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Cyprus, Hong Kong, London, Newcastle, Paris, Restaurants

The Best Foodie Moments of 2013

December 31, 2013 by cheriecity

2013 has been a year of amazing foodie adventures, from low-key, local discoveries to hot Michelin-starred restaurants on the other side of the world.

My biggest highlight of the year was visiting China twice and being blown away by the incredible, authentic food there, particularly the addictive dim sum.

It’s been a year of trying new delicacies such as sea cucumber and abalone, embracing the joys of halloumi and finding some of the best burgers ever.

It’s tough to narrow them down to a small list, but here are some of my favourite foodie moments from 2013…

Temple Restaurant Beijing

Housed in a Ming Dynasty Tibetan temple with slick, contemporary interiors, Temple Restaurant Beijing is one of the coolest places to eat in Beijing. The five course Weekend Brunch is fabulous and surprisingly well-priced.

Le Castiglione Paris

Loved by Sofia Coppola and Lara Stone, Le Casti burger at Le Castiglione on rue Saint-Honoré, oozes deliciousness and is truly worthy of its legendary status.

Lardo, London

With the best pizzas in Hackney and tempting antipasti, Lardo is my new favourite local Italian restaurant and well worth a visit.

Ralph’s, Paris

The stylish restaurant inside the Ralph Lauren flagship store brings a touch of New England country club chic to the Left Bank. It’s a must for a juicy, American style Ralph’s Burger or a drink in the stunning courtyard.

L’Abeille at Shangri-La Paris

It was a delight to dine at two Michelin star restaurant L’Abeille and have the pleasure of meeting Executive Chef Philippe Labbé during my stay at Shangri-La Paris. There is real artistry in the food and it’s a beautifully choreographed, unforgettable dining experience.

Asiate at Mandarin Oriental New York

I adored the fun, bento brunch concept and exquisite food, matched with spectacular views over Central Park at Asiate at Mandarin Oriental New York.

The Bar at Hôtel Costes, Paris

This is the first year I’ve braved walking into Hôtel Costes and it was surprisingly relaxed and atmospheric with charming staff. The cocktails are expensive and tend not to veer far from the classics (mine was a Negroni), but it’s worth visiting at least once for a chic drink and some tasty bar plates.

Street Feast, London

2013 was the year that London street food really upped its game with more adventurous food and elaborate settings than ever. My Street Feast summer love-in was a flurry of dreamy burgers from Mother Flipper and Honest Burger, The Rib Man’s insanely tasty pulled pork rolls and lobster mac and cheese at B.O.B’s Lobster.

Night Tales, London

While Street Feast moved over to Hawker House, Night Tales kept the party going in Dalston with incredible Patty & Bun burgers, Hot Negronis, QuiQuiRiQui Mezcal cocktails, Le Petit Paris French toast and seriously delicious Soya Milk Fried Chicken and Steamed Pork Buns by BAO.

Sweet Revenge, New York

Bringing together cupcakes and booze, Sweet Revenge is one of the coolest spots in the West Village for an afternoon indulgence. I recommend the signature Sweet Revenge® cupcake with a cup of Spiked Spiced Cider.

Duddell’s, Hong Kong

The first restaurant within an art gallery in Hong Kong, Duddell’s has the feel of a private member’s club and serves superior dim sum and innovative cocktails.

Tony’s Taverna, Cyprus

I’ve been a little late to the halloumi party, but I now can’t get enough of it after trying the very best fried and baked local cheeses, alongside other delicious meze, at Tony’s Taverna and Taverna Mousikos in Cyprus.

DinTaiFung, Shanghai

The dim sum at the Asian super chain Din Tai Fung is definitely worth shouting about. It was here that I first tried Xiao Long Bao (meat or fish dumplings filled with broth) and learned how to eat them gracefully, without them exploding into a hot, soupy mess.

What was your top foodie discovery of 2013? Where are your new favourite restaurants?

All photos by Chérie City

Beach, Cherie Soleil, Cyprus, Hotels

A Stay at Grecian Park Hotel, Cyprus

July 25, 2013 by cheriecity

Grecian Park Hotel is a stunning five star hotel perched on a cliff above Konnos Bay in the Cypriot town of Protaras.

Adjacent to the picturesque Cape Grecco National Park, Grecian Park Hotel is secluded enough for a relaxing stay yet close to the beach and just a five-minute drive from buzzing Ayia Napa.

Location

The 239 room hotel is part of The Grecian Collection, a boutique group of three high end hotels (all four and five star) in Ayia Napa and Protaras. Like the nearby Grecian Bay Hotel and Grecian Sands Hotel, Grecian Park Hotel has everything you need on the doorstep and boasts an impressive number of amenities.

