(That said, IвЂ™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 ВЈ300 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 ВЈ250-plus-a-deposit tasting menus, with extra up front for вЂњincidentalsвЂќ вЂ“ 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 mindвЂ™s eye, and know that 100g is that abstemious serving we permitted ourselves when 300g would have been just the ticket. ItвЂ™s a mistake to tell anyone who knows their way around the 1980s Weight Watchers pamphlet that you serve pasta in 100g portions. вЂњThe pasta mains are quite, um, small,вЂќ a different server informed me as I perused the ВЈ14.50 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. ItвЂ™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 IslingtonвЂ™s Upper Street, the bit with the Waterstones and Bellanger brasserie, and handy for tourists to see everything the area has to offer. NociвЂ™s brown butter ziti cacio e pepe: вЂPosh macaroni cheese with a Clarendon Instagram filter.вЂ™

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