Papi

Girls just wanna have fun and so do diners. In Papi, London has a much-needed restaurant that understands that. The small plates spot is as eclectic as a restaurant in a box-fresh apartment block in London Fields can be. The disco ball twinkles, the playlist pumps everything from Drake to jungle, and there’s a waffle topped with cheese ice cream. Charming, sometimes chaotic service is fuelled by a funky wine list and for all the shiny Shoreditchification of Hackney, Papi has personality. So much so the vibrations of this room are even better than the food.

photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch

photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch

photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch

There’s no lack of fine restaurants in this area, but Papi feels a little less serious. The downstairs bar fills up fast and the red pleather chaise lounge in the toilets tells you that people are here for a long time, as well as a good one. Sit at the counter and you’ll feel the bubbling heat of the kitchen first-hand. Only no one seems to care because tasters from that far-reaching wine list are being poured all over the room. Dates are giggling and staff are swooping in with a light-as-a-feather, ricotta-smothered garlic bread when the moment is right. The menu is similarly fun-loving, lawless, whatever you want to call it. Brilliant, dinky marinated cuttlefish summer rolls, so-so prawn toast wings. Creative inconsistency is just part of Papi’s nature.

Excitement and experimentation aren’t top of mind for everyone. So if you’re looking for a dependable meal, you’re better off going elsewhere. But if twists and turns get you going, then Papi is a restaurant worth sticking with. The menu changes more often than your coloured-lense sunglasses, and there will be dishes that triumph and those that need to try less. What’s guaranteed is knowing service and a good time. Which goes to show that Papi isn’t performative, it’s just finding its place.

Food Rundown

photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch

Oysters

Half a dozen oysters are always at the top of the menu and the only question is which funky accompaniment will they come with. Sometimes it’s cherries, other times it’s yuzu granita. The former is nice in its subtlety, the latter has a little too much punch for our taste.

photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch

White Asparagus, Anchovy, Pork Fat

Classic combinations with just the right amount of funk is where Papi sings. White asparagus wrapped in pork fat with a single anchovy tucked in are the canapé all our friends and family will start seeing this Christmas. Forget how anaemic this plate looks, because it’s excellent.

Langoustine Meunière

Langoustine is like a prawn’s more entitled sibling and when it’s smothered in a brown butter sauce, it’s hard to feel like the classier crustacean is wrong in its feeling of superiority. These come cut in half and ready to attack. Which is exactly what you should do.

photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch

Garlic Bread With Cheese

This is a taste sensation but not as everyone knows it. A little fermented potato bun that’s doughnut-like in appearance and texture, grilled to a crisp on top, full of hot pockets of air, and lovely stodgy bits. The ricotta is smooth enough to claim anti-aging properties, topped with a dusting of dehydrated wild garlic and a pile of the leaves for good measure.

photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch

Tartare

It’s never as binary as success and failure at Papi, but some experimentations do work better than others. For example, an early cheeseburger-inspired tartare with crispy shoestring fries was fought over until the last piquant burger sauce-smothered forkful. While another citrus kosho-infused number was too chilled and too overpowering in zingy flavour.

photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch

Cuttlefish Summer Roll

There’s something about Papi’s finger food that really excels and, put politely, we could yam a trough of these. Less bulbous and lacking the vermicelli filling of a traditional summer roll, these are simple, herb-heavy creations. The cuttlefish, creamy and with a bite, is superb.

photo credit: Jake Missing

Some Wings

Where there’s a wing there’s a way. At least that’s often how our stomach thinks when we look at a menu and wonder whether it’s a dish too far. The prawn-stuffed variety we tried were topped with a squeeze of kewpie and some chilli relish. Nice, but nothing to write home about.

Brown Butter Waffle With Cheese Ice Cream

The cheesy vacherin ice cream that comes topped with hundreds and thousands sums up Papi to a tee. Half of our table loved it, the other half started talking about getting a Cornetto from around the corner. We’re somewhere in the middle.