Man charged over Sydney cafe stabbing

A man has been charged over a stabbing in a shopping centre cafe in Sydney's southwest.

The 35-year-old allegedly stabbed a 50-year-old man in the chest in Bankstown City Plaza's Cafe Nho on Tuesday morning, police said.

The victim, who knew his alleged attacker, was taken to Liverpool Hospital in a serious condition and the 35-year-old was arrested at a nearby home.

The younger man has since been charged with malicious wounding and refused bail to appear in Bankstown Local Court on Wednesday.

A woman who works in the plaza told AAP that a customer walked into her restaurant saying that "somebody just got stabbed in the cafe next door to us".

"By the time I got out there, the injured man had already gone into the ambulance," the woman from Hai Yen Restaurant said.

When asked by AAP about the stabbing the manager at Cafe Nho declined to comment.