Trevor Pepys reviews Noosa Italian
As regular readers will know, Trevor has always been wary of eateries with too-smart names. Even more so if they become franchises.
Thai One On and Thai Me Kangaroo Down spring to mind. If they’ve got to be that clever to get you in the door, chances are the tom yum will be tasteless. Margaritaville is an exception, a clever name and a highly successful franchise where you walk in strummin’ your six-string and you walk out full of tequila and corn chips, knowin’ it’s your own damn fault. The eating experience and the song are one and the same.
But Trev’s preference is for the no-frills, know what you’re getting yourself into kind of name. The Toolshed bar in Sydney’s Oxford Street is a perfect example. No surprises there. A joint Trev remembers in Tijuana many years ago called Sexy Mexy Taqueria had topless waitresses serving the tacos and beers. Well, duh. A friend of Trev’s in Bali has a place called Bali Eco Stay which is about as uninspired as you can get but apparently ticks all the algorithm boxes for Google searches and is always full.
Equally uninspired but eminently sensible is Noosa Italian on the Noosa Marina. You’re not going to go there looking for a vindaloo or a moussaka, are you? Well, it’s Noosa so maybe you are.
Anyway, Trev and the missus walked in the other night looking for some pasta and a decent dry white and we weren’t disappointed. We even got a sunset bat migration in widescreen Technicolor chucked in for free, and wasn’t that something! Okay, there are many vantage points along the river to ignite your Bruce Wayne fantasy, but very few have the unobstructed wide view that the Marina restaurants offer. If you’re a bit batty, it’s perfect.
Because we’d been drinking since late morning (only spritzers until the sun was over the yard-arm, you understand), we decided to take a breather and enjoy a sparkling mineral water ($9.50) while we waited for Robin to join us. Sorry, sorry, there is no Robin! Trevor needs to move on from this Batman fixation. We sipped the sparkly while we surveyed the menu, which is quite extensive, but we had already decided to stick to the starters and pasta choices.
We elected to share the smoked salmon arancini ($18) with romesco aioli and Ora King roe, before moving to share plates of squid ink tagliolini ($32) tossed with baby calamari, Moreton Bay bug, garlic, chilli, cherry tomatoes, basil and rocket, and Porcini mushrooms pici ($30) with Italian porcini and Swiss brown mushrooms, fontina cheese, white wine and rosemary pangrattato.
We paired this with the Villa Chiopris Pinot Grigio ($52), a very decent quaffer from Friuli, up in the north east where they’ve never made a bad one. This arrived with a smile just in time to see off the bats and get serious about the tucker, which was good all round, with the arancini starter being a bit predictable and the squid ink tagliolini the undoubted star of the evening – pasta cooked just so, the ink just putting a nice edge on the combination of seafood and vegetable flavours.
The verdict: After a few visits now, Trev is putting this joint on the good and dependable list. Without being sensational, Noosa Italian delivers good service and good food with a river view. Tough to beat that trifecta.
Noosa Italian, Noosa Marina, Tewantin. Phone 0434 190573.
