Artima Bistro Restaurant in the heart of Limassol and exactly next to the Castle with hundreds years of history. Beautiful area constructed in the old Cypriot style stone houses. Last night we have visited the specific restaurant in order to taste the dishes that this Bistro had to offer and reconsider my opinion for the place as this was my second dining experience, unfortunately the first one was not as good as I was expecting .
I never write a critic for a Restaurant if I don’t visit the place at least twice and last night was the due day ready to taste a cuisine of Mediterranean and Italian dishes. First disappointment came very early just at the entrance when my eyes dropped exactly on a set of Sushi – Sashimi and California rolls, the surprise was really shocking! Where the heck does Japanese kitchen fits in this restaurant, the contrast was huge as the internal décor it is Mediterranean mostly style and nothing reminds you neither Japanese culture neither Fusion! This place is called Bistro which is Italian with Mediterranean influence and at that exact moment I clearly understood that this place has some serious issues with its identity something that frequently reflects badly on food.
The reception was good escorting us immediately to our table offering water and apply the liner napkins on our knees of course it could be better for example drawing the chair for the ladies, but let’s skip this for the moment
Eventually we sat down and I have to say that although the place was packed the atmosphere it is quite “private” as you can easily have a chat without others hearing, plus you really feel like you are having some space and this is rare in a big restaurant at this size, but mostly this is due to its high ceiling that it is quite pleasant.
The décor it is warm and it makes you really feel comfortable, tables are spacious and in the correct height with the chairs also comfortable. Something that I find interesting is the see through glass to the kitchen being able to watch the chef’s preparing the food. For me a restaurant that doesn’t afraid to show its kitchen it is a bonus as it clearly states that they mean business, although this is how it should be the kitchen really looked to be very untidy with tens of pans to be piled up on the Chef’s bench.
The menu is huge with all sorts of starters, soups, salads, main dishes and desserts, which from experience big menus equals to something is burning! The best restaurants in the world including Fat Duck and Gordon Ramsey at Chelsea keep their menus at minimum because I know and they know that great restaurants offers quality over quantity and great Chef’s prefers to create few dishes but with the finest ingredients cooked and presented in perfection. Something that I really hate specially from restaurants that supposed to offer “Class” is when they give you a filthy menu, this was exactly how the menu was … filthy packed with some kind of sauce or something, unfortunately the management seems not to pay attention into these kind of things something that makes me wonder If they know what a “restaurant with class” means.
Although I went to this place to try something Italian or Mediterranean I was really curious to try the Japanese influence which for me was a huge question mark so I became adventurous and order the Sushi platter with 16 pieces as a starter. In the meantime we were served the complementary dish of the day which it was a tomato soup in a shot. The color was really pale and the taste a step more than normal sour with the taste of celery to be intense, but it was in the acceptable limits of how a soup it should be, not bad and not good.
While the Sushi platter arrived I have noticed immediately the color of the red tuna sashimi which it was extremely pale and extremely iced, although many believe that this kind of food it is easy to serve let me inform you that is not, in order to be able to create Sushi and Sashimi dishes you need years of training and of course the freshest ingredients which in our case the raw fish was not, including the salmon you could see it in the color as fresh Salmon has a bright orange color instead of the specific one that we were served that had an orange degraded color. The California rolls were a disaster covered with a discussing cocktail style mayonnaise, of course the lack of decoration on the specific dish was even more pushing you into not want to eat this. The Sushi rice was not even close on how it should be , no taste of rice vinegar and no sugar , the sticky rice in general was a joke as when u dip it in the soya sauce it shouldn’t collapse.
As a main dish I have order the Surf and Turf, my partner the Prawns Risotto with Asparagus and the other couple T-bone steak. The steaks were ordered medium for me and the couple medium to rare. After waiting 30 minutes plus the moment of truth arrived with the first look of all the dishes completely disappointing, my dish was piled up with a potato puree, 3 medium sized not pilled prawns drowned in a brown god knows what sauce. My question is what does this chef was thinking??? How in the world I could have pilled those prawns with all that sauce on top plus how did he expect for me to taste that sauce with the prawns since under everything was un-pilled , in total the specific part was a disaster with the meat of the prawns to be over cooked and chewing.
The vegetables was not a surprise, frozen peas, beans and Cypriot Kourvoula (kind of horseradish), when a restaurant wants to sell class and quality needs to serves its garnish out of fresh ingredients, especially vegetables no need to be a quantity, I would respect if they have served me as a garnish one vegetable like a carrot or a broccoli, but to be fresh not frozen!
The puree I will not comment just bland mush potato (I have some doubts if it was 100% potato and not partially a substitute).
Now let’s move to the main point of the dish which is the meat. The meat was raw! By cutting it you could see the blood running and at the side a mushroom … sauce? I would rather call it a pudding as it was made with corn flour! Let me tell you a fact, in the last 2 years modern cuisine and especially in good restaurants do not use corn flour to thicken the sauces , but they use natural methods to do so. By seeing that I understood that this place is outdated with its chef and the management not having a clue about modern cuisine.
In general the plate was a bad experience and I will include that in one of the worst dishes I ever had always taking into account what this place wants to sell fine dining. Regardless my disappointment of the dish I have ordered, I wanted to try out the Risotto my partner took with prawns and asparagus. By the first look it was a bad risotto not creamy enough with the color of it yellow I guess from turmeric overdose plus you could see the color of asparagus to be overcooked as the color was rather green pale than green shining. I had a try and I can reassure you that if I had a high pressure health problem that thing it could have killed me from saltiness! I love salt but that dish was completely covered with a lot of it making it impossible to eat it, plus it had a stinky smell of fish like it was not cooked that moment. The prawns on the top were overcooked the risotto rice was not al dente and the lack of freshness made it a just bad experience.
I did not try the T-bone steak from the other two members of our company but could see the blood running out from their dishes too as also they have commented that they disliked the food that they have ordered.
The bottom line for my review is as much as this restaurant wants to sell fine dining it just can’t do it, at least at this point unless some serious thinking of its identity, its Chef and the management it’s done. Let’s be clear about something, this Bistro surely has its audience but mostly for its location, the nearby attractions ,the history of the area and by limited choice of fine dining in close range, by no mean for its food. For the money that this restaurant charges it clearly can’t compete other restaurants that provide true fine dining.
Big question is … would I go back to this restaurant? Will I recommend this restaurant? The answer is NO!Would I go back to try its transformation and change my review? The answer is YES!