My Treats ← Food Identity portal
Search restaurants About Methodology Contact
Food Identity by My Treats Researched
A-kwartier · Groningen · Netherlands

Brussels Lof

A pioneering vegetarian restaurant in a 17th-century Groningen building, where the daily menu is shaped by the chef's own organic kitchen garden, wild foraging, and North Sea fish.

The essentials, at a glance

◐
Impact score
2 - Engaged
→
Documented practices
Local sourcing
Seasonal cooking
Plant-forward menu

Cuisine
Mediterranean

The delicious details

Brussels Lof has served vegetables and fish from a 17th-century building in Groningen's A-kwartier since 1981, when it became the city's first restaurant to centre its menu on vegetables. More than four decades later, the no-meat commitment remains unchanged.

Chef-owner Bob ten Brinke grows much of his produce in a one-hectare organic kitchen garden with greenhouse, tended by gardener Arjen, and supplements the harvest with wild plants and mushrooms foraged from the Wadden Sea coast and surrounding woods. Fish comes from small-boat North Sea fishermen; the cheese fondue has been a fixture for nearly forty years.

Menu
What's on the table, and what's left off

The monthly-changing menu centres on seasonal vegetables from the kitchen garden and wild foraging, supplemented by North Sea fish and a signature cheese fondue with house-made honey. Every vegetarian dish can be prepared vegan on request, and an organic natural-wine list features small European producers.

Cuisine
Mediterranean
Dietary options
Vegetarian options
Vegan-friendly
Dairy-free options
Impact score
How this restaurant rates
2 - Engaged

Brussels Lof draws the majority of its vegetable supply from a one-hectare organic kitchen garden managed by a dedicated gardener, supplemented by wild foraging in the woods and along the Wadden Sea. Fish is sourced from small-boat North Sea fishermen, though no named supplier or MSC certification has been identified.

No formal sustainability certifications are held, and no specific waste reduction, composting, or energy practices have been documented in public sources.

The restaurant offers guests educational garden workshops and foraging walks, connecting diners with food production, but structured social impact programmes have not been identified.

The impact dimensions
Local & direct sourcing✓
Seasonal cooking✓
Social impact
Plant-forward menu✓

Chef grows significant vegetables in his own one-hectare kitchen garden with greenhouse; fish comes from small-boat North Sea fishermen.

Chef Bob ten Brinke grows a significant share of the restaurant's vegetables in a one-hectare organic kitchen garden with year-round greenhouse, managed by named gardener Arjen. He supplements this with wild plants, flowers, and mushrooms foraged from the surrounding woods and the Wadden Sea coast, and keeps beehives on site for honey used in dishes.

Fish is sourced from North Sea fishermen using smaller boats; the kitchen maintains relationships with multiple fish buyers to ensure freshness. These practices are independently corroborated by multiple sources.

Strongest sourcevisitgroningen.nl ↗

The monthly-changing menu follows seasonal garden and foraged ingredient availability throughout the year.

The menu is consistently described as 'regularly changing' across multiple sources, and seasonal availability is a defining keyword in all official listings. The greenhouse enables year-round growing, but the restaurant follows what the kitchen garden and foraged sources produce each season.

Chef Bob forages seasonally — mushrooms in autumn, sea herbs in spring and summer — and menu items reflect seasonal availability such as pumpkin, artichoke, and chicory.

Strongest sourcevisitgroningen.nl ↗

The restaurant offers educational harvest workshops and guided foraging walks connecting guests to food production.

The restaurant offers educational garden workshops where guests can harvest their own produce, confirmed by The Green List. Chef Bob invites guests to join foraging walks in the woods and along the Wadden Sea coast.

The restaurant hosts occasional art exhibitions in its 17th-century interior, contributing to the local cultural scene, and co-owns the Bob Kookt deli with Harmen Tijssen, which opened in July 2022.

Strongest sourcethegreenlist.nl ↗

Vegetables form the menu's foundation; fish and cheese are co-featured, with every vegetarian dish available vegan on request.

Brussels Lof was founded in 1981 as Groningen's first vegetarian restaurant and has never served meat. The name itself references a vegetable (lof = chicory). Vegetables and cheese form the core of the menu, with fish added as a secondary element.

Every dish on the menu can be prepared in a vegan version on request, including the signature cheese fondue with advance notice; cheese is made without animal rennet.

Strongest sourcehappycow.net ↗
Sourcing signals
✓
Own-grown produce

Chef Bob maintains a one-hectare organic kitchen garden with greenhouse and manages beehives on site; he supplements this with personal foraging from surrounding woods and the Wadden Sea coast.

Visit & practical info
Address, price, and more
Address
Akerkstraat 24, 9712 BG Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
Open in Google Maps ↗
Price
€€
Hours
MondayClosed
Tuesday17:30–21:30
Wednesday17:30–21:30
Thursday17:30–21:30
Friday17:30–21:30
Saturday17:30–21:30
SundayClosed
Web
brusselslof.com
Reviewed by My Treats
Last reviewed 13 Apr 2026
Reserve
Link copied
How we score
The My Treats impact scale

Every restaurant is assessed against SEERO, our six-dimension sustainability framework — covering sourcing, seasonality, waste, animal products, social impact, and plant-forward cooking. Each finding is weighted by how strongly it is corroborated. The combined result is translated into a planet rating from 1 to 5.

The five levels

SEERO is an acronym for Starting, Engaged, Endorsed, Recognised, Outstanding:

Starting First verified signals of sustainable practice.
Engaged Credible practice across two dimensions.
This place
Endorsed Meaningful practice across three or more dimensions.
Recognised Strong practice across four or more dimensions, with independent corroboration.
Outstanding Top-tier practice, confirmed by recognised third-party audit.

How a level is reached. Each level needs two things together: a minimum number of dimensions covered, and a minimum overall strength of evidence across them. A dimension only counts once its evidence is specific and substantiated — a passing mention doesn't qualify. Meeting only one of the two keeps a restaurant a level lower.

Ratings of four or five planets require human validation and, at the top tier, an external audit. Scores are based on publicly available evidence and restaurant submissions at the time of assessment.

Full methodology→
Impact dimension
—
How this dimension works
—
How evidence is weighted
Self-declared Stated by the restaurant on its website, menu or in a submission. Plausible, but not yet independently corroborated.
Researched Found through independent research; one credible third-party source backs the claim.
Vouched Corroborated across more than one independent source. Some gaps may remain.
Audited Fully corroborated across independent sources or by a recognised third-party certification.
What the sourcing checkmarks mean
✓ Full check — independently verified: corroborated across more than one source, or audited / third-party certified (vouched or audited).
✓ Light check — self-declared or from a single source. Not yet independently verified.
About• Contact• Methodology•