Nestled in the wilderness of the C Gates of Frankfurt is a fairly innovative Lufthansa lounge called the Bistro Lounge.
Lufthansa Bistro Lounge Frankfurt Review (FRA)
I visited this lounge prior to my flight to Kenya.
An A380 Lounge
This lounge was designed with the Airbus A380-800 in mind. It is an upstairs lounge and has direct boarding gates which, in their heyday, were intended to board the upper deck (first class and business class, with a small economy class in the very rear) of an A380 directly from the lounge. Lufthansa parked its A380 during the pandemic and has now brought them back in Munich only, so this part of the lounge really represents wasted space.
Hours + Access + Location
You will find the Bistro Lounge in departure area C of Terminal 1, between gates C14 and C15. It is open daily from 7:30 am to 10:00 pm. This is a business lounge, so access is available to:
- Star Alliance business class passengers
- Star Alliance Gold members traveling in any class of service on a Star Alliance flight
- Miles&More Frequent Traveler (Star Silver) members
Eurowings Discover uses this part of the airport and happened to be the carrier I was traveling. Eurowings Discover is not part of Star Alliance so technically there is no lounge access except for business class passengers. However, an exception is made for Miles & More and United MileagePlus Star Gold members, who do enjoy access.
Seating
At 8:00 pm, the lounge was mostly empty and included a number of seating options, including couches (with tables built in to prevent sleeping), wing chairs, and round tables with wooden chairs. The lounge has a modern feel and the green plants add some color. For such a new lounge (it opened in 2019), there are not enough power ports, but since the lounge was so empty I quickly found one.
Food + Drink
The “bistro” concept of this lounge is not barista-made coffee like the Senator Café in Munich, but really the design of the food and drink area, which feels more like a kitchen and less like a buffet.
Beyond the design, I did not see any unique elements to the menu in this lounge that you would not find in other Lufthansa Business lounges. There were various types of bread and cake, an arugula salad with toppings, a lentil dish with rice, cheese soup, and a wide selection of sweet and salty treats in jars.
Perhaps the unique element was the ramen bar, though it looked quite picked over to me.
Drinks were self-serve including coffee (from Lavazza), beer, wine, juice, water, and a generous selection of tea.
There was also a respectable selection of stronger liquor.
Restrooms + Showers
The lounge has restrooms, though it does not have showers.
CONCLUSION
Time did not permit me to compare this lounge to the Senator Lounge next door, but I liked the design and thought the kitchen concept is a good one. That said, a bistro lounge more like the Senator Cafe in Munich would have been appreciated. Still, this is a solid Lufthansa lounge at Frankfurt.
Lufthansa lounges are the worse! No atmosphere or comfort. There is very little food and not good. This “Bistro” lounge is no different
Compared to US Lounges they seem pretty good to me. Senator lounges have a little better food options. Even compared to Singapore lounges I like them a lot. The only lounges I liked better from the design are Centurion Lounges but the food is not any better.
In my opinion the best lounges are in Zürich from Swiss or Senator Lounge in Vienna. Both from the LH group.
Where LH is unmatched is the level of first class lounges.
I do agree that the business class on the planes is too old, the lounges are better then most.