Aleria is at Megalou Alexandrou 57, Metaxourgeio, Athens 104 35, in a renovated neoclassical building of the mid-19th century. It has been open since 2006, which makes it one of the older fixtures of modern Athenian fine dining.
The name comes from Aleria in Corsica, a town Greeks founded, chosen for a place where history, culture and culinary tradition meet. The owner who shaped the restaurant is Nikiforos Kehayiadakis, and the brief he has held it to is a short one: seasonal ingredients, and the Greek table they make.
The kitchen belongs to Gikas Xenakis, since 2012 its head chef, and the current sheet names him executive chef. By September 2026 that was 14 unbroken years in one room. He grew up in Thebes, where childhood went on fishing trips and in the countryside, and he cooks from the Greek earth and sea, from the season and from what he ate at home. Mushrooms are his particular subject. He also keeps a small farm, growing vegetables organically for the kitchen.
Two menus and nothing else
Dinner is two tasting menus: Earth & Sea; Garden & Nature, vegetarian. Either is taken at five, six or seven courses, 75 to 120 euros a head. The current sheet puts Earth & Sea at 90, 105 and 120 euros, and the vegetarian menu at 75, 90 and 105. A wine pairing poured in 75ml glasses runs 50 to 70 euros across the three lengths, and a premium pairing 75 to 105. Service is dinner only, Monday to Saturday from 19.00; closed Sunday.
What comes to the table
Xenakis builds both menus on Greek gastronomic tradition, on the season and on what he has eaten elsewhere, so the sheet moves through the year. Both open on the same two courses: tomato with goat cheese, cherries and rose, then green beans with tomato, arseniko cheese from Naxos and kumquat. After that they part.
Earth & Sea goes on to crab with fennel, peach and chamomile. Then Aegean fish with apricot, corn and shimeji, the small Japanese mushroom. Then pastitsio, rebuilt on braised oxtail and wild mushrooms. Then lamb with fava, courgette and green olives, and ekmek with bitter almond, cinnamon and pear to close.
Garden & Nature runs courgette with peach, lime and avgolemono, the Greek egg and lemon sauce; aubergine with dates, granola and peppers; revithada, the baked chickpea dish, with fennel and Florina peppers; wild mushroom with parsnip, black truffle and roots; and pistachio with milk, crispy rice and cherries.
Cheese and fruit carry through the savoury courses of both sheets: goat cheese with cherries, arseniko with kumquat, peach beside the crab and apricot beside the fish.
The cellar
The wine list has over 400 labels from 15 countries, the Greek vineyard alongside international bottles, with rare varieties, small family wineries and older vintages among them. Every label is picked to sit with the dishes. Despina Tokalakis, the restaurant’s sommelier, chooses and keeps it, and a guest reads it from a tablet at the table.
Private rooms, and a private house
Areas of the restaurant can be reserved on their own for a gathering or a business dinner. The team works the detail out with the host in advance, from the room to the menu. The kitchen will also cook a bespoke menu in a guest’s own house, which is the same cooking taken off its premises.
Who is this for
Anyone who wants the evening decided for them, and time enough to be led right through it. The quarter is bohemian, and this stretch of street fell out of its bourgeois standing decades ago, which sharpens the surprise of what is inside: contemporary pieces in a 19th-century shell, discreet and intimate. Behind the house there is a green garden with tables set well apart, and on a summer night that is where to sit.
