In 2004, Italian duo Stephane Colleoni and Diego Chairini brought us the superb fine dining restaurant Oso. This year, they opened a trattoria, Papi, in the gradually moving upscale neighborhood of Mohamed Sultan Road. You get everything you’d expect: A menu heavily based on pizzas and pastas, with a decent selection of antipastis and desserts. All the standard pastas and pizzas are on the menu, and in that sense this restaurant is like the dozens of other Italian eateries out there. What distinguishes Papi from the masses are the fine quality ingredients used and the excellent service which has become a trademark of Colleoni and Chairini. Homemade pastas feature (you can taste the difference), the bread is delicious, the pizza dough and tomato sauce authentic—little but important touches that differentiate the good from the mediocre. And, for a trattoria it has a nice wine list, with two house wines by the glass and everything else by the bottle. We had a lovely eggplant parmigiana, a homemade pappardelle with chicken and peppers and a pizza with porcini mushrooms and bacon. Takeaway pizzas are popular here, as they make for a convenient and reasonably priced gourmet meal. The dining area is quite large, with a spacious front room and a back section that affords more privacy. We’d happily come back.
