Papii
In April 2025 a news agency reported this cafe was leaving Hanover Street by 6 September; sixteen months on, the hygiene register, Companies House and the cafe's own site all still put it at number 101.
Why go
It is a brunch counter, and it is straightforward about being one. The tagline the venue prints for itself is Breakfast All day. Every day.
, which in practice means breakfast food served through lunch, because the kitchen stops at four.1 The card runs home-made buttermilk waffles, a house Benedict called eggs Papii served Florentine and Royale as well, spanakopita, and an aubergine and halloumi sandwich. There are no reservations of any kind, stated on the site in capitals: WE DO NOT TAKE RESERVATION IT'S FIRST COME FIRST SERVE!
What there is not, anywhere, is a single line of criticism about the food.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the buttermilk waffles, which the cafe makes itself and leads with.
- Order: eggs Papii if you want the savory version of the same visit.
- Avoid: Monday, when it is closed, and anything after four, when the kitchen has stopped. On Saturdays it runs an hour longer.
- Avoid: arriving as a group with a plan. First come, first served, in the venue's own words, and there is no table to hold.
What locals & experts say
- Nobody, and that is the finding. No bylined review, roundup entry or critical judgment on this food exists, and the only editorial writing about this venue is a 400-word news item about it moving out.
- Time Out Edinburgh, a checked negative that matters: Dayna McAlpine keeps the city masthead's
The 19 best breakfast and brunch spots in Edinburgh
updated, and reading all nineteen on 14 August 2026 turns up Teuchters Landing, Hula, The Edinburgh Larder, Roseleaf and Dishoom, but not Papii. It is also absent from The Skinny's 41-venue Edinburgh guide.3 - On the relocation report: Deadline News reported in April 2025 that the cafe was moving, quoting a spokesperson saying "We will be here till 6th September this year" and describing a To Let sign on the shopfront. Nothing has been published since. The food hygiene register holds exactly one Papii in Edinburgh, at 101 Hanover Street, and no new premises anywhere in the city.
Good to know
- The address carries a caveat. Every current record puts the cafe at 101 Hanover Street, and one 2025 report said it was leaving. Check before crossing town.
- Timing: closed Mondays. Tuesday to Friday and Sunday it runs 9am to 4pm, Saturdays 9am to 5pm.
- Booking: none taken, in any form.
- Price: the cheap end, inferred from the format. The venue's own menu page renders nearly every item as "$7.00" in US dollars, which is a rendering fault rather than a price, so no figure is quoted here.
- Getting there: 101 Hanover Street, at the Silvermills end, five minutes down from George Street.
- Hygiene: Food Hygiene Information Scheme Pass, inspected 19 June 2024.
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: "Brunch"
- On the note: accurate and complete. It is a brunch cafe and his one word covers it. The row entered his list on that basis, and no published source adds a reason beyond it.
Verdict
listed — A Hanover Street brunch counter that serves home-made buttermilk waffles and its own Benedict, takes no reservations at all, shuts on Mondays and stops cooking at four. That is the whole of what can be said with evidence. No critic has written about it, it is absent from Time Out Edinburgh's current nineteen-slot brunch list and from The Skinny's forty-one-venue guide, no owner or chef is named anywhere, and the only journalism about the venue is a 2025 report that it was moving out, which the register, the company record and the cafe's own site all now contradict. Listed is the honest rung: it is a real cafe on Jeff's list, worth knowing the hours of, and nothing establishes more than that.