Alati restaurant

Renowned executive chef Albertos Simillides has worked with his crew of professional Greek chefs (themselves flown into Singapore fresh from the Aegean!) to curate a menu of grilled, salt-baked, deep-fried, and right-off-the-bone delicacies that are a peerless summary of what Greek and Mediterranean cuisine is all about. Far more focused than your usual Greek restaurant, Alati’s specific offering is Cycladic cuisine, dishes from the archipelago of islands stretching southeast from the Greek mainland. To accompany this divine food, Konstantinos Lazarakis, one of the most prestigious sommeliers in Greece, has developed a drinks list of Greek wines like the crisp white Tselepos Mantinia Moschofilero and the divine red Alpha Hedgehog Xinomavro, plus beers, spirits, and liqueurs exclusive to Alati’s cellars.

Alati’s name means salt in Greek, a moniker that besides evoking the Aegean Sea and the Cyclades, bodes well when it comes to our favourite of this superlative Singapore Greek restaurant’s signature dishes, really any number of dishes: the salt-baked fresh fish. This technique is the litmus test for any Greek seafood kitchen, the salt-crust sealing in the fish’s moistness, and here it’s applied to the daily catch, caught, packed in ice and flown in overnight from the ports of Chalkida and Thessaloniki in the Mediterranean (carabineros and langoustines, but also other rare species like the European seabass and red porgy) or sourced locally, depending always on seasonal availability and with freshness held paramount. While seafood is big at Alati’s Tanjong Pagar headquarters (don’t forget the giouvetsi, a dish of shrimps, orzo pasta and saffron), there’s plenty of meaty grills and vegetarian options, too, all cleaving close to the traditions of Greek and Cycladic cuisine. Feta cheese deep-fried in filo with honey and sesame, keftedes (meatballs with potatoes and tzatziki dip), marinated chicken souvlaki and gyros pork. Booking a table at Alati’s Amoy Street restaurant is to be transported to Greece itself – kali orexi!