Two alternative synthetic approaches to a variety of enantioenriched 6-arylated piperidin-2-ones have been developed. The first one is based on the hydrogenation of suitably arylated chiral cyclic enehydrazides. The second approach relies on the asymmetric catalytic hydrogenation of the corresponding N-alkylated precursors. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.