The Swimming Pool

The highlight of the hotel is the gorgeous outdoor lagoon-style swimming pool and children’s pool surrounded by sunbeds and chic poolside lounge. Another perk is the Olympus Health Club, offering a gym, indoor swimming pool, jacuzzi, sauna, steam room, treatment rooms, two floodlit tennis courts, table tennis and a pool table.

Konnos Beach, with its white sand and azure waters, lies in a small bay and is the perfect place to sunbathe or enjoy water sports. The walk down to the beach from the hotel may be steep for some, but the hotel offers a complimentary shuttle bus to the beach and Ayia Napa in the high season.

Arrival

The hotel’s expansive marble lobby is airy and elegant, with a large chandelier, over-sized Asian style plants and a grand piano. We were checked in swiftly and spent a lazy afternoon making use of the hotel’s facilities.

The Room

My second floor Executive Sea View Room was like a ‘princess room’ with highlights of pastel pink and magenta. I loved the dark pink beaded lamp, comfy striped velvet seats and the pretty mirrored drawers. The spacious private terrace lets in lots of natural daylight and has great views over the pool and trees framing the sea view.

Room features include a wall-mounted flat screen satellite TV, tea and coffee making facilities, powerful air-conditioning and free wifi. The large bed was very comfortable and the amount of good quality linen was ideal for the warm weather.

For a particularly decadent stay, Presidential Suites and the King’s Suite with a jacuzzi built into the bath and separate bedroom are available.

The Bathroom

The light, marble-style bathroom is a reasonable size and features a bath and shower, plenty of large towels and an average set of hotel brand bathroom amenities (L’Occitane would have worked well here and matched with the pink in the room).

Grecian Park Hotel has a number of dining and drinks options including Antaeus Restaurant with an international menu, the stylish Umi Japanese and Sushi Bar Restaurant, all-day dining Cafe Charisma, Le Grand Foyer, the rooftop Cliff Bar, Breezes Pool Bar and Plin-2 nightclub (open in high season).

Breakfast

Breakfast at Cafe Charisma was excellent, with everything you could want laid out in a buffet style, including hot dishes, eggs made to order, pastries, muffins, pancakes, yoghurt, cereal and fruit. Fresh fruit juice would have been preferable, rather than the machine juice drinks, but I liked that a good selection of teas in a china pot were available.

Grecian Park Hotel is an ideal retreat with a private feel and so many facilities that you won’t need to move far from the sunbed. It’s far enough away from Ayia Napa to enjoy a noise-free sleep, yet still close enough to dip into the party scene and traditional tavernas.

Grecian Park Hotel has twin side sea views from €106 per person, per night (until 31 October 2013). Half board €25, full board €40.

Cyprus Airways has flights from London Heathrow to Larnaka twice daily from £221 return.

Cherie City was a guest of Grecian Park Hotel and Visit Cyprus

Photos by Cherie City and Grecian Park Hotel

Cherie Soleil, Cyprus, Hotels

A Stay at Nissi Beach Resort Ayia Napa

June 14, 2013 by cheriecity

Nissi Beach Resort is a fabulous base for exploring Ayia Napa and spending lazy days by the sandy beach with crystal clear waters. Surrounded by lush tropical gardens and swaying palm trees, the resort is close enough to the nightlife yet still a quiet retreat, so guests get the best of both worlds.

Arrival

The four-star Nissi Beach Resort comprises three types of comfortable, modern accommodation – the main hotel, bungalows and a two-storey Garden Wing. We stayed in the main hotel and on arrival late at night, we were warmly welcomed with ice cold cloths and glasses of tropical juice.

The Room

My Sea View Twin Room was bright and airy, designed in a colour palette of white, sand and beachy blues with dark wood touches. The room is contemporary and simple, with a stunning view of the sea from the private balcony. Room features include a flatscreen satellite TV, dressing table, mini bar, tea and coffee making facilities and most important of all – excellent air-conditioning.

Unfortunately, wifi in guest rooms is charged, however you can connect for free in the public areas.

The Bathroom

The beige stone tiled bathroom is medium sized and features a circular sink, a bath and powerful shower, magnifying mirror and the hotel’s adequate own brand bathroom amenities (a brand like L’Occitane or Molton Brown would have been better).

Breakfast in the Sun

In the morning, it is a real treat to take breakfast outside on the terrace of the Ambrosia Restaurant, starting the day with views of the gardens and the cool sea breeze. The expansive breakfast buffet offers everything you could want for your morning meal, including freshly-cut fruits, yoghurt, pastries, mini muffins and a full cooked breakfast. The machine coffee and fruit ‘juice drinks’ aren’t great, but there is a very good selection of teas and silver tea pots.

Afternoon Tea in the Orpheus Lounge

We dined in local restaurants during our stay, but there are plenty of different food options in the hotel, particularly in the high season. The seasonal Nissi Taverna serves fresh fish and international dishes while Bacchus Bar and Terrace is a sunny place to enjoy light bites and cocktails under the pretty bougainvillea.

