The tacos at Café Luuc are piled high with roasted cauliflower, smashed avocado, greens, red-and-white cabbage, pomegranate seeds and a spicy orange mayonnaise. The café in Saarbrücken, Germany, features mostly vegan and vegetarian cuisine. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
Roughly two decades ago while living in northern Japan, I once drove two hours to get a coffee drink at Starbucks because there were no coffeehouse chains in Misawa, where I was working at the time.
But with the ascendance of specialty coffee shops that can fulfill my longings for a latte or a frappuccino, I would not have to be on the road for even five minutes nowadays.
I would, however, drive exactly 48 minutes from my home outside the German city of Kaiserslautern for a pumpkin spice latte at Café Luuc in Saarbrücken.
This wasn’t supposed to be a story about coffee, though. I initially went there to check out the food, enticed by the restaurant’s vibrant Instagram photos of creamy tomato risotto, Belgian waffles drizzled with chocolate sauce and a golden-hued pumpkin soup with a side of homemade flatbread.
The menu of mostly vegetarian and vegan dishes reminded me of Amsterdam’s food scene, where restaurants with a focus on plant-based ingredients are much easier to find than they are in the hinterlands of western Germany.
This New York Lotus cheesecake topped with crumbled Biscoff cookie pieces is one of several desserts at Café Luuc, a restaurant with a focus on vegetarian and vegan cuisine in Saarbrücken, Germany. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
The lunch I had checked the boxes of delicious, filling and healthy. Two softshell tacos were piled high with roasted cauliflower, smashed avocado, greens and red-and-white cabbage, topped off with pomegranate seeds and a spicy orange mayonnaise.
I took home a hefty container of hummus with pomegranate seeds, spring onions, sesame seeds and chili flakes, which tasted so much better than any store-bought variety.
The quality of both items rivaled anything in the vegetarian cuisine lineup one might find in Europe’s bigger cities. Unfortunately, so did the prices.
Two tacos were 15.50 euros, or about $9 per taco with the currently abysmal exchange rate. The portions were large enough, however, to share with another person — if no one in the party is starving.
The hummus plate, which came with homemade flatbread, was one of the cheaper lunch options at 12.90 euros. The portion was generous — about twice as large as a grocery store hummus container.
The hummus at Café Luuc in Saarbrücken, Germany, makes a great to-go snack. It comes with homemade flatbread and is ample enough to share. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
But extras such as falafel, avocado, caramelized onion, a poached egg or crispy tofu cost an additional 1.90 to 3.90 euros apiece. If you add drinks or dessert, a meal at Café Luuc can quickly top 20 to 25 euros per person.
But apparently enough people don’t mind paying those prices, as the restaurant has expanded to three branches in the region since the Saarbrücken location opened in 2019.
The Café Luuc in Karlsruhe followed suit in 2020, and then came the third one, in Mannheim, in 2024.
The café has also gained some favorable attention for its fare. Last year, the gourmet magazine Falstaff named the location I visited the fifth-most-popular vegetarian restaurant in western Germany based on a community survey.
The café stands out for its ease in ordering and wide variety. Menu items list all ingredients and note whether something is vegetarian, vegan and/or gluten-free. Items that can be made vegan or gluten-free on request are so designated as well.
Plants hang from the ceiling at Café Luuc, a vegetarian and vegan restaurant in Saarbrücken, Germany. The cozy café serves breakfast all day. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
Breakfast is available all day, and the especially health-conscious will likely be excited by the variety of smoothies and salad bowls.
A tapas platter for two, available after 3 p.m. and popular among online reviewers, includes olives, hummus, tomato butter, a homemade curry-date spread, sun-dried tomatoes, flatbread, whipped feta, goat cheese, fig mustard, red-and-white cabbage salad and salted almonds.
Besides coffee fare, other drink options include homemade sodas — in flavors of orange, lemon and grapefruit — alcoholic cocktails, chai and other hot teas.
From the selection of homemade desserts, I recommend the New York Lotus cheesecake topped with crumbled Biscoff cookie pieces and crust. The Biscoff garnish jazzed up the cheesecake with just the right amount of sweetness.
The pumpkin spice latte at Café Luuc in Saarbrücken, Germany, blends velvety foam and subtle flavor without being too sweet. The café has a separate beverage menu, which includes teas, coffee, cocktails, smoothies and homemade sodas. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
And what about that pumpkin spice latte? It was one of six “Luuc specials,” the others being cinnamon matcha latte; speculoos cappuccino; pistachio vanilla matcha; an immunity boost latte with almond milk, spices and ginger; and an Italian shakerato.
That last one, a summertime favorite in Italy, is a cold drink containing espresso, sugar and ice. The café’s version is a mix of espresso, frothy coconut milk, raw cane sugar, ice cubes and mint.
The sheer variety made the decision difficult, but I had no regrets about my selection. The pumpkin spice latte was superb, with a smooth velvety foam, just a hint of pumpkin and cinnamon — and not syrupy sweet like the seasonal one at Starbucks.
And despite the price of 6.90 euros, I was so smitten that I would make a special trip to Saarbrücken just to have another one.
Café Luuc in Saarbrücken, Germany, has been serving vegetarian and vegan cuisine since 2019. Last year, it was named a favorite vegetarian restaurant in the region by Falstaff, a gourmet magazine. The café also has locations in Mannheim and Karlsruhe. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
Café Luuc
Location: Türkenstrasse 17, Saarbrücken, Germany
Hours: Sunday through Wednesday, 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m.-10 p.m.
Cost: Breakfast entrées, which are served all day, start at 11.90 euros and go up to 29.90 euros for a breakfast platter for two.
Phone: +49-681-9388-5265
Online: cafeluuc.de/luuc-cafe-saarbruecken; www.instagram.com/cafeluuc
