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Les Années Folles Food Identity independently reviewed
Food Identity How restaurants source, cook and care. Independently reviewed

Les Années Folles

A restored 1928 townhouse in Antwerp where Gino Lemmens cooks a Franco-Belgian menu built on North Sea fish, whole-animal cuts and careful sauce work.

Food Identity How restaurants source, cook and care. Independently reviewed

Les Années Folles

A restored 1928 townhouse in Antwerp where Gino Lemmens cooks a Franco-Belgian menu built on North Sea fish, whole-animal cuts and careful sauce work.

The essentials, at a glance


Documented practices
Independently
reviewed
Seasonal cooking
Low waste

Documented practices

Seasonal cooking Monthly seasonal salad and daily catch rotation
Low waste Nose-to-tail cooking, whole-animal use

Style
Fine dining
Cosy
Cuisine
French
Seafood
Good to know
Private dining room
Recognised by
We're Smart Green Guide
Recognised by
We're Smart Green Guide

The delicious details

Les Années Folles occupies a 1928 townhouse in Antwerp, restored with its period wooden mouldings and parquet floors intact. The kitchen describes its own approach as pure cooking with respect for nature and its surroundings, and the food stays close to the Franco-Belgian canon, lightened and carried by sauces, herbs and spices.

Gino Lemmens belongs to NorthSeaChefs, the Belgian chefs' collective that commits its members to locally landed North Sea fish, and buys vegetables from local farmers. He cooks nose to tail: a croquette of veal sweetbread, a crisp terrine of pork head, veal tongue in Madeira.

No dish stays on the carte for a full year. A seasonal salad and a catch of the day move with what is available, and the chef builds the colder months around mushrooms and game.

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

The kitchen works from set menus of four, five or six courses alongside a short à la carte, with dishes cooked to order each service. Preparations are made in house: croquettes of veal sweetbread, terrines of pork head, shellfish bisque, and vanilla ice cream churned fresh. Fish and shellfish run through the menu, from hand-peeled grey shrimp and turbot to oysters and lobster. A vegetarian menu is prepared on request.

The kitchen works from set menus of four, five or six courses alongside a short carte, with dishes cooked to order each service.

Preparations are made in house rather than bought in: a croquette of veal sweetbread, a crisp terrine of pork head, a shellfish bisque, and vanilla ice cream churned fresh.

Fish and shellfish run right through the menu, from hand-peeled grey shrimp and turbot to oysters and lobster, and the fish arrives through the chef's NorthSeaChefs commitment to Belgian boats. Vegetables are treated as a source of flavour rather than as garnish, and a vegetarian menu is prepared on request. Allergies can be accommodated when the kitchen is told in advance.

Cuisine

French
Seafood

Dietary options

Vegetarian options
Allergies & intolerances
How this kitchen handles the EU-14 allergens
Handled on request
Public sources point to a working level of allergen accommodation, but no dedicated preparation area. Treat this as a starting point and confirm directly.
Always confirm your allergy directly with the restaurant when booking.
Researched from public sources · lesanneesfolles.be · not yet confirmed by the restaurant
Impact score
How this restaurant rates
2 - Engaged

The kitchen cooks through the year rather than keeping a fixed menu: a seasonal salad and a daily catch shift with what is available, and the colder months bring mushrooms and game. Whole-animal cooking runs through the dishes, with sweetbread, pork head and veal tongue each given a preparation of their own rather than being trimmed away.

Les Années Folles is listed in the We're Smart Green Guide, whose editors note that vegetables here are not decoration but a source of flavour contrast. Gino Lemmens is a member of NorthSeaChefs, the Belgian chefs' collective that commits its members to fish landed by Belgian boats.

The impact dimensions

Local & direct sourcing✓

Seasonal cooking✓

Low waste & circular practices✓

Sustainable animal products✓

Plant-forward menu✓

NorthSeaChefs membership secures Belgian-landed fish; vegetables sourced from local farmers, though none are individually named.

Gino Lemmens is confirmed as a member of NorthSeaChefs on the organisation's own member listing, a verifiable commitment to fish landed on the Belgian coast. The February 2025 review reports that the restaurant works closely with local farmers and quotes the chef: he works only with products that really have something to say, whether fish from Belgian fishermen or vegetables from local farmers.

