Yash Bhanage knows what most people are going to hit him up for. So he turns them down before they even ask. “I can’t help with Papa’s reservations,” his Whatsapp profile picture reads. 

Since it opened its doors in February 2024, the tasting-menu-only restaurant has been an object of unrequited love for many of Mumbai’s bon vivants. Papa’s is a 12-seater and is only open for dinner four days a week. If you’d like to eat there in January, and part with Rs 10,000, you could try booking a spot on 1 December. 

Papa’s is the newest, priciest eatery from Hunger Inc Hospitality, a company Bhanage founded with his Cornell University classmate Sameer Seth 12 years ago. Bombay Canteen, O Pedro, and Veronica’s—finding a table at any of which isn’t an endurance sport—all prepared the ground for Papa’s, which is where I met Bhanage and Seth on a weekday morning.

I haven’t dined at Papa’s, helmed by chef Hussain Shahzad, but it’s hard for me to fall out of love with Bombay Canteen’s barley salad, O Pedro’s chorizo butter, or Veronica’s pastrami sandwich. Anyone familiar with these restaurants would know I’m choosing off their greatest hits, but then, can you be a Dylan fan and not be obsessed with “Desolation Row”?

It would be hours before Papa’s truly felt like an apartment “designed by Wes Anderson”, as Bhanage described the look they were going for. For now, it gave us a quiet corner to chat. Papa’s is on the first floor of Veronica’s, whose high table-turns help pay Papa’s rent, according to Seth. 

Hunger Inc’s impact on India’s culinary scene is far greater than the number of restaurants it has or how much they pull in. In fact, they will only account for half of Hunger Inc’s estimated Rs 150 crore revenue in FY26. 

Making up the other half is Bombay Sweet Shop, which got its start days before the first lockdown in 2020. With five outlets and 18 dark stores, all in Mumbai, Bombay Sweet Shop is also at the centre of Hunger Inc’s Rs 215 crore fundraise from Lighthouse and DSG Consumer Partners. Of that, Rs 150 crore will go to Hunger Inc and the rest to buy out some of its early backers.