Parking near Brazil Square, honestly

Ilisia is a place where people live. That is its whole character and it is why the neighbourhood is pleasant, but it has one direct consequence for anybody driving in for dinner: the kerb belongs to residents, and by eight in the evening it is full.

This is the short, unglamorous guide to solving that. It contains one recommendation, one number, and a couple of things we deliberately will not tell you because nobody has told us.

The short answer

The nearest car park is a garage called ΧΡ. ΑΔΑΜΟΠΟΥΛΟΣ ΑΒΕΕ, on Papadiamantopoulou 26 at the corner of Michalakopoulou. It is about eighty metres from our door, measured from the restaurant to the garage rather than estimated, and it is open twenty four hours. Its phone number is +30 210 725 0750.

Eighty metres is close enough that the walk is not really a walk. You come out of the garage, turn towards the square, and you are at the corner.

What we will not tell you, and why

We are not going to quote you a price, because we do not know it. The garage has not given us one and its listing does not publish one, and a number invented for the sake of looking helpful is worse than no number. Call them on the line above and they will tell you what it costs today.

We are also not going to call it our car park, because it is not. There is no arrangement between that garage and this restaurant, no validation, no discount and no reserved bays. It is simply the nearest place to leave a car, and we are telling you about it because it is useful, not because anybody is paying for the mention.

If either of those things changes we will say so here. Until then, the honest position is that we know where it is and how far away, and nothing else.

The twenty four hour part matters more than it sounds

This is the detail worth reading twice. The venue is open until three in the morning, and a lot of the reason people drive here is that they are staying late, for the late part of the night rather than only for dinner.

A great many Athens car parks close somewhere between eleven and one. A garage that shuts at midnight is worse than useless to somebody leaving at half past one, because the car is now behind a shutter until morning and the evening ends with a taxi home and a second trip tomorrow to collect it.

So the twenty four hour opening is not a minor convenience. For this venue specifically it is the thing that makes driving a workable plan at all.

Street parking, if you insist

During the day it is genuinely possible. Late morning and early afternoon in Ilisia are calm, the residents are out, and if you are coming for breakfast or lunch you will usually find something within a couple of streets.

From early evening onward the odds collapse. People come home, the kerb fills, and the streets around the square are narrow enough that circling is unpleasant for you and for everyone living on them. If you are arriving for dinner or later, plan on the garage and stop thinking about it.

Two wheels

Athens runs on scooters and Ilisia is no exception, which changes the arithmetic completely. A two wheeler will find room on almost any street around the square at almost any hour, and these streets are quiet enough that claiming a space is not a fight with anybody.

If you ride, that is simply the easiest way to arrive, and it is also why the kerb can look fuller than it is on a first pass. A good deal of what is occupying these streets is not a car.

One caution that applies to everyone: leave nothing visible on the seat or in the top box. That is ordinary advice for any city rather than a comment on this neighbourhood, which is quiet, but it is still the advice.

Or leave the car at home

Evangelismos on metro line 3 is the nearest station, about ten minutes on foot through Ilisia, and it is the option that removes the entire problem. If you are drinking anything at all, it is also the correct option.

Taxis find the address without difficulty. We are at Laodikias 16 and Nimfeou 1, on the corner of Brazil Square, which in Greek is Plateia Vrazilias, and any driver in Athens knows the square by name. If you would rather have the address, the hours and the map in one place before you set off, the contact page has all of it, and the questions page covers the rest.