
After work we headed to Da Noi in South Yarra for some Sardinian sunshine.
It's a small establishment on two levels, romantically lit by candles. It's a white tablecloth and dim lighting kind of place. Definitely a date place.
We headed up the rickety and narrow staircase to a table for two by the window facing out to the street.
Our waiter was charming and he looked after us well. We felt we were in good hands albeit somewhat eccentric! Some courses took a little while to arrive but never did we feel anything had gone awry or we had been forgotten...more reminded that Italy is about slow food so we should take the opportunity to slow down. We decided to go with non a la carte option and place ourselves in the hands of the chef having discussed with our waiter what to avoid. It was interesting to see that different tables received different dishes so it's not like the kitchen mass produces everything.
Our first warm dish came in the form of a fava bean soup with croutons and a flatbread with pork lard. It was hearty and comforting soup and incredibly delicious. Chewy meaty croutons and crispy flatbread. Yum!

Our pasta dish was tortellini with shitake mushrooms and a brown butter. Again simple flavours. A meaty filling, salty Parmesan and delicately thin al dente pasta made this a winning dish.

Main course was roast goat, garlic and rosemary and roast potatoes. So delicious and again so simple. This was served with a zingy tomato salad with radishes and rocket which provided a good acidic note to cut through the heaviness of the meaty chunks.

The chocolate mousse was like a Ferrero Rocher and had crunch and silkiness and chocolate and hazelnut in every mouthful. The semi freddo was a light as air but I'm not sure the flavour of it combined well with the chocolate slice.
Stand out dishes for us was the pasta, the soup, the fish and pickled veg. These were like the twinkling stars of the meal but no course was bad. We agreed we both preferred Da Noi over L'Osteria la Passione as it was more elegant and the service and ambience more confident and self assured. It isn't the cheapest but we left feeling extremely full and satisfied. We felt that we had tried so many different things and had eaten our way around Sardinia. We felt relaxed and revived and I guess this means it's worth it's price!