Bar Italia

So, for my first sojourn into solid food again, we had dinner at an old stalwart of Leichhardt, Bar Italia. It was one of those sweltering Sydney days, with the temperature reaching 39 degrees.

Now, it is a fact of life that in Sydney Italian restaurants, many of the kitchen staff are Asian.
And like most facts of life, it is generally better not to question them.

Bar Italia is on the main Norton St strip, and is famed for its gelato, although its pastas are praised amongst locals. Sunday dinner crowd was mainly families and friends, the slightly-sticky evening didn't deter anyone from sitting in the back courtyard area, with its lush foliage, making themselves a meal for the mosquitos out en force.

Now, people don't come to Bar Italia for the decor, with its kitsch posters of Marilyn Munroe, the Beatles and mob films such as Goodfellas. It's more of a order-at-the-counter kind of place.

We ordered a fettucine amatriciana, fettucine bosciola and a spaghetti Bar Italia, plus a garden salad and garlic bread. However, I made the dumbest rookie foodblogging mistake of all time. I got too excited at the food and forgot to take photos until halfway through. So now I shall present pictures of half-eaten food. Sorry.

Spaghetti Bar Italia- prawns, parsley, bacon, chilli ($13)

Garden Salad

What's left of the fettucine bosciola. Haha. ($11.50)

The lone piece of garlic bread standing

I didn't get a photo of the fettucine amatriciana, which was in too sorry a state to be photographed. Now, if there's one word to describe the dishes at Bar Italia, it would be hearty. The flavours are bold, simple and don't apologise for being traditional.

I'm not a huge fan of tomato based pasta sauces (shock, horror), but I found the amatriciana had a slight burr from the chilli and the bacon really upped the flavour quotient. The fettucine was nicely al dente, although I wish the fettucine was a little less wide.

The bosciola was great comfort food. Creamy and indulgent, with diced ham and mushrooms giving accent to the sauce. Here, I think the wide fettucine actually served a purpose, collecting more creamy sauce.

The spaghetti Bar Italia, well, it's a favourite of my parents because the style is quite reminiscent of a chow mein. It's a dry pasta, with prawns, bacon, chilli and a whole heap of garlic, all sauteed.

The quality of the prawns in the pasta, and the produce in general, is to be expected from a suburban Italian restaurants that cater for the local neighbourhood palate, mainly frozen. Now, I'm not being a food snob and saying that's a bad thing. For the price we paid, and the quantity of food, I think it's reasonable to have frozen prawns in a pasta dish. I can attest to the quality of the prawns in the garlic prawns that Bar Italia also serves, which are plump and fresh and bounce off the teeth.

One area where quality of produce shines here is the gelato. An array of flavours err on the creamier side, with tiramisu, chocolate, coffee, hazelnut, Bounty, Toblerone and pistachio. Sorbets included mango, watermelon, lemon, etc. Now, I'm a firm believer of the non-mix rule of ice-cream. That is, thou shalt not mix fruity flavours and creamy flavours in the same cup.

For the eat-in dish, there's a maximum of four scoops for $8. We chose 2 scoops of pistachio, coffee and tiramisu. Luckily, I learnt my lesson and took photos before devouring the only thing I could eat with confidence in the meal (wisdom teeth, remember?)

The creaminess of the gelato, combined with the clean, strong flavours really hits the spot, especially for those with a sore mouth. The pistachio had tiny bits of the nuts running through, which was a good contrast to the smoothness of the gelato. Tiramisu had some chocolate cake in it, which I think was soaked in brandy. That slight alcoholic flavour paired really well with the ice cream.

While I was buying the gelato, I saw the staff preparing iced coffee. It was basically using a glass as a scoop, and getting half a glass of coffee gelato and then pouring some coffee in it. Definitely a thing to try if you haven't stuffed your face with the mains. Iced chocolate is the same idea, for those non-coffee lovers (philistines, you!).


While Bar Italia definitely isn't a high-class establishment, there's always a time and place for this kind of comfort eating, pasta that every Italian cuisine cliche is built upon. And for that, Bar Italia definitely has a place in Sydneysiders' hearts.