The cooks carry their own plates at Seeds

Seeds opens for dinner only, on a residential corner in Ilisia, and the reason to book it sits behind the pass: the man cooking owns the place. Dimos Samourakis, executive chef and co-owner, opened the room in 2022 with a friend, Alexandros Bellonias, who came from the hospitality side of the trade rather than the kitchen.

The kitchen is open to the room, and the cooks do not hand their plates to a waiter. They leave the stove, carry the dish out themselves, set it down and say what is in it. The meal has a shape to match: a chef’s welcome at the start, and a run of mignardises and small sweets at the end, each one set down the same way.

The name reads two ways at once. There is the English word, for what a kitchen starts from, and there are the chef’s own initials, said aloud as see-DS. The signature plate takes the first reading literally: pumpkin with a molasses sauce, truffle and roasted pumpkin seeds. Pumpkin holds its place on the autumn menu, with bacon marmalade alongside the truffle, and again on the a la carte at 20 euro.

The chef, and the corner he chose

Samourakis was born in Thessaloniki, grew up in Athens, and was working in professional kitchens as a teenager. The years after that went to other people’s kitchens, in Greece and then abroad, on a tour through starred houses in Europe and the United States, before he came back to take a room of his own.

The room stands at Oumplianis 14 and Diocharous 27, Ilisia, Athens. CTC traded at that address first and moved on, so the corner carries a short gastronomic lineage of its own, in a residential quarter that also holds Vezené and Cookoovaya.

The autumn menus

The menu is rebuilt every three months, one season at a time, so a guest who comes twice a year meets different cooking each time. The autumn season runs two degustation menus: 115 euro, and 85 euro for the Short Story. The long one moves from crab and salmon roe through mackerel with beetroot and balsamic, squid with savoy cabbage and almond sauce, langoustine with crispy rice and a vin jaune beurre blanc, and on to wagyu striploin with celeriac, truffle and a Perigueux sauce.

An a la carte sits beside the degustations for a shorter sitting: shrimp with strawberry, rose and almonds at 24 euro, artichoke with jamon, Comté and truffle at 22 euro, a beef fillet aged in koji rice at 45 euro, and a lobster with pumpkin and kale at 60 euro.

Three wine pairings run alongside the menus, at three lengths and three prices: 150 euro for the premium pairing, 80 euro for the Long Story and 55 euro for the Short Story. They are drawn from a list of 50 to 60 labels, by Kanellos Triantafyllopoulos.

The Loft, upstairs

The upper floor is a private dining room and the wine store at once: The Loft, one table, up to 10, flanked by the cellar on one side and a lounge and bar on the other. A Loft dinner does not take the menu from downstairs. It is written with the chef, dish by dish, which is why the reservations desk asks for 48 hours’ notice rather than a booking on the night.

Who is this for

Seeds suits a guest with a whole evening to give it: the doors open Tuesday to Saturday, 7pm to 11pm, and dinner is the only service. It suits two at a table downstairs who want the long menu, with Ossetra caviar on the cod for 20 euro more. It suits a party who want the floor above to themselves. Bread and butter sit beside the menu at 4 euro, and a Greek cheese selection closes either meal at 35 euro a head.