Symposio, Pelendri, Cyprus: the bastion of farm-to-table, foraged Cypriot cuisine

Nikos Vasiliou has played an instrumental role in recalibrating the trajectory of Cypriot cuisine by preserving its very essence here at Symposio. Photos: Souvlakination.

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This is a preview of an upcoming newsletter post in which I’ll share more than 10 of my favourite meals in the 33 months since I started Souvlakination, with a focus on hidden gems across Greece and Cyprus (and one in Australia) that are preserving the very foundational building blocks of good – dare I say, real – Greek and Cypriot cuisine: where good ingredients meet good, traditional cookery with identity and character, in settings where you feel as though you’ve stepped back in time or into a dream.

In order for me to be able to do this, and in part to protect the calm pace of most of these spots, the post will be available exclusively to paid subscribers of the Souvlakination Substack. You can subscribe below.

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Symposio Taverna, Pelendri, Cyprus

In the village of Pelendri up in Cyprus’ Troodos mountains, albeit not too far from the city of Limassol, you find a welcoming cobblestone house that is popular amongst many Cypriots. If you have any links to Cyprus, you’ll probably agree that Symposio is one of those places that has become an institution over the past decade or so – I can remember multiple family gatherings here over the years since it first opened in this spot in 2008.

After working abroad, then helping his in-laws to run their taverna in Pissouri for 20 years, owner Nikos Vasiliou makes the bold decision to return to his roots, and to nature. While others are leaving, Nikos returns to his home village in the mountains, establishing his bastion of traditional Cypriot cuisine. (I think it’s a fitting coincidence that Symposio opens the same year as the global financial crisis in ‘08.) Now, he’s one of the reasons that many Cypriots visit Pelendri. He’s critically acclaimed, often appearing on television and in the press, and is currently writing a cook book. He supplies his menu, which covers pretty much every corner of Cypriot cuisine, with his own produce – you regularly see him posing with morchelles and mushrooms that he’s foraged. Symposio isn’t just a taverna. It’s a farm that keeps alive the reality of the farm-to-table fairytale in the 21st Century.

He comes to life as our conversation turns into a tour of the building: the courtyard with the well in which he cooks his 8-hour slow-cooked lamb, as well as the frame on which he makes Cretan ‘antikristo’, the traditional woodfire oven that bakes fresh bread and kleftiko and, above all, his garden around the back. You can see it all here.

At Symposio you get the full experience. Good, seasonal produce, and a real passion for homemade, traditional Cypriot cooking combine to create the Cypriot classics you’re familiar with, but fresher, livelier, and more fulfilling than you normally get to experience them nowadays. As Cyprus changes and internationalises, thus losing its traditional, agricultural roots, it’s Symposio that is standing its ground and probing, driving the conversation about real food, Cypriot food and rurally-rooted, soulful Mediterranean cuisine. Thankfully, with Nikos’ son Giorgos following in his father’s footsteps and running Symposio’s other branch in Pissouri, there is hope that Symposio will continue to preserve the soul of Mediterranean food.

A highlight is the morchelles that Nikos forages, usually prepared as a pasta dish. Rich, truffly morels that are bursting with life. The same is true of all of the mezedes, starting from the dips and the foraged red mountain mushrooms (κόκκινα μανιτάρκα του πέφκου του βουνού) in red wine, with onions and coriander seeds. All cooked through just about the right amount in order for you to taste the freshness and the density of the flavour in all of Symposio’s ingredients. Simple vegetable dishes with an intensity of flavour that you hardly get to encounter anywhere else on earth these days, and Cypriot classics like stroufouthkia me avga (aka tsagrithkia or blood campions with eggs). The meats – souvla, kleftiko, ofto from the well, grilled païdakia – are all faultless, with the slow-cooked kleftiko and ofto melting, but with its smokey, woody crust intact.

Get as many mezedes as you can in order to experience as much as what’s on offer on the day – whether kleftiko, souvla, souvlakia, antikristo, oven-baked classics, stews or something from the grill. However, the real surprise is how impressive the non-meat dishes are, something which reminds you of how fulfilling the Mediterranean diet is in its original form, where meat was a rare celebratory treat. As you’re eating here, remind yourself: this is Cyprus, this is food, and this is how we should all be living.

📍 Symposio, Prodromou 61, Limassol 4878, Cyprus

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