Review: Lufthansa Senator Café Munich (MUC)

As a coffee aficionado, the Lufthansa Senator Cafe in Munich remains one of my favorite airport lounges in the world because it is centered on good coffee. But there are other treats as well that distinguish this lounge from other MUC lounges and always make a visit worthwhile.

Lufthansa Senator Café Munich Review (MUC)

While United and Air Canada have since followed, it was Lufthansa who was first to open a café-style lounge concept over a decade ago. after being closed for two years during the pandemic, it is once again open and arguably better than ever.

This is a Star Alliance Gold lounge, so you will need Star Alliance Gold status in one of the Star Alliance member airlines in order to access this lounge. Business class passengers without status cannot use this lounge, which makes sense considering how tiny it is. It is called the Senator Café because “Senator” is the Star Alliance Gold tier in the Miles & More program.

This lounge is located in the Schengen Area of Franz Josef Strauss International Airport near Gate G28. It is open Monday thru Friday from 5:00 am to 9:00 pm.

The beauty of this lounge is the coffee. A beautiful machine and a nice blend of Lavazza espresso make for a beautiful cup of coffee. All types of espresso drinks are available or you can have a “regular” cup of coffee too (order an Americano). Even better, you can enjoy a glass of freshly-squeezed orange juice with your coffee. I was so happy I didn’t have that extra cup of coffee onboard my flight!

But while this lounge centers on coffee, there are other food items that keep with the café theme, including:

• fresh smoothies
• panini
• tiramisu and other cake
• whole fruit
• macarons
• gummy bears (the good German ones from Haribo)
• peanuts
• alcoholic drinks (beer and wine)
• charcuterie selection (with meats, cheeses, sun-dried tomatoes, and olives)
• Osso buco soup (served warm)

You can also create your own breakfast bowl.

This was at 4:45 pm – I love that this sort of thing is available later in the day.

The seating is deliberately quite limited. This is not a lounge to camp out in, but one to enjoy a quick bite to eat and then go. You can stand at the bar to drink coffee or there are other communal tables plus a handful of chairs inside the lounge.

This lounge has no restrooms.

CONCLUSION

The Lufthansa Senator Cafe in Munich earns a positive review for its superior coffee and high-quality food. Unless I am flying first class, this is my go-to lounge in MUC.

My original review, published on April 4, 2017, is below.

I was in Munich on Sunday with one thing on my mind—the Lufthansa Senator Café.

It is a Lufthansa lounge concept unique to Munich: a tiny lounge with barista-made coffee, fresh juices, smoothies, sandwiches and pastries. It feels like you are in a little restaurant and the lounge food is not available in other Lufthansa lounges.

So it was incredibly disheartening after promising my wife a nice cup of coffee to walk up to the lounge and find it is only opened Monday through Friday. Thus, you don’t get a review from a visit that’s a few days old, but this lounge is still worth knowing about.

Inside is one large room. A bar offers the coffee/juices/smoothies I mentioned above plus alcohol.

The food choices include delicious, fresh bakery items like croissants and muffins, sandwiches and petite salads.

Note that access is for Star Alliance Gold members only, so this is not a business class lounge. This is also necessary considering the small space and labor-intensive process of preparing all coffee by hand. Frankly, I was surprised the lounge was not busier when I was there (a Friday morning).

The Senator Lounges in Munich are very nice, but if you have a chance before your next flight, definitely check out the Café.  Hours are from 5AM – 9PM Monday thru Friday. There is no shower in this lounge, but complimentary T-Mobile Wi-Fi works very well. Location of the lounge is in Departures G (Schengen) near G28.