Café Kunstverein – A laid-back breakfast experience in Frankfurt’s Altstadt

My parents recently visited me in Frankfurt and I thought it would nice to have Sunday breakfast somewhere in the city center. As in many urban centers around the world, Sunday brunch is particularly popular. There are a couple of great options in Frankfurt, however, the places are rather limited compared to the large and constant growing demand. Consequently, it is quite difficult to get a place and one needs to reserve well in advance. An alternative to the brunch-craze is to visit a café that has à-la-carte breakfast. I even prefer this to a brunch, if the brunch ends up being organizational difficult.

I decided to visit the cozy café of the Frankfurter Kunstverein (‘art association’). It is an art café that offers to be a meeting point for the creative class. It is its own little institution, where local prominence meets just like the average Frankfurter. At the same time, it is very unpretentious. It is in a notable pretty building in the middle of the Altstadt, Frankfurt’s historic center. It is notable especially when the Kunstverein offers a platform for artists to attach pieces of art on its building, which is frequently the case. The building has great large windows on the ground floor which give way to the view on the surrounding Altstadt and the passersby exploring it. Because of its location, it is great to go with visitors. It is just around the corner of the Römer, the heart of the Altstadt. Next to it grows the new Old Town, where Frankfurt reconstructs a large chunk of its pretty Altstadt that was lost in the bombings of World War 2. Once the charming little streets connecting the Römer with the Cathedral are finished, the Café Kunstverein will sit in a prominent location at the entrance to this new area.

Sunday morning seems to be a nice time to visit. It is not crowded at all, in fact, it has a very relaxed and laid-back atmosphere. That was excellent for a slow breakfast. We ordered a couple of different versions of eggs benedict, which came in a beautiful presentation. The perfectly poached egg was served on a crunchy bun. Most importantly, it was nicely garnished with plenty of vegetables and some herbs. My dad ordered a more classical continental European breakfast. He got a basket of bread and an again beautifully arranged plate of cold meats, cheese and vegetables as well as a few fruits. The food was very fresh and the coffee was good as well. Overall, this is an excellent option for a Sunday breakfast that I will definitely do again.

Style: Café

Cuisine: Coffee and breakfast

Location: Altstadt

Website: http://cafe.fkv.de/index.php?article_id=138&clang=0

Three Vietnamese food places in the Bahnhofsviertel

The Bahnhofsviertel in Frankfurt is the place to discover interesting exotic cuisine. For example, there is no shortage of Asian restaurants in this part of the city. In fact, basically all of Asia is covered, from Persian to Indian and Chinese and Japanese. In this environment it is not surprising to also find plenty of good South-East Asian food places around. Very popular is usually Vienamese cuisine with its stingy flavors. I here present you three of my favorites, which I find all equally good. However, the list is not exhaustive. I am sure there are even more and possibly better Vietnamese restaurants all over the city.

The first is called Petits Lam Frères (link). It does sound French, but it is a really great Vietnamese restaurant. I visited already quite a while ago, but I am thinking of going again, because I had great memories about the food. I had a Vietnamese noodle soup Pho, which is a classic choice. It came with extremely fresh and tasty vegetables and spices on the side. The side vegetables were placed a separate plate, which added a little extra fun in that I could choose which vegetables and how much of it I want to through in my soup. My wife went for the spring rolls. This came also with a fun twist. She had to roll the spring rolls herself. She received the necessary equipment and the ingredients. Without prior knowledge of how to do it, it looked a bit tricky. But after some explanations from the waiter, she managed, more or less, to roll some rolls. It was definitely fun and tasty.

Another interesting place is Sapores (link). It wants to offer Saigon street food variations. It is a trendy small shop right at Kaiserstraße, very close to Frankfurt’s central station. The menu is intriguing, offering a large variety of spring rolls and snacks, Pho and other noodle soups as well as rice based dishes. I tried a rice-noodle soup and it was good. I think, the spring rolls looked a bit better though. In my opinion, Sapores is aiming very high in serving traditional Vietnamese flavors to their customers, yet they seem to have little confidence in the German taste buds. I would not have minded if the taste is stronger, stingier, spicier.

Finally, another Vietnamese I recently visited is Pho Ngon Noodle Bar (link) on Moselstraße. It is a tiny trendy-looking place just off Kaiserstraße. The menu offers more than Pho, but I advise to stick to either the noodle soup or the spring rolls in this restaurant. I visited the place a few times now and usually had good, tasty, fresh food. Last time though, I chose to try the curry. It was not very flavorful and mostly filled with potatoes. This was a bit boring and again, I think, they make the mistake of not having the confidence in offering more spicy dishes to the German costumers. Anyway, this restaurant has two big plus factors. One, the presentation of food is great and two, the home-made lemonade is fantastic.

Style: Casual eatery/Dinner

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Location: Bahnhofsviertel