Leichhardt's authentic Italian past lives on in one of its oldest and most beloved cafe restaurants, Bar Italia. You can get a decent meal here and get change from a $20 note, but don't expect anything fancy. Bar Italia dishes up home-style Italian pastas and paninos, but what people really come for is the gelato. Service is brisk and you can only pay in cash, but this is little Italy, baby.
In recent years, glitzy, soulless mod-Italian bar/restaurants have swallowed up a good patch of Norton Street's turf, but it's the charmingly decrepit cafes and sentimental red tablecloth eateries that everyone remembers about Leichhardt. And then there's Bar Italia, the one that started it all, the real Leichhardt right here on the plastic chairs and in the scruffily furnished dining room with its faded colours, Ferrari posters and paintings of the Mediterranean isles. There are blackboard menus above the counter, but most people already know what they want when they come in. Looks are deceptive from the outside: Bar Italia seats 250 people in various sections from the gelato bar to the lovely back courtyard surrounded by ferns and climbing vines.
Naturally, the coffee is excellent, and the food simple, cheap and authentic. Huge plates of penne napoletana and spaghetti carbonara are heart-warming home-style renditions, and the focaccias make a hearty lunchtime feed. The menu covers a range of veal, chicken and seafood dishes including garlic prawns and calamari. Italia has a legendary reputation for its gelato – truly some of the best anywhere in Sydney. Bar Italia is all shabby and no chic. First-timers might be taken aback by the general lack of service, but it has the spirit of a well-loved classic, one that you'll quickly come to appreciate.
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