Every city has its secret spots, off the tourist maps and patronised only by “in the know” locals. In Sydney, the No Name restaurant was one of those. Opened in 1954 by Joe and Cesare Machi to cater for Italian migrant workers on the nearby Woolloomooloo docks, it was owned for its last 30 years by Michael Scandiuzzo, who spent more than 50 years in the business. No Name was among Sydney’s oldest restaurants when it closed in 2017.

Originally with an entrance via the back stairs of the Arches café in Stanley Street (now one of East Sydney’s favourite eat streets), in its later years the restaurant was only accessible via a less-than-prepossessing rear door and stairway at No. 2 Chapel Street.

The menu was limited and far from fashionable. There was minestrone, two pastas – spaghetti bolognese or napoletana – as well as chicken or veal schnitzels, scaloppine, veal stew, and a few grills. All the main courses could be served as a “combo”, with a generous helping of spaghetti on the same plate. Salad was iceberg lettuce. As for drinks, the choices were bottomless servings of water or red cordial. Bread was free. The prices were certainly right. In 2016, pasta was $10, and the most expensive combo (with cheese) was $22.

No Name restaurant was popular throughout its tenure in Darlinghurst and only closed because, after 50 years, Scandiuzzo wanted to retire.  As late as 2016, reviews were enthusiastic. TimeOut wrote:

There ain’t nothing fancy about No Name but that’s just how the regulars like it. Take the stairs via the seedy back alley entrance and you’ll find yourself ejected into a starkly lit dining room packed tight with chipped Laminex tables. The standard menu hasn’t changed in decades, chalked up on a blackboard by the kitchen. Specials are scrawled in messy handwriting at the bottom. For the most part it’s rustic Italian, and by rustic we mean kick ass servings a growing teenage boy would struggle to get through, slapped onto original 1970s Corningware. Sure, the bolognese sauce on the mountain of spaghetti is a little on the greasy side but a good sprinkling of parmesan and an extra wedge of butter will make it that much better. The schnitzel comes in veal or chicken and is deep fried to a heart-clogging shade of dark brown… 

The Machi brothers moved on from Darlinghurst to open other restaurants. In 1988, The Sydney Morning Herald reviewed a No Names restaurant at the Friend In Hand Hotel in Glebe. It had the same menu as the original, but you could have a drink – in the case of the reviewer, a Tyrell’s Long Flat Red.  No Names was also at the Royal Hotel in Bondi but closed in 2018.

As of 2025, the No Names name persists, now at the Alexandria Erskineville Bowling Club.  The menu has expanded somewhat, but you can still get a pasta for $12, a mini-combo for $18 or a large combo (any main meal plus a pasta) for $27. Just the thing after an afternoon of barefoot bowling, but there are many who will miss the chipped laminex and back street vibe of the original.