Souvla and souvlaki, the Cypriot grill

The smell of charcoal at Sunday lunchtime is one of the things that sums up Cyprus for me. Homes, tavernas and picnic sites fire up the grill, and what’s turning over the coals is nearly always a souvla. Here I separate souvla from souvlaki, which aren’t the same thing, and go through the recipes the Department of Agriculture recorded. The wider picture of what Cypriots eat is in Cypriot food.

What it actually is

The Cyprus Food Virtual Museum defines it in four words, meat grilled on charcoal. The name comes from the Latin subula, the awl a cobbler worked with, and from there it came to mean the long spit the chunks are threaded on. In Cypriot dialect you’ll also hear «sougla». Grilling is, according to the same museum, the most popular way of cooking meat on the island, and grilled meat usually comes with potatoes and salads.

Two official recipes

Both recipes the museum lists come from a 2006 Department of Agriculture book on traditional preparations. The first is souvla krasati, from Lysi. The pork, cut into souvla-sized chunks, is marinated in red wine with ground coriander and black pepper for at least 12 hours, then threaded and grilled. That’s the one I’d order if I saw it on a menu, because wine and coriander together are a very Cypriot pairing, the same one used in afelia.

The second alternates meat and vegetables. Big pieces of tomato, pepper and onion are tossed in olive oil and dried oregano, threaded between the chunks of pork, seasoned with salt and pepper and put over the coals. The meat picks up the flavour of the vegetables as it cooks. If your holiday villa comes with a barbecue, this is the easiest version to copy, because it needs nothing more than pork, tomato, pepper, onion, olive oil and a pinch of dried oregano, all of which any village shop will have.

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What’s the difference between souvla and souvlaki?

Size, and how you eat it. Souvla is large chunks on a long spit, cooked slowly and served on a plate. Souvlaki is the small skewer. The Famagusta tourism board calls it a very simple meal, two or three grilled pork or chicken skewers inside a Cypriot pitta, with tomato, cucumber, parsley and sometimes onion and cabbage. Limassol’s board adds lamb to the list. If you’re eating on a budget, souvlaki is the answer, and more ideas like it are in cheap eats in Cyprus.

It nearly always comes alongside another grill favourite, sheftalia, the minced-meat sausage wrapped in caul fat, and the museum notes that the two go very well together in the same pitta.

Sundays, Easter and Green Monday

Souvla is celebration food. For Easter 2026 the Cyprus Food Virtual Museum headlined its seasonal piece «Easter with souvla, red eggs and flaounes», and the roast lamb tradition of Easter Sunday is covered in Easter in Cyprus. Green Monday smells of charcoal too. In 2026 the municipality of Amathounta, just east of Limassol, laid on picnics with tables, chairs and free charcoal and asked people to bring their own foukou, the Cypriot grill.

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What comes on the side

The classic side is potatoes, and in the east of the island they’re almost as famous as the meat. The Famagusta tourism board claims the ones grown in its red soil are among the tastiest in Europe, and serves them fried, baked with herbs or as «antinachtes», small potatoes pan-fried with wine and coriander. On the same list it names souvla, souvlaki, sheftalia and grilled halloumi as the dishes everyone knows, and suggests ordering them at tavernas in Paralimni, Sotira, Deryneia or Liopetri. The red-soil villages behind those potatoes are in the Kokkinochoria.

How I’d order it

At a taverna, to share, and without hurrying the kitchen, because a proper souvla needs its time over the coals. I’d have potatoes and a salad with it, as custom dictates, and a cold beer or a local red. If you’d prefer meat cooked for hours in a sealed oven, the alternative is kleftiko, and to try a bit of everything, go for the Cypriot meze.

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