We enjoyed a delicious afternoon tea of fresh mint tea and mini cakes in the Orpheus Lounge and if you can’t bear to be too far from your sunlounger, there are five beach kiosks serving ice cold drinks and snacks.

The Health Club

A perk of staying at Nissi Beach Resort is access to the Health Club, which includes a gym, a small sauna and steam bath, heated indoor swimming pool and whirlpool. Spa treatments are also available, using products by Thalgo and Decleor.

Nissi Beach

If guests want something a little more exhilarating than lounging by the outdoor pool and the beach, the resort has an impressive number of sport activities. These include tennis on four floodlit courts, beach volleyball, table tennis, darts, billiards, archery, aqua aerobics, water polo and boccia (a ball sport similar to boules). Water sports such as water skiing and para-sailing are available, plus there is an internationally accredited diving school.

Nissi Beach Resort is also a popular wedding venue and Marios and his team can arrange everything for the big day. Ceremonies take place in a stylish white gazebo or rondavel with the stunning backdrop of the sea and the exotic gardens – what could be more picture perfect than that!

Nissi Beach Resort is ideal if you want everything from a beautiful beach and relaxing spa treatments to plenty of dining options on your doorstep. Staff are friendly and it has a warm, unpretentious atmosphere, while being a cut above most mid-priced beach resorts.

For more top destination ideas, read my posts on Things to Do in Ayia Napa and Dining in Ayia Napa.

A twin sea view room at Nissi Beach Resort starts from €75 per person, bed and breakfast. Cyprus Airways has flights from London Heathrow to Larnaka twice daily from £221 return.

Chérie City was a guest of Nissi Beach Hotel and Visit Cyprus

Photos by Chérie City and Nissi Beach Hotel

Bars, Cyprus, Restaurants

Top Places to Eat Out in Ayia Napa

May 21, 2013 by cheriecity

Meze feasts are a highlight of a trip to Cyprus and there are a number of excellent traditional restaurants to be found in Ayia Napa. Cypriot cuisine is very similar to Greek food, however it also features Middle Eastern, Italian and Turkish influences.

Here are some great places to enjoy Cypriot specialities in Ayia Napa…

Tony’s Taverna

This traditional Cypriot restaurant serves mouth-watering meze and regional dishes. Located on Nissi Avenue, among the bars and clubs, the restaurant is quite a hidden gem and very popular among locals and clued up tourists.

Dinners for large groups in Cyprus usually consist of a steady flow of 20 to 25 of the restaurant’s best small dishes. We began each meal with warm, freshly-baked Cypriot bread served with a feta mixed salad and a selection of houmous, tahini, taromasalata, tzatziki and marinated olives.

Some of our favourite dishes included fried halloumi, potato wedges marinated in red wine, keftedes, roasted pork belly and pork strips in Antonio’s secret sauce. We also enjoyed ravani (semolina cake drenched in a sweet syrup) for dessert, followed by glyka (candied bitter orange treats) – a delicious end to the meal. Tony’s Taverna was my favourite restaurant of the trip, as every dish was incredibly tasty and the pretty ‘Mykonos style’ restaurant had lots of character and charm.

Taverna Mousikos

Taverna Mousikos is a popular restaurant located in a converted traditional village house in nearby Sotira Village. Most of the fresh ingredients come from the owner’s farm and there’s a delightful terrace for outdoor summer eating.

Happily, the menu was once again a feast of delicious meze, yet the style of cooking was slightly different to Tony’s Taverna. Moreish dishes included Cypriot Kibbeh, their signature baked halloumi, kolokasi chips, grilled mushrooms, macaroni cheese, courgettes stuffed with minced meat and bechamel, smoked pork tenderloin, snails, lamb kleftikos and pork souvlaki.

Napa Mermaid Hotel

For a pre-dinner apéritif, stop by the pretty Napa Mermaid Hotel for cocktails by the pool or in the Andama Cocktail Lounge. Recently redesigned, this slick design hotel has a cool Miami vibe and the outdoor bars are sure to be the place to chill out in the summer.

The cocktails are very affordable, particularly for a luxury hotel, and my Mai Tai was delicious and expertly-mixed. If you plan to stay for dinner, try the sleek, minimalist Flavours Restaurant – the chef’s carvery looked particularly tasty.

Sotira Village

We were treated to a real taste of Cyprus over lunch at the Sotira Village home of Mrs Rita Ioannidou. Formerly part of the Visit Cyprus team, Rita has created an enviable, idyllic life at her Mykonos-style home surrounded by stunning gardens, lemon trees and vegetable allotments.

Rita and her daughter Sophia prepared lunch while we sipped fresh home-made lemonade on the terrace and foraged for lemons, onions and herbs. The guys in our group were delegated barbecue, salad preparing and potato peeling duties, while the girls chatted over beers – an amusing gender role reversal in the still traditional Cyprus!

