5 - Outstanding
i
The Green Room brings together local sourcing, seasonal menus, low-waste kitchen routines, a vegetable-led menu structure, and community engagement. Local and direct sourcing draws on named regional producers including the Schellach cheese farm and fromagerie Erik Murre, regional Walcherse potatoes and Zeeuws mussels, and fair-trade coffee from local Middelburg roastery De Koepoort. The menu rotates every eight to ten weeks to follow the seasons.
Low waste and circular practice runs through every kitchen routine: vegetable scraps become stocks, pineapple cores become iced tea, juice pulp goes into cakes, and breakfast leftovers are reworked into the day's dishes. Serving uses glass jars, the refillable EcoTap filtered-water system, and Norwegian Figgjo porcelain rather than disposables.
The vegetable-led menu places plants at the structural centre of every dish, with meat and fish offered only as paid additions. Social practice extends beyond the dining room through a partnership with Plan Boom that has planted four thousand native trees in nearby Biggekerke, supported by guest contributions for skipped room cleaning and electric bike rentals. The hotel and kitchen received the Green Key Gold certificate in September 2025, and The Green Room is featured in the We're Smart Green Guide with the Pure Plant Choices designation.
The impact dimensions
Low waste & circular practices✓
Sustainable animal products
Multiple named regional suppliers including Schellach cheese farm, fromagerie Erik Murre, Walcherse potatoes, and fair-trade coffee from local roastery De Koepoort.
Multiple named local suppliers are cited across the source: Schellach cheese farm and fromagerie Erik Murre for cheese, De Koepoort for fair-trade coffee roasted in Middelburg, regional Walcherse potatoes, Zeeuws mussels, and locally produced yogurt. Direct relationships are described in independent coverage and corroborated by the We're Smart Green Guide listing.
The restaurant's own website names Schellach cheese farm as the supplier for the signature pumpkin ravioli. The sourcing spans multiple categories (dairy, coffee, vegetables, seafood) and represents a consistent local-sourcing strategy rather than an isolated practice.
Menu rotates every eight to ten weeks following seasonal availability, with dated seasonal lunch and dinner menus visible for multiple periods.
Menu rotation follows a structured eight-to-ten-week seasonal cycle, confirmed by dated menu PDFs on the restaurant's website showing distinct autumn 2025 and May–June 2026 versions. Independent coverage (Track & Trees) notes a four-week cadence with 'short lines to the source', and seasonal cooking is positioned as a guiding principle in the We're Smart Green Guide listing.
The seasonal positioning reflects genuine menu change, not a superficial gesture: vegetables and ingredients rotate with availability, whole-product use adapts with the seasons, and the kitchen's stated philosophy positions seasonal availability as a structural driver of the menu.
Documented measurable practices across all three sub-areas: food waste (stocks from scraps, juice pulp to cakes, breakfast leftovers reworked), packaging (glass jars, EcoTap filtered-water system, Norwegian porcelain), and energy (all-electric operation, solar panels, heat-pump system).
Food-waste practices are specific and corroborated: vegetable scraps reworked into stocks, juice pulp baked into cakes, breakfast leftovers transformed into the day's dishes, pineapple cores into iced tea, and in-house pickling and preserving. The Sustainable Travel Guide confirms glass jars for service and eco-friendly tableware.
Packaging eliminates single-use items: glass jars for service items, EcoTap refillable filtered-water system in place of bottled water, Norwegian Figgjo porcelain tableware, eco-labelled cleaning products, and recycled toilet paper. Energy systems are all-electric — no gas — with solar panels, a heat-pump VRF system, energy-efficient lighting, and Dyson Airblade dryers.
The hotel and restaurant received the Green Key Gold certificate in September 2025, the highest tier of an internationally audited label, covering twelve themes including waste and energy. The certification independently validates the systems described.
Meat and fish are optional paid add-ons rather than menu staples; Zeeuws mussels are named in regional sourcing, but no individual butcher, fishmonger, farm, or welfare certification is documented.
Meat and fish are offered only as optional supplements to the vegetable-led base of each dish, reflecting a deliberate reduction in animal-product prominence. Zeeuws mussels are referenced in independent coverage as a regional signal, but no named butcher, fishmonger, meat farm, or seafood supplier is identified on the restaurant website, hotel website, We're Smart Green Guide listing, or in editorial coverage.
No MSC, ASC, Beter Leven, organic-meat, or comparable welfare certification is cited for any animal product. The structural de-emphasis of meat and fish is meaningful, but without named suppliers or certifications, the evidence sits at a vague-claim-plus-partial-signal level.
Strongest source Restaurant submission
Tree-planting partnership with Plan Boom has established 4,000 native trees in Biggekerke, supported by guest contributions; family-run operation.
The restaurant funds a specific, verifiable social commitment: a tree-planting partnership with Plan Boom (involving Zeeuwse Milieufederatie, Staatsbosbeheer, and Buitenfonds) has resulted in 4,000 native trees planted in Biggekerke. Guests contribute €1.50 per skipped room cleaning or electric bike rental, creating a structured funding model for ongoing planting.
The operation is family-run by chef Bennie van de Parel and Eva van de Parel, reflecting a personal commitment to the community and the business. The hotel maintains a dedicated CSR coordinator, and the water-system supplier EcoTap donates to projects in Kenya, extending the social reach.
Vegetables form the structural base of every starter and main, with meat and fish offered only as optional paid additions; featured in the We're Smart Green Guide with the Pure Plant Choices designation.
Vegetables are unambiguously the centre of the kitchen's identity. Every starter and main on the regular menu has a vegetarian or vegan base, with meat or fish offered only as optional paid add-on suggestions from the chef. The restaurant positions itself publicly as a vegetable restaurant ('Vegetables, flavour & flair') and is featured in the We're Smart Green Guide with the Pure Plant Choices designation.
Multiple independent review platforms (HappyCow, The Sustainable Travel Guide, heerlijk.nl, Track & Trees) confirm extensive vegan and vegetarian options and explicitly describe the restaurant as plant-forward by design. The structural inversion of the typical menu—vegetables as default, meat as optional—is the chef's stated philosophy: 'feeding rather than filling'.
Sourcing signals
✓
Direct named-farm sourcing
✓
Low-impact beverage program
Multiple named producers across categories: Schellach cheese farm, fromagerie Erik Murre (cheese), De Koepoort (fair-trade coffee roastery in Middelburg), regional Walcherse potatoes, Zeeuws mussels, and yogurt.
Stocks, broths, pickles, preserves, lemonades, and liqueurs are made in-house; vegetable juice pulp is baked into cakes and pineapple cores into iced tea.
Fair-trade coffee from named local roastery De Koepoort in Middelburg.
Traceable-origin fair-trade coffee (De Koepoort) and EcoTap filtered tap-water system in place of bottled water; homemade lemonades and liqueurs.
Glass jars for service, EcoTap refillable filtered-water system, Norwegian Figgjo porcelain tableware, and a policy of avoiding disposable items.
