LEUCHTENDROTER — Restaurant in Frankfurt

The food was fine and the pricing acceptable, but this is the only place I’ve encountered where using a foreign credit card incurs an additional fee. They charged us €8.50 without any prior notice. It’s unfair and feels deceptive, especially since the owner clearly knows about it but doesn’t display any warning. I find this practice highly questionable and borderline discriminatory. Posting this here to alert other foreign guests to watch out for this kind of treatment.

Updated Review after reading the response of the restaurant：

Thank you for your detailed reply. While I appreciate the effort to clarify your perspective, I’d like to point out that the issue wasn’t whether the foreign card surcharge was buried somewhere in a confirmation email — it’s about the lack of clear, upfront communication at the point of payment.

Most guests don’t comb through every line of an email before dining, nor should they be expected to anticipate additional hidden costs, especially one as significant as €8.50. Regardless of who absorbs what portion of the fee, transparency at the moment of payment is essential in hospitality.

As for the fact that we arrived as a group of three instead of four — we appreciated the flexibility, but that has no bearing on the feedback about the foreign card fee.

Resorting to technical explanations doesn’t strengthen your case — it merely shifts the attention away from the real issue: transparency and guest trust.

update:

Thank you for your update, but respectfully — I strongly disagree.

Being told at the moment of payment, after the meal is finished, to “confirm” a fee you can’t avoid, is not transparency — it’s cornering the guest with no alternative. Of course I confirmed and entered my PIN — what else was I supposed to do, walk out without paying? Or be forced to find a local ATM and withdraw cash in a foreign country just to avoid a surprise fee?

If this charge had been clearly stated upon arrival, or even mentioned before we sat down, I would’ve had the freedom to decide whether I wanted to dine at all. But in your current system, that choice is taken away from the guest.

Let’s be honest — agreeing to a fee under pressure isn’t consent, it’s compliance.

I’ve dined at many Michelin-starred restaurants around the world, and not one of them has made a habit of debating reviews or defending hidden fees. This was a first — and unfortunately, not a pleasant one.

please be aware of entering this restaurant and ASK the waiters for all the possible expenses in advance will be my advise to...

The food selection and quality was good, the place didn't look as I imagined from the website/Instagram page, was more upmarket than I thought it would be but still pleasant, nice touches (schnapps bottle on table) and nice decor/setting. However, what could have been a pleasant evening was ruined by the staff - the waitress kept going away quickly after one of us made an order, not waiting to hear the other's request. They were obviously busy and we had to wait some time in between dishes - this is fine as we knew everything was made fresh, but we kept being forgotten and felt that we were somehow 'bothering' the staff when they came to our table as they just seemed annoyed when we ordered. When we got to ordering dessert, the waiter explained that it was large enough for two people, but did not say that it would take some time to prepare. After approx. 40 minutes of waiting (by this point it had been 2.5 hours in the restaurant) I politely asked if we could cancel dessert as it had been almost one hour and could we pay, the waiter was a bit condescending and said 'it's actually been 30 minutes, and it gets prepared from scratch which is why it takes so long" - this is fine too, but they also could have told us that when we ordered and maybe offer an apology, but instead we felt bad for being there at that point. Once the dessert arrived we finished quickly, paid and left - we did not feel very welcomed and I'm not sure I'd go back in a hurry, which is a pity as the food was...

TOP NOTCH VEGAN BREAKFAST/BRUNCH!!

This is so far my absolute favorite vegan place for breakfast! Why so? Let’s get started!

THE SERVICE: deserves 5 from 5 stars! I was asked if I wanted the light or heavy breakfast, I decided to choose the heavy. I could not decide rather to start with the salty or sweet dishes first… so she recommended to surprise me with dishes one by one and if I liked it, I could just say so and order it again! PERFECT! Also! I never had to wait or ask for more food, it was noticed by the staff and I immediately received the next dish as I finished the last!

THE FOOD: Literally everything… everything was fresh, tasty and beautifully presented! From the soup, to the fresh bread and pesto, all the way to the French toast and porridge; absolutely fantastic!

COSTS: about 26€ per person for the full heavy breakfast offer. If you ask me, it was worth every single cent!

ENVIRONMENT/ATMOSPHERE: As you will see through my pictures, the restaurant offered a spacious and clean view. Creative pictures and paintings as well as nice tables and decoration filled the room. I do however recommend eating indoors! I saw how guests were annoyed outside with all the wasps that also wanted a taste of that delicious food. :)

All in all, I can say that this place flawlessly delivered at a high quality...