My Treats ← Food Identity portal
Search restaurants About Methodology Contact
Food Identity by My Treats Researched
Vogelenbuurt · Utrecht · Netherlands

Café Averechts

A volunteer-run neighbourhood café in Utrecht's Vogelenbuurt serving vegetarian, often fully vegan world-cuisine dinners, with all profits given to charity.

The essentials, at a glance

◐
Impact score
3 - Endorsed
→
Documented practices
Sustainable meat/fish plant-based kitchen
Social impact
Plant-forward menu

Style
Café
Casual
Cosy
Alternative
Cuisine
Asian
International
Good to know
Bar

The delicious details

Tucked into Utrecht's residential Vogelenbuurt, Café Averechts has been run entirely by volunteers for more than forty years. It is a neighbourhood café and pub built around a small stage, where open-mic evenings, live music, DJ nights, game nights and a monthly pub quiz give the place its easy, familiar rhythm.

The kitchen comes to life on Sunday, when volunteers cook a three-course vegetarian dinner that rotates through world cuisines and is frequently entirely vegan. Local craft beers and the café's own house brew sit alongside a well-stocked whisky shelf.

What sets Averechts apart is where the money goes: the profits and the tips are given to charities the volunteers choose themselves.

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

On Sunday evenings the volunteer kitchen serves a three-course vegetarian set menu at a modest fixed price, moving between Thai, Korean, Indian and Turkish themes from one week to the next. Dishes lean on vegetables and legumes, from dal and japchae to tempeh and pea, and the meal is often fully vegan from starter through to dessert. The kitchen cooks with organic ingredients wherever it can.

Cuisine
Asian
International
Dietary options
Vegetarian options
Vegan-friendly
Allergies handling

Notify the restaurant at booking; the kitchen accommodates allergies and intolerances on a per-booking basis.

Impact score
How this restaurant rates
3 - Endorsed

Café Averechts has confirmed strong practice in two areas of responsible hospitality.

Its whole food offering is vegetarian, and the rotating Sunday dinners are frequently fully vegan, built around vegetables and legumes rather than meat or fish, which places it firmly among plant-forward kitchens. Its social contribution is equally central: the café has been run by volunteers for over forty years, and the profits and tips are donated on a recurring basis to charities the team selects itself, while the venue serves as a genuine cultural and community hub for its neighbourhood.

The bar centres on local craft beers, including the café's own house brew.

The impact dimensions
Local & direct sourcing
Sustainable animal products✓
n/a
Social impact✓
Plant-forward menu✓

Local sourcing is evidenced through locally brewed craft beers and the café's own house brew; the kitchen states it uses organic ingredients where possible, but no named suppliers are identified.

Local sourcing is evidenced mainly through the drinks list — a rotating selection of locally brewed craft beers and the café's own house brew. For food, the Sunday kitchen states it uses organic ingredients 'as much as possible', but no named farms, growers or suppliers are identified in any channel, and local sourcing is not positioned as a stated kitchen value.

Strongest sourceaverechts.nl ↗

Fully vegetarian kitchen; no meat, poultry, fish or seafood is served.

The entire food offering is vegetarian, with no meat, poultry, fish or seafood served on any menu. The rotating Sunday dinners are frequently entirely vegan. This dimension does not apply to fully plant-based kitchens.

Strongest sourceaverechts.nl ↗

Volunteer-run for over forty years; profits and tips are donated to charities the volunteers select; hosts community events including open-mic, live music and quiz nights.

Social impact is the café's defining feature. Café Averechts has been run entirely by volunteers for more than forty years, and the profits and tips are donated on a recurring basis to charities the volunteers select themselves.

It also functions as a genuine community and cultural hub for the Vogelenbuurt, hosting open-mic nights, live music, DJ evenings, game nights and a monthly pub quiz. Two social sub-areas — community engagement and cause support — are addressed with clear recurrence, and the volunteer-and-charity model is corroborated by independent directory coverage.

Strongest sourceaverechts.nl ↗

Fully vegetarian; Sunday dinners are frequently entirely vegan, built on vegetables and legumes with no meat or fish.

The entire food offering is vegetarian, and the rotating three-course Sunday dinners are frequently fully vegan across starter, main and dessert. Menus are built on vegetables and legumes (dal, japchae, tempeh, pea) with no meat or fish served, making plants the unambiguous centre of the kitchen's identity. The vegetarian profile is corroborated by an independent vegetarian directory listing.

Strongest sourceaverechts.nl ↗
Sourcing signals
✓
Low-impact beverage program

The drinks list centres on a rotating selection of locally brewed craft beers plus the café's own house-brewed beer, a documented local craft-beer focus.

Visit & practical info
Address, price, and more
Address
Lijsterstraat 49, 3514 TB Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
Open in Google Maps ↗
Price
€
Format
Sunday three-course set menu
Hours
MondayClosed
TuesdayClosed
Wednesday20:00–00:00
Thursday20:00–01:00
Friday17:00–02:00
Saturday21:00–02:00
Sunday17:30–23:00
Style
Café
Casual
Cosy
Alternative
Good to know
Bar
Web
averechts.nl
Reserve a table
Reviewed by My Treats
Last reviewed 11 Jul 2026
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.
Endorsed Meaningful practice across three or more dimensions.
This place
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•