What: A trendy new restaurant and bar that's located on Mentmore Terrace in London Fields. Like so many places in the Hackney area, the focus here is on small sharing plates and natural wines, with a food menu that puts sustainable practises front and centre and a vast drinks offering that champions independent producers.
Who: Papi is a collaboration between Matthew Scott, founder of nomadic kitchen concept Hot 4 U, and sommelier Charlie Carr, who runs independent natural wine bar Wingnut Wines. Scott, who previously cooked at Cub and butcher-cum-cookshop Hill & Szrok, originally launched Hot 4 U during the Covid-19 lockdown as a delivery-only brand, before moving it into into the pop-up and pub residency space. Papi marks the chef's first foray into bricks and mortar, and came about after he and Carr collaborated on a number of pop-ups last year.
The food: The menu reflects Scott's passion for zero-waste cooking with a focus on regeneratively-reared meat and sustainable seafood, and take cues from both Hot 4 U and his time cooking at Cub in Hoxton. Dishes change regularly, and can fairly be described as being cheekily irreverent and visually imaginative. The garlic bread, for example, features a grilled fermented potato bun topped with whipped ricotta and wild garlic; the cheeseburger tartare uses ex-dairy cow beef and comes topped with a luminous emulsion of cep garum and mustard; the smoked rabbit kielbasa sausage, made in house, comes with a walnut ketchup and both shiso leaves and cabbage to wrap it up in; and the Carlingford oysters are accompanied by a soupçon of caviar and a drizzle of pet nat-infused jelly. Given the limitations of the kitchen - which just has space for two chefs and holds a small charcoal grill, a countertop fryer and two portable electric hobs - the menu is impressively varied and offers plenty of choice, with a roster of around 15 to 17 sharing dishes served every service. Prices are pitched towards the more premium end of the scale with most dishes ranging between the £10 and £15 mark. A shorter snacks menu is served at the downstairs bar.
The drink: As with his bar at Netil Market, Carr's wine list champions small, under-represented producers and features a daily-rotating selection available by the glass, as well as a scratch list of rare, one-off bottles. It's a vast list, with extensive selections of sparkling, red, white, rose and orange wines. Prices by the bottle start high at around the £40 mark, but tap out at well under £100.
The vibe: The simple but polished design somewhat belies the restaurant's boisterous atmosphere. Holding around 30 covers upstairs with space for another 14 or so in the downstairs bar, it's a hot, smoky room with an alluring, buzzy energy that captures the party spirit the Hot 4 U brand embodied.
And another thing: One notable omission from the Papi launch menu is the bone marrow whiskey luge, which became a staple of the Hot 4 U brand during its various iterations. The decision not to include it reflects Scott's more mature approach to his cooking here, but that doesn't mean there will never be space for it on the Papi menu. "Watch this space," he says with a smile when asked if it's likely to make an appearance in the future.
1F Mentmore Terrace, London E8 3PN
