Warung Ita

Name: Warung Ita
Address: 168 Haldon Street, Lakemba, NSW 2195, Sydney, Australia
Telephone: 0431 503 798

Restaurant · Sydney, Australia

About Warung Ita

At the southern end of Haldon Street in Lakemba, a suburb in Sydney's west better known for its Lebanese and Middle Eastern food scene, a small Indonesian counter restaurant called Warung Ita has operated since 2002. It was founded by Nazar Iljas and his wife, known to regulars simply as Ibu Ita, who gave the restaurant her name; the couple have since retired from day-to-day running, and the restaurant is now managed by Hilda and Ida. SBS, the Australian public broadcaster, profiled the restaurant as part of a report on Sydney's lesser-known Indonesian food options, describing it as a rare source of halal Padang-style cooking in a strip of Haldon Street otherwise dominated by Middle Eastern restaurants and shops. There is no printed menu. Instead, diners walk up to a food counter where a changing selection of dishes is laid out, point to what they want, and have it served over rice, usually with two or three side dishes on the one plate. A small jar or bowl of very hot chilli sauce typically sits nearby for anyone who wants extra heat. According to Time Out Sydney's review of the restaurant, reliable choices from the counter include fried fish, a soupy version of beef rendang, and eggplant cooked in a heavy sambal. The setting itself is unpretentious, closer to a family living room than a conventional restaurant, with plastic chairs and little in the way of decoration; food preparation sometimes continues in view of diners rather than hidden in a back kitchen. The SBS report describes the clientele as a genuine cross-section of Lakemba's migrant communities, including South Asian shopkeepers and customers from Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian, Somali, and Lebanese backgrounds who come as much for the welcome as for the food, with staff greeting regulars in the hospitable style associated with West Sumatra. Opening hours, drawn from a 2020 review, run daily from around 11am to 5pm, though this has not been reconfirmed more recently and may have changed.

Address

168 Haldon Street, Lakemba, NSW 2195, Sydney, Australia

Opening hours

Daily: 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM (as of a 2020 review, unconfirmed since)

Contact

Phone: 0431 503 798

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