Dining and restaurant in Northern Cyprus

Northern Cyprus offers a very wide variety of restaurants. You can choose from traditional Cypriot cuisine or from Italian, Indian, Chinese, African or British cuisine. The Cyprus cuisine is varied as the islands colourful history. Its position as the crossroads of the three continents has influenced its cuisine and the various nations and people who have invaded and occupied Cyprus have all left their legacy. Much of the Cypriot cuisine is similar to the Turkish cuisine but there are noticeable European, Northern African and Balkan influences.

Below you can find some traditional Cypriot food, highly recommended to taste:

Soups

The soup in Northern Cyprus is served as a starter. Trthana soup is a mixture of crushed wheat and yogurt. The most common soup is lentil soup as well as chicken and humus soup.

Pilaf

Pilaf is cooked rice or cracked wheat, sometimes mixed with vegetables like peas or aubergine. It is served alone as a main dish or as an appetizer.

Mezes

A selection of hot and cold hors d'oeuvres is often served with drinks before a meal and this selection of small portions of various dishes is called "Meze". A typical Meze might include the dishes, e. g. cacik (a yoghurt dish), chakistes (a green olive dish), humus, tahin, fried hellim (traditional Cyprus cheese), various salads, calamari or fried aubergines.

Kebab

Cypriot cuisine includes a wide variety of kebabs. Kebabs are mainly made of lamb but you can find vegetable, chicken, beef or fish kebabs. The meat is either grilled over charcoal on skewers (Shish Kebab) or slow cooked in a clay pot (Kup Kebab or Kleftico), or sliced in bread (Doner Kebab).

Main Dishes

Famous main dishes are e. g. Kofte (meatballs), Dolma (stuffed vegetables, meat or fish), beans and vegetable dishes. There are plenty of vegetarian dishes available.

Deserts and Sweets

When tasting traditional Cypriot deserts and sweets, you should try Lokma (deep fried honey or syrup covered delicacies), Katmer (cream filled pastries), Ceviz Macunu (green walnuts in syrup) and Turunc Macunu (oranges in syrup).