Lakemba is one of Sydney's go-to suburbs for Lebanese food. Strung along the main shopping strip are places that sell manoush (Lebanese pizzas), pastry palaces where you can smell the rose water from the street and eateries such as Jasmin, La Roche and El-Manara.

The fruit and vegetable markets have hot, roasted nuts in the front counters and nargila (bubble-smoke pipes) on their top shelves. There are Islamic gift shops and a store selling Holy Land olive oil and desert honey. You'll also find Indian and Pakistani grocery stores, Malaysian-run halal butchers and an Indonesian cafe called Warung Ita.

This casual spot feels like a warung or local eatery you'd find in Java or Sumatra or Bali. Laminex tables are pushed together to make a long communal table. Bags of fish and prawn crackers are in pale-blue plastic woven baskets.

Tea mugs and water glasses, cutlery and napkins are part of the DIY experience.

To order, you don't help yourself but it requires more than just sitting at a table. "No menu, darling," says the smiling woman in the headscarf. "What you see in front of you."

What we see are Padang-style dishes in bain-marie trays under a glass counter. Padang, which means field, is also the capital of West Sumatra. The food revels in spices, from coriander and turmeric to garlic and ginger. No pork and no alcohol, of course, but a mug full of sweet black tea is just the ticket.

First, white rice (nasi putih) goes onto a plate. We then choose from fried fish, potato cakes, chilli eggplant, boiled eggs, jackfruit salad, chilli eggplant, grilled chicken wings, mee goreng or noodles and a samosa-like pastry.

Three dishes with rice or noodles will set you back $9.50 or $10.50. Takeaway is 50 cents more. I guess the container costs more than having us sitting down and using the tableware. A handwritten, fixed-price list offers sate padang (sate with beef tongue), lontong sayur (vegetable curry and sticky rice), soto padang (beef in spicy soup) and bakso (meatballs) for $9.50. There are also separate prices for rendang, fish and chicken, vegetables and rice. Who said there was no menu?

Rendang, a spicy beef stew, is the best-known Padang dish. Warung Ita offers it two ways: hot, and mild for faint-hearted Westerners. Our lovely hostess is very worried about our chilli tolerance, warning us about the eggplant and the sambal. Bring it on, we say, and she laughs with pleasure.

The hot rendang is better than the mild one, with a deep, balanced sauce that helps the slightly chewy beef. It's moreish, like the jackfruit salad whose chilli heat slowly builds to a warm climax.

The grilled chicken wings are marinated and blackened, sweet and sticky to touch. The chicken is bland but the marinade isn't, designed for those flavourful, scrawny Indonesian chickens.

From the chicken to the egg. I love boiled eggs and Warung Ita's are fried and delicately sprinkled with a fine chilli coating. The potato cake (frikkadelle), a Dutch-influenced croquette, is lightly spiced with pepper and paprika. I'm surprised how much I like its pasty texture.

Mee goreng is clean and fresh, with the noodles cut short to help you eat them easily. The flaky, fried vegetable pastries are devilishly nice-but-naughty parcels that melt in your mouth.

My favourites end up being the silky, almost custard-like grilled chilli eggplant and the popping-fresh sambal.

In Indonesia, a warung often has outdoor seating and is usually open late, always casual and most likely to be a family-run business. Warung Ita is most of these things, except it doesn't have an outdoor area.

Whitish tiles with a craquelure surface cover the floor, a wash of blue paint streaks various spots and the chairs are serviceable. Families of young and old and men of various ages and attire relax at Sunday lunch. We hang around long enough to see a plate of sate sticks go past and can't help ask what we're missing. Our hostess covers her mouth with the end of her scarf and giggles. "Tongue," she says and is amazed that we want to try it.

The shiny, peanut gold sauce is salty and glutinous but works a treat against the earthy, smokiness of the grilled tongue. It's the sate padang and it's just like Warung Ita. Don't judge by looks, because this eatery also works a treat.

FOOD&WINE

Weekend dining

WARUNG ITA

Shop 1, 168-172 Haldon

Street, Lakemba,

9740 5527

Daily 10am-6pm

Food

Home-cooked, warmly spiced Sumatran-style dishes. The chilli factor isn't that high.

Service

Order, help yourself to implements and your dishes will be served with a smile.

Atmosphere

Very Indonesian warung, with its warm welcome, chatter and basic set-up.

Value

Three dishes with noodles or rice for $10.50 and $9.50, a four-course, fixed-price meal for $9.50 and individual dishes for $6-$7.

Recommended dishes

Rice, beef rendang, chilli eggplant, potato cake, mee goreng, vegetable pastries, grilled chicken wings, sambal.