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Dordrecht · Netherlands

Villa Augustus

A garden-led kitchen inside a former water tower complex in Dordrecht, where a 1.5-hectare vegetable garden supplies the open-fire kitchen through the seasons.

The essentials, at a glance

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

Style
Casual
Cuisine
Dutch
International
Good to know
Terrace
Garden
Recognised by
We're Smart Green Guide·3 radishes

The delicious details

Villa Augustus occupies a former pumping station and water tower beside the Wantij in Dordrecht, with a 1.5-hectare vegetable garden, orchard, and Italian garden surrounding the dining room. Fruit, vegetables, and herbs walk directly from the garden to the chefs in an open kitchen at the heart of the building.

The menu is short and rewrites itself every two months, with daily blackboards adding dishes shaped by what the gardener has just brought in. A wood-fired oven anchors the cooking, roasting pizzas, vegetables, fish, and meat over ash-wood embers.

The atmosphere is unpretentious: a restaurant, market, hotel, and bakery folded into one riverside estate, with a clear preference for organic produce from the garden or from neighbouring growers.

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

The menu is built around what the garden is harvesting, with vegetable-led dishes the structural centre of the offer and a small selection of fish or meat alongside. Vegetarian and vegan options are present across the menu rather than relegated to a sidebar. The kitchen prepares its own bread on site and runs the wood-fired oven daily, baking and roasting from whole ingredients rather than relying on pre-prepared bases.

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

Vegetarian and vegan options are part of the standard menu. For information on allergen accommodations and intolerances, please notify the restaurant at booking.

Impact score
How this restaurant rates
3 - Endorsed

Villa Augustus has confirmed three areas of responsible practice: local and direct sourcing, seasonal cooking, and a plant-forward menu.

The restaurant's 1.5-hectare vegetable garden, orchard, and herb beds supply the kitchen directly, complemented by organic growers from the surrounding region. The bi-monthly menu rotation and daily blackboard dishes follow the Dutch seasons from early spring through deep winter, with vegetables drawn from the garden as they ripen. Plants sit at the structural centre of the kitchen, with vegetable dishes the main offer and fish or meat present as a smaller selection.

Villa Augustus is listed on the We're Smart Green Guide, the dedicated international guide to vegetable-led restaurants, which recognises the garden-to-kitchen practice.

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

The restaurant's 1.5-hectare garden supplies most produce, complemented by local and organic farmers whose specific names are not publicly documented.

Villa Augustus operates a 1.5-hectare vegetable garden and orchard on the estate, from which it draws its primary produce, plus herbs and fruit. The We're Smart Green Guide, editorial coverage, and the restaurant's own garden page confirm this on-site sourcing as verifiable.

The remainder of produce comes from 'organic farmers in the neighbourhood' and 'local farmers and organic suppliers', which establishes a local focus but stops short of L4 because external suppliers are not named individually in any available public channel. The garden-to-kitchen model is positioned as the restaurant's core practice rather than a marketing claim.

Strongest sourceWe're Smart Green Guide ↗

The menu changes every two months following the garden cycle, with daily blackboard dishes shaped by what the gardener brings in.

Villa Augustus's menu is built around the garden's growing cycle. The core menu rewrites itself every two months, and daily blackboards add dishes based on what the gardener has just brought in. Editorial coverage and the restaurant's own material describe the Dutch seasons — from spring asparagus through winter parsnip stew — as the structural driver of this kitchen.

Some ingredients are sourced from elsewhere in Europe when Dutch production is not available, which keeps the score at L4 (menu largely follows seasonal availability) rather than L5 (deeply seasonal year-round, local only).

Strongest sourceWe're Smart Green Guide ↗

The garden-to-kitchen supply chain and on-site bakery reduce packaging and food miles, with the wood-fired oven centring whole-ingredient cooking.

The garden-to-kitchen supply chain reduces packaging waste and food miles by eliminating middlemen. The on-site bakery bakes bread daily, and the wood-fired oven is used for direct roasting of vegetables, fish, and meat — both approaches centre whole-ingredient cooking rather than relying on pre-prepared bases or industrialised components.

Strongest sourcevilla-augustus.nl ↗

Vegetable-led dishes form the menu's structural centre, with vegetarian and vegan options prominently featured; fish and meat are offered as a smaller selection.

The kitchen is centred on the produce of its own vegetable garden. Vegetable-led dishes form the menu's core offer, with vegetarian and vegan dishes prominently featured on the regular menu rather than relegated to a sidebar. The wood-fired oven cooks vegetables directly — tomatoes, beetroot, courgette flowers, parsnips — alongside pizza and a small selection of fish or meat.

The restaurant is listed on the We're Smart Green Guide, which recognises plant-forward intent. The score is held at L4 (plants clearly dominant) because a small fish and meat selection remains a standing feature of the menu, preventing a fully plant-forward design.

Strongest sourceWe're Smart Green Guide ↗
Sourcing signals
✓
Own-grown produce
✓
In-house preparation

1.5-hectare garden on the restaurant grounds — vegetable garden, orchard, herb beds, Italian garden — supplying fruit, vegetables, and herbs directly to the kitchen.

On-site bakery produces bread daily; the wood-fired oven is the centre of the kitchen, used for baking, roasting vegetables, fish, and meat.

Visit & practical info
Address, price, and more
Address
Oranjelaan 7, 3311 DH Dordrecht, Dordrecht, Netherlands
Open in Google Maps ↗
Price
€€
Hours
Monday07:00–00:00
Tuesday07:00–00:00
Wednesday07:00–00:00
Thursday07:00–00:00
Friday07:00–00:00
Saturday08:00–00:00
Sunday08:00–00:00
Style
Casual
Good to know
Terrace
Garden
Web
villa-augustus.nl
Reviewed by My Treats
Last reviewed 10 Jun 2026
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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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