A German DFAC? Furniture store restaurant offers a familiar meal experience

This restaurant review is brought to you by a dining set purchase. Yes, you read that right.

Now before anyone thinks I went to the Möbel Martin furniture store in Kaiserslautern to test an Ikea competitor’s culinary chops, that wasn’t it. Swedish meatball supremacy is safe.

The Stars and Stripes office is on Kleber Kaserne, part of a cluster of small Army bases on the far eastern end of the Kaiserslautern Military Community in Germany. The restaurant options at Kleber and the other nearby bases are, to put it charitably, quite sparse.

So the chance to branch out is generally welcome. It just so happened that my recent venture to do that was at Restaurant Toscana, a cafeteria-style place in the aforementioned home furnishings purveyor about five minutes from base.

The entrance to Restaurant Toscana in Kaiserslautern, Germany, can be challenging to find. It's on the top floor of Möbel Martin, but it’s easy to miss in the vast furniture store and lacks eye-catching signage. (David Edwards/Stars and Stripes)

I was meeting a friend who was seeking my opinion on the various possibilities. After the paperwork was done and dusted, she asked if I wanted to check out the restaurant. Since I didn’t know what she was talking about, I said “sure, why not?”

It was closed at that time of day, but realizing that my turn on the restaurant review schedule was bearing down, I went back the following week and carried a sheet of coupons my friend had picked up.

Although they had expired, one pictured a Thai curry dish with rice that looked appetizing. When I browsed the menu on the day of my arrival, however, it was heavily laden with a schnitzel assortment. Maybe that was an omen, since an excursion to Vienna was just two days away.

A tray at Restaurant Toscana in Kaiserslautern, Germany, is filled with a plate featuring a large schnitzel and scalloped potatoes, alongside a glass container of mixed vanilla and chocolate pudding. The beverage shown is Orangina Rouge. (David Edwards/Stars and Stripes)

For the entree, I ordered the max schnitzel, a hefty hunk of breaded cutlet that came with a lemon slice for added flavoring. The side dish I picked was scalloped potatoes, and my drink choice was an Orangina rouge. I figured two bottles of the fruity red juice should cover it.

The schnitzel was no match for my appetite, and the slight zing of lemon juice helped take away my disappointment from the absence of the most appetizing dishes I’d seen in the coupons.

My main issue with the scalloped potatoes was that they were lukewarm. It was difficult to discern much about the flavor when the food temperature stuck out most. Then again, there were few alternatives.

One thing in particular really did catch my eye, though. The goodies in the dessert display case seemed to run the gamut and presented nearly a dozen examples of the famous German kuchen culture.

The only reason I didn’t add an item from there to my tray was, well, another bout of disappointment. The last remaining slice of a cake with white glaze and a walnut on top had a chunk missing from the bottom front portion.

That said, I probably would be willing to give Restaurant Toscana another chance on the pastry front. The offerings really were that tempting.

Restaurant Toscana offers a variety of desserts to satisfy customers’ sweet cravings, as shown by the selections displayed here. (David Edwards/Stars and Stripes)

Paintings of countryside scenes decorate the walls of Restaurant Toscana in the Möbel Martin furniture store in Kaiserslautern, Germany. The cafeteria-style eatery also offers a great overhead view of activity on the A6 autobahn. (David Edwards/Stars and Stripes)

Since I don’t want this review to give off total Debbie Downer vibes, there were some other things I liked about the place, one being the ambience. The spacious uppermost-floor setting is complemented by pleasant decor that includes wall paintings, and a gigantic window presents a great perch to automobile-watch as the autobahn A6 traffic does or doesn’t flow by.

Speaking of which, if you’re trying to find the restaurant while standing on the circular landings at the top of each escalator, good luck with that. You need to go to the north-facing side of the second floor and look for a corridor leading to a children’s play area and then Toscana.

With the similarity in procedure to the typical base dining hall, the eatery may appear a curious choice for a way to get out of the restaurant rut. I admit that at first it felt like a DFAC where everyone spoke German.

But that would be underselling it. Everyone has an off day now and then. Given that the coupons prove the existence there of dishes I really like, I’m not ready to remove my newfound option for workday lunch.

So next time, I will maybe just have a full slice of my desired cake and call it good. I don’t think that’s asking too much.

Restaurant Toscana

Address: Europaallee 21, Kaiserslautern, Germany

Hours: Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; breakfast served 10-11:15 a.m. Kitchen closes at 5:30 p.m.

Prices: Entrees roughly 13 to 18 euros. The combo of a slice of cake and a hot drink costs 4 euros, while the same combo with a torte is 5 euros.

Info: +49 068181010