Notto Covent Garden

Last Updated on May 18, 2025

Perfect Pasta in Covent Garden

In the ever-popular setting of Covent Garden restaurants come and go seemingly daily.  I, for one, hope that Notto, the second pasta restaurant from Phil Howard and Julian Dyer, beds in and becomes a fixture.  It’s an excellent if not unique, concept to offer a menu which is predominantly fresh pasta-based, with a few starters, side dishes and desserts.  By focusing on high-quality pasta, the menu works for all budgets, with half the main courses at £15 or under and with the succinct dessert menu at £8.  Wine is served by the bottle or in measures of 125ml with the most expensive wine at around the starting point of many other restaurants in the vicinity.  A glass of prosecco is £7.  Party on!  We ended up with a very pleasant bottle of Chianti, Salchieto Biskero 2022 which was rounded and fruity – eminently drinkable!

Louis Korovilas, the executive chef who is overseeing the entire food operation has a heritage as auspicious as Phil Howard himself, having been responsible for launching Bancone after stints working at Locanda Locatelli and Pied a Terre.  Needless to say, if you’ve come along to Notto for ‘Pasta with Red Sauce’ you’ll be disappointed.  Instead, the menu has eight pasta options, ranging from Rigatoni Cacio e Pepe to Strozzapreti with black truffles. 

There are olives and breads to nibble on while you wait, though be careful not to over-order at this stage.  The house focaccia with rosemary, rock salt, tomato and garlic is almost a meal in itself, rich with good quality olive oil and laced with rosemary.  Utterly delicious, I defy anyone to forego their share if it’s ordered – all my own good intentions went out the window at first taste.

To start, we shared a wild mushroom arancini with stracchino cheese.  The mushroom rice filling inside the crisp shell somehow managed to be light and yet carried the melting stracchino cheese perfectly.  We liked the generous grating of cheese and the rich mushroom sauce too.

And, a healthier option, the salad of puntarella, anchovy and red onion which was deliciously dressed in garlic and olive oil to complement the bitter notes of the puntarella.

I’d advise choosing your starters with care if you plan on enjoying 3 pasta dishes between 2 as the team at Notto recommends.  We certainly struggled, though each of the pasta options we picked was quite delicious and very different.

The seasonal and almost festive ravioli of pumpkin and chestnuts with pine nuts, brown butter, sage and parmesan had fabulously fragrant buttery sauce and a light, melting chestnut filling.  Toasted pinenuts added textural interest to this pretty and unusual dish.

Papparadelle with slow-cooked short rib of aged beef, field mushrooms and red wine was a rich, meaty mouthful – with a full-flavoured beef and mushrooms in a powerful red wine sauce making a hearty dish that should satisfy even the pickiest carnivore.

My personal least favourite was the strozzapreti with black truffles, mushroom stock, aged parmesan and butter.  I have to confess to ordering it partly because I love the idea of ‘strangling the priest’ – it’s a pasta that was created when the church was all-powerful and priests were often both wealthy and greedy.  Legend is that poor villagers used to make this twisted pasta, at each twist cursing the priest.  My second justification was a love of black truffles.  Perhaps our palates are ruined by an over-indulgence in truffle oil but for me, the dish was more mushroom than truffle.  That said, like all the pastas it was delicious – and perfectly al-dente

Of the desserts, the Tiramisu was a real winner, light and fluffy with strong coffee notes and a lovely crunchy biscuit.  

We both found the milk chocolate and hazelnut cream a little too sweet and would have welcomed the option of gelato or an alternative dessert as although the cheese course sounded interesting, Gorgonzola dolce with hot honey and walnut bread would have been another rich option.

Both Notto Covent Garden and the Piccadilly Notto offer Londoners and visitors to the city the chance to eat well right in the heart of the city.  Both are in the kind of places where you don’t normally expect value for money.   And both are the kind of places I can see myself going back to again and again.

Notto Pasta Bars – Covent Garden
4 Henrietta St,
London
WC2E 8PS