By Caroline Foreman, bondirestaurants.com

The Unbearable Lightness of Being was one of my all-time favourite films. The title always intrigued me, but now I know it was just Milan Kundera being ironic. Nobody who eats Czechoslovakian food can have lightness of being. And, contrary to this restaurant's name, I don't think there are very many hungry Czechs around either. One dumpling will set you up for at least the next few days. The meal that we had should see us through the next three weeks.

This is a brand new Czech Beer Café, only three days old when we visited, but with a wealth of good old-fashioned, traditional culinary know-how behind it. The restaurant is filled with intense home-made, slow-cooking aromas. The food is rich and hearty, and certainly looks traditional. (Though what would I know? There wasn't a whole lot of food in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and neither the Czech Republic nor Slovakia have made it into my passport yet.) But the Czech national and the two Polish tourists who shared our table seemed to be favourably impressed.

The menu starts with a selection of Beer Lover's Delights, a range of snacks to have while you're drinking a beer. The home-made leanest presswurst with onion vinaigrette ($8.50) sounded tempting, but we decided on the Vienna sausage with rye bread and mustard ($8.50). It comprised a big basket of rye bread, two lovely smoky sausages, a Dijon style mustard, horseradish and a cucumber and tomato salad (probably with that onion vinaigrette.) Quite delicious. And quite filling, too.

There were also Prague Sausages (pic on right) ($8.50), Polish Sausages ($8.50), home made potato pasta with sauerkraut and smoked speck ($13.50) and toasted dumplings with scrambled eggs, bacon and salad ($12.50). You could very happily get away with a few beers, a couple of Beer Lover's delights and feel very well fed.

The Czech's meal arrived. It looked like the Chicken Paprikash ($16.50), and he was enjoying it thoroughly. One of the Polish girls tried it, and seemed to be completely surprised that it was good, leaving me to wonder if there was a Polish/Czech rivalry regarding their food.

The Polish girls had both ordered the Svicka ($16.50) – 'traditionally braised beef with finest Vegetables sauce and cranberry'. It came with a dob of cream and a slice of lemon, and was flanked by four huge slices of dumpling. Other dishes included goulash, duck (pre-ordering recommended) and, from the Bondi Grill, a range of steaks, with mash and salad.

Also from the Bondi Grill came Henry's Gypsy Smoked Pork Steak (pic on right) ($14.50), a chunky, smoky ham steak, with buttery mashed potato, sauerkraut, and the chunky tomato and cucumber salad.

Mine was the Veprovka, slow-cooked roast pork with bread dumplings and sauerkraut (pic on right) ($16.50). The soft, fluffy slices soaked up the rich fatty juices beautifully, and the sauerkraut was tangily sour (which doesn't sound nice, particularly, but it tasted nice, and when it comes down to it, the word sauerkraut doesn't sound nice either, but is. If you like sauerkraut that is!)

The only problem was that after all the beer and Beer Lover's delight, we could only eat about half our dinner before the incredibly heaviness of being set in. We couldn't even begin to think about dessert ($6.50), though the dessert cabinet looked intriguing.

If you're hungry, the Hungry Czech is a good place to go. The food's well-priced, well-made, and filling, and the service and other patrons are very friendly. But don't go if you're not in the mood for eating. They don't call it the Hungry Czech for nothing…

By Henry O'Donovan, bondirestaurants.com

The first thing I noticed about this little restaurant were its staff. The waitress who served us knew virtually no English, which I found quite appealing - authentic, if you know what I mean. This place has only been open three days, just like our website. It said they accepted credit cards on the window, but - as we later found out, they didn't! At least - not yet!

After our meal we had to run to a cash machine to get real money out. We admired their trust in that we would not do a runner, but I guess they had no choice!

It was very hot inside, so I decided we should sit outside, and Caroline politely let me, considering how windy it was! The waitress was back in less than 2 minutes asking us what we wanted. This was one quick chick! We were not ready. This menu was quite a challenge! She brought us drinks, a beer for Caroline and a glass of water for me. About two minutes later she was back asking us what we wanted to order. Crikey, I thought, this lady should be running a poker table at a casino! Again we politely asked if she could wait. And she politely said that was okay. In fact it struck me at how polite all the staff were. I'm thinking she was very keen as it was only their third day.

So we're sitting outside this little cafe, alongside a throng of Sunday revellers walking, running, skating, cycling, bussing, driving and cycling past our very noses. The wind was ferocious and I was getting a bit nervous about asking Caroline if we could go back indoors, as we had just moved outside. I figured the waitress would have assumed we were totally NUTS, given we couldn't decide what to eat after 7 and a half seconds of seeing the menu.

Then these two Czech guys, big brawly fellas they were, charged upon the other end of our table with two girls from Poland. "Can we sit here?", they demanded in a customary rogish european way. "Of course", I said, not wanting to risk the result of any other answer I might give. But they were a jolly lot. They had the wine flowing instantly, along with beer, and water. Perhaps they knew how to answer the questions of the waitress faster than us, or perhaps it was because they spoke the same language? I'm not sure where they found the girls, but the girls were very quiet. Almost frail, but could they eat! They ate three times faster than me and the same amount I would cover in possibly three days. Perhaps they were just hungry. After all they were at "The Hungry Czech". Maybe they felt obliged? One of the guys left, and then there were three. Three of them and two of us.

And so the food, wine, beer, and cigarettes all merged with the conversation in an oh-so European way. I was quite beside myself at the skills by the Czechs - not to mention the Polish, both boy and girls - to drink, eat and smoke all at the same time. What a skill. And they did it with such indifference, as if they had been triple-tasking these activities all their lives. Oh yeah. Of course they have. Those Europeans!

Our snacks arrived in style, after which did the main courses. You can read all about that on the left column where Caroline has done a whizz of a description.

Without a speckle of warning we were surrounded with about seven people standing around our table, all Czech. They knew the people at our table and proceeded to converse at decebels that made the traffic roar seem like a whimper. I was surely in Prague, was I not?

But the wind was getting the better of me and I thought we had better be going, but not for the wanting. We enjoyed our first restaurant visit for the website and we sauntered home, chatting about the evening and feeling a lot the better for the unique experience we had at the Hungry Czech.