Aphrodite Restaurant

If you’ve never tried goat before, this is your best introduction. Kleftiko is roasted baby goat: hunks of meat sprinkled with salt, pepper and oregano and then slow-cooked in the oven for three hours. Dig your fork past the crisp layer of fatty skin and you’ll find meat that is soft and tender.

Head to the Cyprus Community Club's Aphrodite Restaurant on a Friday night, where kleftiko is a weekly special ($20) served with a side of lemony roast potatoes. Kleftiko is only available during the goat kidding season but should continue for the next couple of months. The Cyprus Community Club has been around for 81 years, and by all appearances, so have many of its patrons. There’s nothing fancy here, with worn carpet and dated function centre chairs and tables, but who’s quibbling about the décor when the food is this hearty and generous? The bistro is reasonably quiet during the week, but things really kick off on Saturday nights, with traditional live music from 9pm and a dance floor that is soon heaving with boisterous Greek and Cypriot locals.

Grilled meats and seafood make up the bulk of a menu that incorporates both Greek and Cypriot dishes. Start with fresh calamari ($9), dusted lightly with flour and pan-fried until golden, or a tangle of tender baby octopus ($9.50), barbecued on the grill. Meat lovers should get into the loukaniko ($14), a chunky smoked pork sausage, or the chicken or lamb souvlaki ($13). All mains comes with a pile of rice, chips and vegetables.
Afelia ($14) is a classic Cypriot dish of cubed pork, marinated and then braised in red wine and crushed coriander seeds. Keftethes ($8) are Cypriot-style meatballs studded with potato and don’t forget the haloumi cheese ($9). It’s worth ordering the sikoti lamb's liver ($8), cooked until just tender. Offal lovers won’t find a bigger serving of sweetbreads ($10) than here – a mountain of thymus glands pan-fried with a simple but generous squeeze of lemon.