The UK Restaurant, Hotel and Travel Review

The Annabelle offers some of the best traditional Cypriot eating I've found in over a dozen visits to the island in the past six years. But there's also a lovely restaurant called The Deck, because you can spill out of the elegant little dining room onto a deck which overhangs a pool that is part of the water garden. You can just see a corner of it in the illustration, left. For nine months of year you can certainly eat out of doors at lunchtime: indeed, we were very comfortable outside on a balmy late October evening!

The chef is Mark Patten, a tall, jovial Australian who has injected his enthusiasm not only into The Deck, which is a showcase for his innovative modern cuisine, but also the Pergola Restaurant, which is the work-horse restaurant of the hotel, bearing the brunt of most of the daily meals for the majority of the hotel guests who are staying on the half-board tarrif. The retention rate is very high and the fact that the Pergola is packed every night is a tribute to the exciting succession of varied culinary themes on different evenings.

So when hotel guests or other visitors to Pafos want to give themselves an extra special treat, the Deck is the place to go. The menu is concise with five starters and six main courses. We began with a subtle amuse bouche described as an "essence of tomato juice" made by puréeing slow cooked tomatoes infused with basil, cardomum and zucchini flowers, then allowing the juice to run freely under gravity through a fine muslin filter. It was refreshingly clear with a vivid spectrum of flavours. This was a great opening gambit. I invariably find that the quality of the amuse sets the whole tone of the meal to come. This was no hasty concoction of left-overs. But that is hardly surprising in an establishment that cares so much about the quality of its food that it owns and operates a strictly organic fruit and vegetable farm.

A starter of crispy chilli quail had been coated in hoysin, ginger and chilli then dipped in a light tempura to give the lovely crunchy exterior. A dressing derived from nectarines returned a fresh coolness to the palate. Garlic scampi looked succulent and well char-grilled, but my ravioli of lobster was a real tour de force. Pliant ravioli cases were stuffed with minced lobster meat encouraged by a gentle gingering and set in a colourful infusion made from sautéed crustacean shells deglazed with tomato juice. Excess water is driven out by incorporating salted blackbeans which first absorb, then transfer, the flavours from the reduction to the oil.

Patten's presentations, as well as his flavours, derive partly from Oriental themes. He likes to use banana leaves, Thai style, to line a plate, or perhaps he'll separate ingredients almost like a bento box in a more Japanese style, with decorative little ceramics containing rice or other vegetables. The Plakapong of sea bass was cooked in paper parcels; I thought they were filo parcels from where I was sitting and would probably have started eating them! When the paper was torn assunder, the vapour rushed out, heavily laden with scented spices.

I had a Thai red curry of duck which was perhaps the least successful of our dishes. On second thoughts that's a bit unfair, it's just that by now we were applying the very highest critical standards. For my taste there was just a bit too much sauce - the piquant curry flavours were vibrant enough, but the duck had flown. Or drowned!

Much better was a neatly trimmed rack of lamb, well charred but miraculously pink inside, with a bowl of fragrant basmati rice, well caramelised peppers and a delicious reduction of honey and orange. This was superlative, because such a conjunction of ideas and flavours can so easily be allowed to degenerate into coarse con-fusion cuisine. Patten uses no butter and no cream, and he achieves a subtle balance of the component parts that reminded me of the style of Joël Antunés who was the chef at Les Saveurs in London, before returning to France a couple of years ago.

Desserts are suitably light and refreshing: seasonal fruits hollowed out and filled with matching home made sorbets. (Forget those dreadful orange sorbets at hotel banquets!). A banana spring roll with praline-vanilla ice and a cinnamon caramel sauce was yummy and the plate went back to kitchen very clean indeed!

We were excellently looked after by George, The Annabelle's food and beverage manager who also doubles as sommelier. He is a true enthusiast who is deadly realistic about the problems of Cyprus winemaking, yet quick to put his shoulder to anything worth pushing to the fore. He surprised us with a fruity red wine called Agios Onoufrious from the Vasilikon winery. There were no traces of the usual oxidation; the wine was youthful and quite spicy which was good considering the food it was matching.

Dine Online strongly recommends The Deck to discerning visitors with adventurous palates.

Prices: Starters CY£6.0 to CY£9.00; Mains CY£14.00 to CY£16.00; Desserts CY£4.50

The Annabelle, Poseidonos Avenue, Pafos, Cyprus. Tel (+357) (6) 238 333
email: mailto:the-annabelle@thanos-hotels.com.cy

In the UK: Thanos Hotels UK, PO Box 3726, London N12 0PE
Tel: 020 8445 5111 Fax: 020 8445 5789

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Dine Online Copyright Clifton Media Associates October 1998, All rights reserved.

Views or opinions expressed by authors are not necessarily those of the publishers, Clifton Media Associates. While every care is taken in compiling this publication, the publishers cannot assume responsibility for any effects arising therefrom.