Against this, the farmers are unnamed and the carte also carries clearly long-haul luxury items without origin qualification: Wagyu A5 beef, oscietra caviar, king crab and Irish oysters. The only named local producer found is the Antwerp sparkling wine house Oud Conynsbergh, in a November 2022 review, which is more than three years old.

Strongest sourceEditorial coverage ↗

No dish stays on the carte for a full year; seasonal salad and daily catch move with what is available, and colder months bring mushrooms and game.

Seasonal rotation is evidenced across several channels. The restaurant's website presents its offer as seasonal dishes available as a menu or à la carte. On his Mastercooks of Belgium profile the chef states that no dish stays on his menu for a full year, giving ingredient seasonality and the need for variety as the reasons.

A February 2025 review reports that autumn and winter are his preferred seasons because of the mushrooms, game and richer ingredients they bring. The carte corroborates this structurally: it lists a seasonal salad and a catch of the day, and the set menus are sold by course count rather than by fixed dish, which allows the kitchen to change them without republishing.

Strongest sourceEditorial coverage ↗

Nose-to-tail cooking uses every part of the product: veal sweetbread, pork head terrine, veal tongue all receive their own preparation.

One concrete practice is named and independently corroborated. A February 2025 review reports that the chef cooks nose to tail, using every part of the product. The carte corroborates the claim: three of the five starters are whole-animal cuts that most kitchens trim away, namely a croquette of veal sweetbread, a crisp terrine of pork head, and veal tongue in Madeira, and a shellfish bisque appears alongside hand-peeled grey shrimp.

Strongest sourceEditorial coverage ↗

Foie gras on the menu caps this dimension; NorthSeaChefs membership secures Belgian-landed fish, though no butcher or fishmonger is individually named.

Foie gras is evidenced on the menu via Michelin Guide listing of a signature preparation pairing tuna with foie gras, which caps this dimension at level 2 under the eligibility rule. The carte does not list foie gras on the published à la carte page, but the set menus are sold by course count with dishes not published, so the Michelin description remains the only current itemisation of a signature dish.

On the seafood side, Gino Lemmens is confirmed on the NorthSeaChefs member listing, a Belgian chefs' collective whose charter commits members to fish landed on the Belgian coast, and the carte carries hand-peeled grey shrimp, turbot and a daily catch consistent with that commitment. Against the dimension: the carte also carries Wagyu A5 beef, king crab, langoustine and European lobster with no sustainability qualification, and no welfare label or organic certification was found.

Strongest sourceNorthSeaChefs ↗

We're Smart Green Guide recognition of vegetable-focused cooking; vegetarian menu prepared on request, though meat and seafood dominate the published carte.

The We're Smart Green Guide lists the restaurant and its editors write that vegetables here are not decoration but produce remarkable flavour contrasts, and that the products are played out optimally in the dishes. A vegetarian menu is prepared on request, stated both on the restaurant's own menu page and in the guide listing.

Against that, the published carte carries no vegetarian starter and no vegetarian main: all five starters and all five mains contain meat or seafood, vegetable elements appear as accompaniments such as a seasonal salad or sorrel, and no vegan option is referenced anywhere.

Strongest sourceWe're Smart Green Guide ↗

Sourcing signals

✓
In-house preparation

Carte names croquette of veal sweetbread, crisp terrine of pork head, shellfish bisque with hand-peeled grey shrimp, and freshly churned vanilla ice cream.

Visit & practical info
Address, price, and more
Address
Generaal Lemanstraat 31, 2018 Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium
Open in Google Maps ↗
Price
€€€
Format
Set menus by reservation; à la carte available
Hours
MondayClosed
Tuesday12:00–14:00, 19:00–21:00
Wednesday12:00–14:00, 19:00–21:00
Thursday12:00–14:00, 19:00–21:00
Friday12:00–14:00, 19:00–21:00
Saturday19:00–21:00
SundayClosed
Style
Fine dining
Cosy
Good to know
Private dining room
Web
lesanneesfolles.be
Reviewed by My Treats
Last reviewed 07 Oct 2026
Reserve To website
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 an impact score 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.

Scores of four or five 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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