Our lunch banquet was epic and full of delicious flavours. We munched on feta salad, artichokes and carrots in a lemon, olive oil and dill sauce, grilled garlic mushrooms, keftedes, spicy sausage and an impressive roast rack of lamb and potatoes.

Not only is Rita a great cook with a beautiful home, she’s a real character and very hospitable. She occasionally offers cooking demonstrations and lunch for visiting groups – perfect if you want to experience a more personal side of Cyprus (just email for her contact details).

Isaac Tavern

This low-key seafront restaurant on Ayia Napa harbour specialises in fresh fish and seafood. It doesn’t look like a destination restaurant but it has a friendly, relaxed atmosphere and the food is pretty good.

We ate chargrilled sea bream, red snapper, whitebait, grilled prawns, garlic mussels, seafood rice and Cypriot potatoes (really good home-made chips). For dessert, it was sticky semolina and crushed almonds with rosewater syrup.

Looking for a stylish hotel by the beach in Ayia Napa or nearby Protaras? Read my reviews of the five star luxury Grecian Park Hotel and the peaceful four star Nissi Beach Resort.

All photos by Chérie City (except Napa Mermaid Hotel)

Chérie City was a guest of Visit Cyprus

Beach, Cherie Soleil, Cyprus

The Best Things To Do In Ayia Napa

May 8, 2013 by cheriecity

Ayia Napa has the reputation of a hedonistic party town – an alternative to Ibiza where the UK garage scene migrated and took over the beach bars and clubs in the summers of the late nineties. The clubbing scene is still going strong in the summer – it’s now all about dubstep – but there’s so much more to Ayia Napa than raving and cheap fishbowl cocktails…

Out of the high season, Ayia Napa is peaceful, quiet and warm without being blisteringly hot. There are few tourists, so it’s a chance to enjoy the uncrowded beaches, get a decent table at the best restaurants and chat with the ever-so-friendly locals.

The main strip on Nissi Avenue is very commercial and not the prettiest resort centre I’ve visited, but there are plenty of hidden gems and picturesque spots to be found in Ayia Napa…

Ayia Napa Monastery

This is a must-see for its beautiful, historical architecture and tranquil courtyards. Originally built around 1500AD, the monastery is dedicated to ‘Our Lady of the Forests’, referencing the ancient Greek word for wooded valley, ‘napa’. A newer church was built around a cave where an icon of the Virgin Mary was said to be found and the ancient sycamore tree in the grounds is believed to be 600 years old.

Agioi Anargyroi-Konnos Trail

For an exhilarating yet easy walk with breathtaking views of the coast, try the Agioi Anargyroi-Konnos Trail at Cape Greco. Discover sea caves and vegetation such as wild asparagus and Phoenician juniper along the 1.4km route – a leisurely 30 minutes walk. Finish with a picnic of traditional Cypriot delights at Konnos Bay, prepared by the nearby Grecian Park Hotel.

Take a Boat Trip

A stay in Ayia Napa wouldn’t be complete without a boat trip. Of course there are the typical ‘booze cruises’, as seen on Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents, but our half-day on board the Agia Trias III was a much classier affair.

We set sail from the Golden Coast harbour in Protaras and cruised, with ice-cold beers and Cypriot coffee in hand, to Cavo Maris for watersports, followed by a barbecue lunch on board. Sailor Lambros is a real hoot and looked after us well. If you’re lucky, you might see dolphins jumping out of the water alongside the boat.

Ride a Crazy UFO

Watersports are a must in Ayia Napa, as the jewel-coloured water is so inviting and calm. I loved zooming across the waves on a jet ski followed by chilling in the sun on a pedalo. The braver ones in our group tried parasailing and held on for dear life on a Flying Fish. I was coaxed into joining the others on a Crazy UFO and found it terrifying yet thrilling – not for the faint-hearted (here I am, second from the left).

Visit a Museum

Back on dry land, a fun, educational activity for the family is the Thalassa Municipal Museum of the Sea. Located in the centre of Ayia Napa in a cool, contemporary building, the museum explores the importance of the sea in Cyprus.

Visitors can marvel at ‘Kyrena II’, a life size exact replica of the ancient ship of Kyrenia, of the Classical period. Also on display are Cypriot antiquities, fossils and taxidermy models of seabirds, fish and enormous sharks.

Prophet Elias Chapel

If you’re feeling limber, climb the steep 153 steps to Prophet Elias Chapel in Protaras, where you will be rewarded with stunning views over the region. Look out for the tree of remembrance and visit later in the day to watch the sunset.

For more destination ideas, read my post on Dining in Ayia Napa, from the best traditional tavernas to stylish poolside cocktails.

All photos by Chérie City

Chérie City was a guest of Visit Cyprus