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Seafood lasagne? Eww. Gross. No, thanks. Sure, you can find a good one on the Ligurian coast, but in Australia, it’s the sort of thing you’re more likely to encounter in dodgy, golf-club bistros with names like Benvenuti Grill or The Swinging Gourmet. I’ve spent a lifetime trying to repress childhood memories of anaemic prawns drowned in bechamel with the fish John West rejected. (“Mum, can we just get the boscaiola next time?”)

It comes as a small shock, then, to say that one of the most compelling dishes I’ve eaten this year is the seafood lasagne at Noi. (To save you the Google translation, it’s Italian for “us” and rhymes with “Roy”.) Couple Alessandro Intini and Federica Costa opened the modern Italian charmer in an old Petersham framing shop in 2019 and I really should have booked one of Noi’s hardwood tables long before now.

A week before dinner in the long dining room – all polished timber, exposed brick and dark leather – I’d seen a photograph of the lasagne online and determined it was safe to order. Draped in a handkerchief-sized sheet of pasta dyed on one side with charcoal, we weren’t at Crescent Head Country Club anymore. What I didn’t anticipate was how rich and “beefy” the ragu underneath that pasta would be.

“Are you sure there’s nothing that once walked on land in this?” I ask our waiter more than once. There isn’t. Just standard bolognese-y things (white wine, carrots, onion and such), plus diced and minced yellowfin tuna, hunks of prawn and a healthy dose of shellfish bisque. Radicchio and bechamel add further dimensions of flavour, not to mention powdered tomato for extra umami. Revelatory stuff.

The lasagne is one of three pasta choices across a prix fixe menu that’ll set you back $64 for two courses or $79 for three. It’s both strange and relieving to type those figures in 2023. I can’t tell you how many restaurants I’ve reviewed in the past six months for double that price and half the value. (Actually, I can: it’s 43.) You’ll also receive Costa’s house-made focaccia and grissini, a welcome snack (ours was battered sand-whiting in a zippy zucchini sauce) and petit fours that include an excellent, white-chocolate bon-bon. Come on down.

It’s safe to say there isn’t a prettier sausage-roll presentation in the world. Like a truckie in a tutu.

Intini says one way he keeps Noi’s prices competitive is by taking cheaper cuts of meat and slow-cooking them into delicious submission. A signature is the (somewhat un-Italian) pig’s head sausage roll featuring pork braised in a masterstock that hums with star anise and white pepper. Circled by tiny daubs
of black-garlic sauce and fermented chilli mayonnaise, it’s safe to say there isn’t a prettier sausage-roll presentation in the world. Like a truckie in a tutu.

There’s a fair amount of daubing like this, plus a good deal of infusing and gelling. Dot, dot, dot. Dash, dash, dash. Sometimes it works, as with the sausage roll (great dish, by the way), or tender octopus speckled with paprika mayo, parsley emulsion, beetroot chips and saltbush. However, a yuzu gel designed to jazz up a silky risotto with chive oil overpowers everything it touches.

Beef cheek is your go-to main, roasted overnight so you can slice it with a spoon, and perched on a bed of braised blue lentils. A restrained use of wattleseed in the glaze graces everything with a nutty, toasty flavour. Expect to clean the plate. Dry-brined pork neck with native lemongrass gel and pickled carrots could have been released from the oven a bit earlier, though.

Dessert will cost you $16 extra (I should have mentioned those two- and three-course prices are for savoury dishes only). A brulee-style grapefruit tart is dotted with finger lime, and a scoop of lemon myrtle ice-cream sends it on its way. Nice work.

After three generous courses, we decide the smart move is to share one tart between two. I’m also less fussed on the idea of the “terramisu” with mascarpone, “choco soil” and “coffee gel”. I reached peak gel with the risotto.

However, there’s more than enough skilled cooking, warm service and wine to warrant several return visits. I like the Bob Dylan and Abbey Road soundtrack; I love that the restaurant makes its own vermouth.

If I was a Petersham local, I’d certainly be dropping in for the express lunch of one main course and a glass of house red for $29 – that’s cheaper than most inner west pubs. No doubt the lasagne’s much tastier, too.

This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine