NOTE: This residency has now ended, but you can now find the same team running Papi.
There are very few places in which menu items like ‘rabbit glazed in fig leaf & Szechuan daikon’ coexist comfortably with ‘a plate of chipolatas’.
But Hot 4 U is one such place.
It’s a concept-cum-residency run by two crazily talented chefs, Eddy Tejada and Matthew Scott, and they seem to straddle the line of both fine dining and craven satisfaction, nimbly hopping between the two however it suits them. It’s all driven by relentless creativity, and the results are frequently eyebrow-cockingly strange, and just occasionally absolutely incredible.
The idea was dreamt up during the first lockdown. The two chefs – who were manning the pans at Cub & Silo – suddenly found themselves sequestered at home with creative energy to burn. So they poured it all into a zero-waste delivery service, which eventually became a zero-waste residency at The Plough, and is now also a permanent feature at their sister pub, The Prince Arthur.
The pub, just off London Fields, is a classic Victorian boozer that seems like it hasn’t changed a bit since it opened some 150 years ago. It’s light, it’s cosy, and it’s comforting. And very importantly it’s independent, meaning that the beers rotate frequently, and are always interesting. Annnnd there are some great wines & cocktails too.
The menu is scrawled on a clip board in marker pen, perhaps because it changes every week, or perhaps because the chefs have better things to do than make a fancy-looking menu. Either way, the stuff on it will be great. Honeydew melon with fried bread is a hit of both hot and cold, sweet and salt, crunchy and yielding. Tempura elderflower is so delicately fried that the flower retains its perfect shape. A single Cantabrian anchovy is placed atop each one, and the result is a bright, lemony burst of flavour on the palate.
And that’s just for starters. Literally. After that, half a peri-peri guineafowl is easily enough to share between two people, and it’s got a deliciously vibrant kick of heat. And desserts can yield anything from ‘Ya Mum’s Pavlova’ to ‘Spotted Dick Energy’.
It’s like no other pub menu out there, guaranteed.
NOTE: This residency has now ended, but you can now find the same team running Papi.
The Prince Arthur | 95 Forest RD, E8 3BH
While you’re in the neighbourhood… Check out the climate positive burgers at The Spurstowe Arms