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Houten · Netherlands

Restaurant Kasteel Heemstede

A fine dining restaurant with a Michelin star, set in the basement of a restored 17th century castle outside Houten, where Chef Ollie Schuiling builds seasonal tasting menus around classical French technique and produce drawn from the castle estate.

The essentials, at a glance

◐
Impact score
3 - Endorsed
→
Documented practices
Local sourcing
Seasonal cooking
Social impact
Plant-forward menu

Style
Fine dining
Cosy
Cuisine
Dutch
French
International
Good to know
Garden
Private dining room
Recognised by
We're Smart Green Guide·1 radish

The delicious details

Kasteel Heemstede occupies the cellar of a restored 17th century castle southwest of Houten, on a wooded estate that includes the castle pond and the historic kasteeltuin. The kitchen has held a Michelin star continuously since 2011 and was awarded 17.5 points by Gault&Millau. Chef Ollie Schuiling, an SVH Meesterkok, took the kitchen in 2020 and runs it around classical French technique with bright acidity, considered spice work, and refined sauces.

The dining experience centres on fixed three to six course tasting menus, with à la carte options reserved for smaller parties. Where it can, the kitchen draws ingredients from the immediate estate: herbs from the castle garden, lamb from the surrounding meadow, frogs from the castle pond, alongside North Sea seafood and game in season.

The room seats around ten tables in the cellar of the castle. The chef has spoken publicly about how tips are pooled and shared equally across the brigade including front of house and dishwashers, and about a kitchen culture where he himself joins in plating, service, and clean down.

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

A tasting-led kitchen offering fixed three to six course menus from €100 to €175, with smaller-party à la carte. Chef Ollie Schuiling pairs Dutch regional ingredients with classical French technique across seasonal rotations. A vegetarian tasting menu runs alongside the main service; advance notice accommodates most allergies and preferences except citrus, vinegar, and onion, which are core to the kitchen's preparation.

Cuisine
Dutch
French
International
Dietary options
Vegetarian options
Allergies handling

Notify the restaurant at booking so the kitchen can adjust, substitute, or replace dishes to accommodate allergies and dietary preferences. The restaurant identifies citrus, vinegar, and onion as core preparation elements that cannot be removed. No formal allergen matrix is published; the kitchen's approach is responsive to specific advance requests.

Impact score
How this restaurant rates
3 - Endorsed

The kitchen draws on ingredients from the castle estate — herbs from the garden, lamb from the surrounding meadow, and frogs from the pond — alongside Dutch regional produce such as North Sea crab. Seasonal cooking is central to the kitchen's identity, with tasting menus rotating through spring asparagus and rhubarb, summer peas, and autumn game in their natural windows. The chef has described how gratuities are shared equally across the entire team, from servers to dishwashers, and the kitchen operates without rigid hierarchical divisions.

Kasteel Heemstede is listed in the We're Smart Green Guide.

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

Sourced from the castle estate (herbs, lamb, frogs) and Dutch regional produce such as North Sea crab, with no named external farms.

Editorial coverage across multiple sources (WBP Stars, Michelin Guide, lespatronscuisiniers) describes the kitchen sourcing herbs from the castle garden, lamb from the surrounding meadow, and frogs from the castle pond. Dutch regional ingredients such as North Sea crab and Dutch roebuck also appear on recent menus.

No named external Dutch farms, fishmongers, or butchers are visible on the website or in third-party coverage. The kitchen also draws on imported luxury ingredients such as Imperial Heritage caviar.

Strongest sourcewbpstars.com ↗

Menus rotate seasonally through spring asparagus and rhubarb, summer peas and broad beans, and autumn venison and roebuck.

Multiple editorial sources describe Chef Schuiling's menu as seasonally inspired, with recent menus showing clear rotation: spring asparagus and rhubarb, summer broad beans and chanterelles, autumn venison and roebuck, and winter beetroot. Seasonal cooking is positioned as central to the chef's identity, with tasting menus rotating visibly across the calendar.

Strongest sourcelespatronscuisiniers.nl ↗

Estate lamb and frogs, North Sea crab and Dutch roebuck are named; foie gras appears on the menu, and no third-party welfare certifications are visible.

The menu carries estate lamb from the surrounding meadow and frogs from the castle pond, alongside North Sea crab and Dutch roebuck. These are concrete on-estate and regional sourcing signals.

However, no MSC, ASC, Beter Leven, organic, or equivalent welfare certifications are visible in any channel. The menu includes Imperial Heritage caviar and foie gras without welfare or sourcing qualification.

Strongest sourcerestaurant-kasteelheemstede.nl ↗

Tips are pooled and shared equally across all team members including dishwashers; the kitchen operates without rigid hierarchical divisions.

Chef Schuiling documents a concrete fair-employment practice in an Entree Magazine interview: 'we regularly have hundreds of euros in our tip jar that get divided fairly among the entire team, from servers to dishwashers.' He describes rejecting hierarchical kitchen culture, personally joining in plating, service, and cleaning rather than maintaining strict brigade divisions.

Strongest sourceentreemagazine.nl ↗

A dedicated vegetarian tasting menu is offered; vegan service is not available, and meat and seafood are the primary menu structure.

The kitchen offers a dedicated vegetarian tasting menu alongside the main menu. However, the website explicitly states that vegan service is not offered.

The We're Smart Green Guide notes that 'the focus is still on meat and fish,' encouraging expansion of vegetable-forward dishes. Recent menus surface meat and seafood as the primary structural element, with vegetables generally appearing as components rather than the centre of mains.

Strongest sourceWe're Smart Green Guide ↗
Sourcing signals
✓
Direct named-farm sourcing

The chef sources herbs from the castle garden, lamb from the surrounding meadow, and frogs from the castle pond, documented across editorial sources. These are concrete on-estate ingredient relationships; no named third-party agricultural suppliers beyond the property are documented.

Visit & practical info
Address, price, and more
Address
Heemsteedseweg 20, 3992 LS Houten, Houten, Netherlands
Open in Google Maps ↗
Price
€€€€
Format
Around ten seats, tasting menus, advance notice required
Hours
MondayClosed
TuesdayClosed
Wednesday18:00–23:30
Thursday18:00–23:30
Friday12:00–16:30, 18:00–23:30
Saturday12:00–16:30, 18:00–23:30
SundayClosed
Style
Fine dining
Cosy
Good to know
Garden
Private dining room
Web
restaurant-kasteelheemstede.nl
Reviewed by My Treats
Last reviewed 12 May 2026
Reserve
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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
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How this dimension works
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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.
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