Towards the end of the used-to-be-hip-but dead-of-late end of Norton St. in Leichhardt is a cool little joint called Vanilla Room. The place is a little worn but that adds to the charm of it. Also, don't be discouraged by the seemingly small space as you walk in, there's plenty of room upstairs (+ a quaint balcony).
It's got the best cocktails in Leichhardt (probably the inner west) and a wicked value-for-money tapas menu. Now unlike other places trying to pass off "small-dishes" as tapas and serving up a pathetically small amount of food on each plate and charging $20+ for each one, this place does $5-$12 plates and there is enough on each one to give a group of 4 a taste or, like us; a couple, a hearty bite. The Haloumi, Chorizo and Pear/Rocket/Parmesan salad are a great place to start but really just about anything on the menu is a good choice!
Tonight, for a final bill of about $60/pp, my partner and I ate 'til we were on the edge of comfortably full and stuffed (8 dishes in all). We drank 2 cocktails each, I had a starter cocktail which was a Caipiroska variant with Rasberry and Macadamia and my date had the Violent Femme, a wicked dessert-style cocktail with Baileys, French Chocolate and Violet Crumble. We also had 3 glasses of red ($9) between us. The price of the cocktails are reasonable @ $15 - if this place were in the cbd it would command 50% more $$$, but as it's in Leichhardt (down the quiet end), it's very affordable. read more