It's not new that Italian cuisine continues its dominance as one of the world's favourites. The universal nature of it is without equal. Mixing and matching around the staple that is pasta is the key to this. As a base ingredient with an incredible variety of shapes designed specifically to hold particular sauces, the potential for both classic and newly creative dishes is endless.

Italian food reigns supreme in every country and region all over the world. There are thousands of Italian restaurants in Australia. I think there may be even more in Switzerland. Recently a craving took hold and led me to seek a top Italian lunch, not your average trattoria with all the classics, but an Italian restaurant with expertly cooked, creative dishes elevated to a high level.

This led to me Paddington in Sydney's inner-east. Paddington is a beautiful suburb of grand, beautiful mid-century terrace houses, worth a fortune, in lovely winding wide leafy streets. A Sydney gem for those who can afford to live there.

My search took me to Elizabeth Street just off the main drag of Oxford Street. It was here, that I was spoiled for choice. For this one street is most unusual for housing some of Sydney's best restaurants. And, yep, they are Italian. All of them. This strikes me as quite odd.

There is no visual cues here to make you realise you have entered a heavily Italian zone. Nor is there a thriving Italian community in this pocket. The residents and the restaurant patrons are regular Sydneysiders and the usual smattering of domestic and international visitors.

A lovely small street of immaculate terraces and shopfronts that just happen to house some of the best innovative and well-executed Italian cuisine in the country. What is surprising is that the restaurants in question are all just a stone's throw from each other, offering the same dishes (or variations of) at the same price points.

What led a proliferation of Italian restaurants to take up residence along the one side of the one street, merely spitting distance away from one another? Are the folks of Paddington so hungry for Italian food that this was necessary?

Looking at the three restaurants that line the street, all are attractive and cozy, with some flourishes of Italian design and familar imagery such as vintage 60's Italian travel and liquor posters, black and white shots of the Amalfi coast or something that leans definite Italian here and there.

Barbetta, Cipri Italian and Civico 47 are all very popular restaurants. All serve up fine, well executed Italian cuisine, from the classic heavy-hitters to innovative dishes that place the restaurant into "better than your average neighbourhood Italian joint" territory.

Having dined at all three, I can say that there are great similarities on display, so much so that it would seem that there must be great competition between them. Barbetta and Cipri Italian are two that could almost be sisters. The rooms have similarities, both have typical, very Italian staff and above all else, both have many very close to identical dishes on offer.

For example, both restaurants have amongst their appetisers - Olives, Arancini, Brushetta, Foccacia, Carpaccio (or Crudo) and Salumi. Naturally there is pasta, and at least with that, enough variation to differ between them. But it's still pasta.

Main courses are where there is much cross-over. Both restaurants have a steak option, the classic Cotoletta (crumbed veal or pork), fish of the day, with the accompanying chips and salads.

There are differences in the additions to the main proteins and some sauce variations, but when you break the menus down, this is very much the same base food on offer.

The third restaurant, just a short hop down the same side of the road as these two, is Civico 47, the newest addition to the street and one that appears to have carefully considered the need for a point of difference. It is here that I chose to dine this fine day which sparked this article.

It's a lovely Italian restaurant, priding itself on a more creative side of Italian cuisine with clever, innovative dishes. Perusing the menu, however, with that fine tooth comb, once again the familar appears.

There is foccacia and EVOO to commence, salumi up front, cured ocean trout (hello crudo / carpaccio), as well as beef carpaccio, three pasta variations, the market fish of the day, lamb and duck (which also appear in various guises at the forementioned restaurants)

The chef talent and cooking skills naturally differ between establishments. But the raw ingredients and the dishes presented at all three are just variations on a very familiar theme.

So, Elizabeth Street in Paddington leans heavily to the lover of Italian cuisine. It also must be pointed out that the plethora of restaurants right throughout the suburb also have Italian focus. Breaking the menus down, even at the Modern Australian restaurants and the many pubs, the pasta is there, the steak is there, the Italianesque main courses of pork cutlet, veal and duck. The Paddington Inn houses Italian stalwart Il Baretto, 10 William Street packs in the punters nightly for more classic Italian food, and Vino e Cucina does the same. All are minutes walk from each other. Oh, Viva Italia!

The only thing missing is a prevalance of Italian flags. Take a look at this map of Paddington and surrounds. Almost every restaurant listed is Italian, or focused as such. Marta Osteria, Buon Ricordo, I Maccheroni, Cafe Nino, Christo’s…and the rest!

What if you didn’t like Italian food and you lived in Paddington! I do realise that very few people fall into this category. There is a distinct lack of other world cuisine on offer in the suburb, and that is odd. Sydney is a very multi-cultural city. Surely one’s palate would get jaded if you had to eat variations on Italian food all of the time.

It’s not just this street either. There are a dozen or so pizza places, every pub has pasta on the menu. It is endless. The suburb has a very European food focus, and clearly enough of the residents want this.

It's hard to question if the people want it and the food is as good as it is, with the service and the restaurant spaces as attractive as they are. I just feel it’s worthy to point out such an unusual situation and the investigation into the sameness of it all. Why go out of the way to change things if it's all humming along so well, right?

Well then, Ces't La Vie. Err... I mean Cosi e la vita!