Little European Cafe

I’ve been there twice. And in winter, I miss this place even more. If you’re looking for hearty, well made, reasonable AND quick meal, go there. My favorite is chicken and mushroom in cream sauce. Borsch was fresh with tons of vegetables. Potatoes were just right with good amount of dill. Their meatballs with beef and carrots (I think) were a bit too garlicky for me. I haven’t tried their sweets yet. Nice clean décor. Their food does go 50% off after 5PM, but really, worth going right after the place is open for fresh food.

Small café that slides under the radar. Not really a destination for anyone outside the neighborhood, but if you do live around here it’s better than walking to either of the nearest Starbucks.

Ate lunch here for the first time, today. Very happy with food and service.
Located near South Center St. and South Union Ave in the same building as Friendly Food, Market and Deli. The café is clean with a warm décor. The food is buffet style served up and weighed by a woman behind a counter. Prices are reasonable. Three adults in our party paid a total of about $ 24.00 for a nice lunch. The selection of food was about 6 entrées, 3 or 4 sides and a selection of salads.
I had a pork meatball — delicious, some beef stew — mostly beef but very good, potatoes — tasty, sour cabbage salad — not very sour, but very good. I would describe the food as Eastern European comfort food. The flavors were all familiar but different form American comfort food.

The espresso is amazing. I’m not even that into coffee but the espresso drinks are just delicious. It’s really good quality.

The food was amazing! Surprised. We tried the pork stew and the chicken and mushroom. Both meat super tender… we loved the pork stew better. Also had potatoes which were yummy… and the cabbage pirosky was also good. Least favorite of the meal. And we topped it off with a their version of tiramisu… delicious! So good we brought pounds of pork and potatoes to go for the boys at home.

Terrific coffee and excellent customer service. The Boursch is as good as I’ve had (and my wife is Polish, so I know my Boursch) and the atmosphere is clean and neat.
We’ll be back again for a full lunch soon!

Had a great lunch here today. The lady behind the counter was great and the food delicious.
I’ll definitely make a trip back at some point.

Nice little find. Great atmosphere. We had two different soups, pelemeni, and cake. All was top notch. Will come back again.

Had the stuffed peppers and some potatoes, all were wonderful and very hearty. So good, if only they had beer on hand to wash it down!
I’ll definitely be back!

Delicious little café. Glad I stopped and will be going back again. Soon.
I had two of the cabbage pirosky and potatoes plus an éclair. All for $ 7.75 with tax. Not too bad.
Really nice little place and I hope word spreads on this place. I’d like it to stay around a while.

This place has been high on our list of places to try after reading what the TNT and other Unilocalers have written. We stopped by this afternoon for a little lunch/​dinner and I am so glad we did.
I had the meatballs, which should more appropriately be called meat footballs. They were flavorful, pan-​friend on the outside, and crumbly on the inside. I only had a few on my first go around, but next visit I’ll make them the centerpiece of my meal. I also had some potatoes in some kind of cream sauce, but not in an overwhelming way. The sauce didn’t have much flavor, but that was a good thing. It made for creamy potatoes, but without a flavor that overwhelmed my other food choices.
I had a piroshky with meat, and I was’t overly impressed. The filling was tasty, but the bread was a little too sweet for me. It was nicely fried, and there was a good proportion of filling to bread, but it just wasn’t my favorite.
Best part, the whole meal, for two of us, came to just over $ 10. For two. And we were full. Fantastic.

Good place to go eat Russian food. The prices are even better. One pirogi costs about 1.69 $. I’ll definitely go back there really soon.

JOY!!! Hot and ready piroshky in Tacoma??? I’m THERE! I stumbled upon this place accidentally, and I am so happy that I did!
LEC is a totally classy café, with hot and ready eastern European food available to eat in or to go. There is a teeny wait for vereniki and pelmeni, but I am talking 15 minutes, no biggie. There is also a mouthwatering selection of pastries available. The ONLY downside is that the place was absolutely empty when I went in (on my lunch break at noon) That is worrisome and its definitely not for lack of good food, or a nice place to sit. I will definitely be back, and I hope you will too!!!

Jay totally summed it up with the first review. Perfectly I might add. This place is great. Very nice setup inside. Great European food. Great pricing. I mean, REALLY great pricing. I think the fried meat Piroshky I ordered was a total of 1.69. (I don’t know what type of meat it was, but whatever it was, it was delicious!) This is THE BEST item of food that I have ever bought for 1.69! Period! Then to try something new, I bought a can of Brazilian soda for .99 (I figured, I’m here to try something new, so I might as well try a new beverage as well instead of a Coke) and that tasted pretty good as well. It tasted kind of like a Lime Juaritos with more of a Amazonian flavor! Ok, that was stupid.
But Jay is right, this place was a ghost town of a restaurant. It still has the grand opening sign up, and I am already worried about it shutting down anytime now due to a lack of customers. I just went to check it out on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Prime lunchtime, and there was only one person inside just having a coffee. Check out this place while it’s still here. I wish them the best as we need places like this in Tacoma. I just wish that I had ordered more food. I think… I will be heading back tomorrow to try out some more items.

To the point: pelmeni! piroshky! borsch! cakes! espresso! Super well priced! Decent décor, well lit and clean! Are you still here? Get going!
There’s nothing like true serendipity.
While walking into Friendly Foods to buy a fix of pierogies for my kids, I noticed that the space next door was finally occupied. A coffee shop? A bakery? What is this?
A full blown European Café…
…just sitting there, void of patrons, tons of food, nice seating, espresso and a full case of salads and desserts…
Empty.
A few people straggled in for coffee while I stared at the steam table and menu in wonderment. Is this in Tacoma?
This place should be busy… like, really busy… because it is cheap, yummy, decently decorated, has good coffee to go with a nice selection of treats and is in the middle of a busy part of Center Street. What gives??? Well, I’m here to get the word out!
EUROPEAN SOUL FOOD!!! COME AND GET IT BEFORE IT’S GONE!!!
Yes — this is down home, Eastern European soul food… not some modern/​nouvelle cuisine. Foods at the steam table seem to be sold for about $ 5.99 per pound. The day I lucked into this place, they had a beef stew, chicken with mushrooms, meatballs and assorted sides. I had «wheat» (that’s what the counter woman called it) for a side dish — which seemed akin to farina or grits and it was well seasoned, tasty, toothsome and filling. I ate it with meatballs, which I believe were pork. They were a little larger than an average meatball and football shaped. They’d been made with love: browned and then possibly baked and still decently moist coming out of the steam table. They were just a shade salty, so the «wheat» really helped balance the flavors. I paid just over $ 6 for my portion and was stuffed.
Borsch and meatball soups are available, cafeteria style — only $ 2.50 for a serving!
On my TO DO list next week, return for pelmeni! They have pelmeni and vareniki apparently, and I intend to learn the difference firsthand. At only $ 5 a serving, I will be fat, happy, and still have cash!
The espresso we had was solid. It’s not knockout, designer style a la Valhalla or Metronome… but it is very good, especially to accompany the copious selections in the pastry case!!! Cream horns, cakes, rolls, eclairs, etc… I’m very scared of the weight I may gain doing research! (all in the name of Unilocal,of course)