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

De Gouden Bock

A fish restaurant in a seventeenth century monument on Middelburg's Damplein, serving small seasonal plates of North Sea catch and locally hunted game, all prepared in house.

The essentials, at a glance

◐
Impact score
2 - Engaged
→
Documented practices
Local sourcing
Seasonal cooking
Low waste

Style
Casual
Cosy
Cuisine
Dutch
Seafood

The delicious details

De Gouden Bock occupies a seventeenth century building on the Damplein, one of Middelburg's historic squares, where chef Martijn and host Michelle run an honest, fresh kitchen built around the North Sea and the surrounding Zeeland countryside.

The dinner menu is composed of small plates that change with the week's catch and harvest, so guests build their own sequence of courses from whatever is at its best. Fish, shellfish and, in its season, game from the chef's own hunt on Walcheren sit alongside vegetables from the restaurant's kitchen garden.

The kitchen bakes its own sourdough, cures its own charcuterie and makes its ice cream, sauces and pastry from scratch rather than relying on ready made components, and the card is refreshed weekly as ingredients come into season.

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

A dinner-focused kitchen serving small plates built from the week's North Sea catch and seasonal harvest. Whole fish, game from the chef's own hunt, and vegetables from the kitchen garden feature alongside lamb and shellfish, with larger dishes such as Fruits de Mer or an entrecôte for two. Everything is prepared in house—sourdough, charcuterie, sauces, ice cream and pastry—with a lunch menu adding soups, salads and farmhouse sandwiches.

Cuisine
Dutch
Seafood
Impact score
How this restaurant rates
2 - Engaged

The kitchen shows clear, consistent practice in two areas of responsible cooking.

Its menu follows the seasons closely, refreshed each week around the local harvest, the North Sea catch and, in its season, game, so dishes reflect what is genuinely available rather than a fixed year round list. Whole fish, game and lamb are broken down and used in full, and the team prepares its own bread, charcuterie, sauces and ice cream in house rather than buying pre made goods, which keeps trimmings waste and packaging down.

The impact dimensions
Local & direct sourcing✓
Seasonal cooking✓
Low waste & circular practices✓
Sustainable animal products
Plant-forward menu

The kitchen draws vegetables from its own garden and game from the chef's hunt or a regular hunter on Walcheren, with North Sea fish and shellfish from the region.

The website states the kitchen cooks mainly with local, organic products and favours short supply chains. It draws seasonal vegetables from its own kitchen garden and takes game from the chef's own hunt or a regular hunter on Walcheren, while North Sea fish and shellfish form the restaurant's main focus.

No individual external suppliers or farms are named, and there is no independent corroboration, so the sourcing picture is self-declared and general rather than fully traced.

Strongest sourceRestaurant submission

The menu refreshes weekly with seasonal vegetables, North Sea fish and shellfish, and game, with specific seasonal items named.

The menu is refreshed weekly around seasonal availability, with fresh vegetables from the garden or local suppliers, freshly caught North Sea fish and shellfish, and game in its season. Seasonal produce such as white asparagus, cherries and herring is named.

Seasonality is communicated as a guiding principle of the kitchen, evident in the weekly refresh cycle.

Strongest sourceRestaurant submission

Whole fish, game and lamb are fully processed in the kitchen, and everything from sourdough to ice cream is made in house, reducing waste and packaging.

Circular practice centres on whole-ingredient use and in-house production. Whole fish, game and lamb are fully processed in the kitchen, the chef cures his own charcuterie, and everything from sourdough bread to sauces, ice cream and pastry is made in house without semi-finished products.

This approach reduces trimmings waste and bought-in packaging.

Strongest sourceRestaurant submission

The kitchen sources game from the chef's own hunt or regular hunter on Walcheren, but the fish and shellfish that are the main focus have no named traceability or certification.

Animal products centre on North Sea fish, crustaceans and shellfish, with game from the chef's own hunt or a regular hunter on Walcheren, plus lamb.

The self-hunted local wild game is a strong, traceable and inherently high-welfare signal. The fish and shellfish, which are the restaurant's main focus, carry no named fishmonger, catch method or MSC/ASC certification.

Strongest sourceRestaurant submission

Vegetables from the kitchen garden feature in seasonal small plates, but the menu is structured around fish, shellfish and meat.

The restaurant is a fish and game kitchen. Vegetables from the kitchen garden feature in seasonal small plates, but the menu is structured around fish, shellfish and meat, and no vegan accommodation is advertised.

Some vegetable-led small dishes are likely within the sharing format, but plants are not the structural focus of the menu.

Strongest sourceRestaurant submission
Sourcing signals
✓
Own-grown produce
✓
In-house preparation

The restaurant draws seasonal vegetables from its own kitchen garden, and the weekly menu changes are partly driven by what the garden yields.

Sourdough bread, charcuterie, sauces, ice cream, desserts and pastry are all made on site, and whole game, fish and lamb are processed in the kitchen.

Visit & practical info
Address, price, and more
Address
Damplein 17, 4331 GC Middelburg, Middelburg, Netherlands
Open in Google Maps ↗
Price
€€€
Format
Dinner tasting menu, booking required
Hours
MondayClosed
Tuesday12:00–15:00, 17:30–21:00
Wednesday12:00–15:00, 17:30–21:00
Thursday12:00–15:00, 17:30–21:00
Friday12:00–15:00, 17:30–21:00
Saturday12:00–15:00, 17:30–21:00
SundayClosed
Style
Casual
Cosy
Web
degoudenbock.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.
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•