Brunch on the Pangrati side

Pangrati and Ilisia are next to each other and behave as one neighbourhood at the weekend. Between them they have most of what the centre has and almost none of the queue, which is the whole reason people cross town for brunch here rather than staying nearer the Acropolis.

This is a practical guide to the eastern side of the weekend: the timing, the ordering, and one thing worth knowing before you arrive at four in the afternoon expecting eggs.

The neighbourhood, briefly

Ilisia runs into Pangrati, and the pair share a character: residential, quiet on the main streets, busy in the squares. It is where Athenians live rather than where they are photographed, and the weekend reflects that. Tables turn slowly. Nobody is working through a list of sights.

Brazil Square sits at the Ilisia end, with a park in it, shade, and a steady traffic of dog walkers from about eight in the morning. Eight minutes from the Conrad, five from the Megaron, and far enough from both to feel like neither.

The timing, which is the part that matters

We open at 08:00 every day. The kitchen opens at 09:00, an hour after the door. That gap catches people out, so it is worth stating plainly: arrive at half past eight and you can have coffee, not breakfast.

The more useful number is the other end. **The eggs are served until 16:00.** That is a real cut-off printed on the menu, not a guideline, and it is the single most practical fact in this article. A late brunch at half past three is fine. A late brunch at half past four is lunch, and a different menu.

Between about nine and eleven on a weekday the courtyard has the light and almost nobody in it. At the weekend that same hour is the busiest part of the place. Both are good; they are not the same experience.

What is actually on the brunch side

Six egg dishes. The Iguazu Breakfast Combo is the large one: fried eggs in bread with avocado, chorizo, sweet potatoes and mushroom, and it is closer to a lunch than a breakfast. Eggs Benedict comes with ham and hollandaise, and there is an avocado version with poached eggs, salmon and roe for anyone who wants the same technique without the pork.

There are three omelettes: chorizo with four kinds of mushroom at 10, smoked chicken with chimichurri and anthotyro at 10, and an egg-white one with anthotyro and spinach at 8.

Beyond the eggs, the yoghurt bowls come two ways, granola with chia and goji or fruit with berries and banana. There is a club sandwich for the person at the table who did not want brunch. And there are bao buns, chicken or crispy shrimp, which are not a conventional brunch item at all and are the one thing people order twice.

Coffee, and the thing to drink instead

The coffee list is the ordinary Athenian one, Greek coffee and espresso and cappuccino, with one addition worth making a point of. Brazilian filter coffee is on it, and it is the one to order if you have not had it: a different extraction and a genuinely different drink, not an affectation bolted on to match the flag.

The smoothies are where the kitchen stops pretending to be a café. Brasiliana is pineapple, passion fruit, strawberry, cranberry, grapefruit and honey, and it belongs to this restaurant rather than to any brunch spot in the neighbourhood. Tropical Paradise is the gentler one, mango, pineapple and coconut milk.

Fresh orange juice is 4.50, the mixed fruit is 5.50, and the homemade lemonade, sour cherry or grapefruit is 5.50. On a hot Saturday the sour cherry is the correct answer and nobody ever orders it.

Where to sit

The courtyard opens straight onto the square and gets the morning, which makes it the obvious choice and also the first part to fill. The terrace above has the hanging garden. Inside is the jungle, which is better later in the day than at ten in the morning.

If you are two people and unhurried, the courtyard. If you are six and want to hear each other, the courtyard or the terrace, and earlier rather than later. The brunch page has the photographs, which will decide it faster than this paragraph.

Two practical notes

Parking, if you are driving in from another part of Athens: the nearest car park is about 80 metres away at Papadiamantopoulou 26 and Michalakopoulou, open 24 hours. Independent, so we cannot quote its prices.

And if the weekend plan is brunch at home rather than out, the kitchen delivers from 09:00 to 23:30, and the delivery page lists the platforms and the area. Eggs travel less well than most things, which is our opinion rather than a rule.

The full menu runs well past brunch, which is the other reason people stay: a table that started at eleven with coffee does not have to end when the eggs do.