we were lucky enough to get a table just about big enough for the two of us. To Kafe tis Chrysanthi’s opened as a café serving freshly made homemade cakes and treats. It grew in popularity and has gone from somewhere with a couple of tables inside and the rest sprawled up an alley way to also having a seating area upstairs.
It has over time also added much more variety to the menu and while the famous homemade cakes are still available, it now offers an international menu with breakfasts, brunches, grilled dishes, pastas, salads and more! The main negative about the menu is that there are so many tempting options, it is difficult to choose. My hunger was telling me to go for a hearty meal while my sweet-tooth was screaming at me to order the pancakes. Should I meet in the middle and order the crispy bacon with maple syrup pancakes? So many options!
In the end, we decided that we could share some pancakes as afters. Another thing that really caught our attention was the ‘create your own gin’ section! I’ve been to bars before and asked for a slight change in a drink and they refused to do it. Here, I could customise my drink the way I wanted! But not at lunchtime.
We had a lot of time to peruse the extensive menu as after being handed them, nobody came to tend to us for quite some time. Granted, they were busy but we were starting to feel a little neglected.
I finally opted for the dish I tend to always gravitate to, the pork chop, described as ‘jumbo and juicy’ on the menu. The other dish ordered was the American Baby Back Ribs that are served in a homemade BBQ sauce.
Again, we had to wait… and wait. It seemed like an eternity before the food arrived. When it did I questioned whether I had been brought the right dish as this chop looked like it had come from a dinosaur. It was huge! Cutting in to it, I started to realise what one of the reasons for the long wait might have been. The chop was so tender, soft and, as promised in the menu, juicy! It must have been cooked slowly to prevent it from drying out.
The ribs looked extremely appetising. The BBQ sauce looked like a good glaze, they weren’t smothered in a messy sauce. I could see the meat just falling off the bone as my friend was tucking in. The conversation came to a halt for a while as we were both just really enjoying the food.
However, there was one let down, the chips were stone cold. If I had ordered just a plate of chips and they were what I was served, I wouldn’t be back. We didn’t say anything because we thought that after waiting so long to be served and for the dishes to arrive, if we ordered an extra side of chips, we may have been finished by the time they arrived!
After finishing we were both very, very full and despite really wanting to try them, I couldn’t stomach even half a portion of pancakes. But the table next to us ordered the banoffee pancakes (banana on top was the main giveaway) and they looked so good!
Despite chipgate and the waiting, the food was so good that we will be back. I’ll be honest, it will be soon and, it will be for those pancakes.
VITAL STATISTICS
SPECIALTY International, and home-made cakes
WHERE To Kafe tis Chrysanthi’s, Nikolaou Rossou, Larnaca
WHEN Daily 8.30am-11pm
CONTACT 24 256262
HOW MUCH breakfast from €8.50, mains from €12.50, cakes from €5.50