Melander Beach Taverna, Pissouri... with your dog

Although a great number of tavernas and bars have either welcomed us, or at least turned a blind eye to the big black beast lying under my chair, I wanted to recommend a few in particular, individually. I mainly want to recommend those places that have done a little bit extra to make us feel welcome. Some of the places, however, will make the list by virtue of being at least semi dog-friendly, and just really nice places to eat/drink.

Melanda Beach Taverna. Photo:
http://www.exclusively-cyprus.com

One of the best tavernas I’ve been to here in Cyprus has to be Melander Beach Taverna, Avdimou Beach, Pissouri. We were driving back to Larnaca from Paphos, looking for somewhere nice to stop for food. A few places we stopped at around the Petra tou Romiou area, from the old Paphos-Lemesos road, seemed from the car parks to be too busy to turn up with a dog. Some point along the B6 from Paphos (before ancient Kourion and Lemesos), we saw a small sign for Melander Beach Taverna, and decided to give it a go. 

After quite a long drive down an unmade road, following sporadic signs that showed which fork in the dirt path to take, we arrived at the beach. It was well worth the detour.  The beach itself is not particularly amazing, but it is a nice stretch of mostly undeveloped coast line, with the typically brilliant, clean, blue sea found all over Cyprus. It was quite early in the year (late April), so it could be that the beach gets jam packed in the summer months ...a great excuse for me to go back and check, maybe this weekend... but there were a few people there, mostly families, and it seemed a nice atmosphere on a Sunday afternoon. It goes without saying that I did not take Sage onto the beach itself, however. 

Melanda Beach Taverna. Photo:
http://www.exclusively-cyprus.com

We checked if it was ok to have Sage come in, and they were fine about it. Another woman came in a bit later with a golden lab, and seemed like they were regulars there. The taverna is mostly outside, with tables on a sheltered platform above the beach. It is all a bit sandy, which takes the pressure off when arriving with a beast. 

We ate a very reasonable pork steak, and fish (grilled octopus and prawns), and Sage finished off various prawn heads and whatever else fell her way under the table. The food was good, the atmosphere was lovely, the view was great, and dogs are welcome. We paid around 10E per head for one course, salad, and several beers.

My photos are not great (another good excuse to go back), but I did find some nice photos and positive reviews on TripAdvisor, and from this website: http://www.exclusively-cyprus.com/restaurants3.htm