![]() We were almost enjoying ourselves for a moment there. The calorie count on the menu helpfully points out that those handkerchiefs contain 734 cal. It is also sort of unavoidable, because there are only seven pastas on the mains and even fewer starters, though, conveniently, even shovel hands, our server, couldn’t destroy their architecture en route from the kitchen. At Noci, for now at least, it comes with asparagus, but all the vital tenets of the original are there: the confit egg yolk sits atop, still giving enough to burst over firm, jagged-cut sheets of pasta, and all in some sort of walnut butter sauce. The main thing that drew me to Noci, however, was chef Louis Korovilas and the silk handkerchief pasta with walnuts for which he became known while running the kitchen at the very good Bancone in Covent Garden. ‘Simple yet compelling’: Noci’s spring silk handkerchiefs with asparagus, wild garlic, walnuts and confit egg yolk. (That said, I’d rather be down the Binley Mega Chippy than eat nine courses in a room filled with angel investors and hedge-fund managers for a £300 minimum entry fee.) ![]() Fine dining, I fear, will soon be only for multimillionaires, so places such as Noci are vital. For finer dining, we are now in the era of £250-plus-a-deposit tasting menus, with extra up front for “incidentals” – pay it or buzz off. Even so, I chose to visit Noci partly because its pricing felt relatively sane compared with many other restaurants at the moment. We can visualise this in our mind’s eye, and know that 100g is that abstemious serving we permitted ourselves when 300g would have been just the ticket. ![]() It’s a mistake to tell anyone who knows their way around the 1980s Weight Watchers pamphlet that you serve pasta in 100g portions. “The pasta mains are quite, um, small,” a different server informed me as I perused the £14.50 lamb ravioli. Once you step inside, it is vast, family-friendly and has menu pricing that makes my eyes only semi-roll in astonishment, which is increasingly rare. It’s a fantastic location for the Business Design Centre crowd, and for after-workers wanting dinner before jumping on the 73 bus home. Noci is a casual Italian restaurant on that pretty, green part of Islington’s Upper Street, the bit with the Waterstones and Bellanger brasserie, and handy for tourists to see everything the area has to offer. Noci’s brown butter ziti cacio e pepe: ‘Posh macaroni cheese with a Clarendon Instagram filter.’
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