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Café des Spores Food Identity independently reviewed
Food Identity How restaurants source, cook and care. Independently reviewed

Café des Spores

Mushrooms run through every course at this small Saint-Gilles dining room, from marinated shiitake in a tomato tartare to a dried porcini cheesecake.

Allergies Not published, ask the kitchen ahead

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

Café des Spores

Mushrooms run through every course at this small Saint-Gilles dining room, from marinated shiitake in a tomato tartare to a dried porcini cheesecake.

The essentials, at a glance

Allergies Not published, ask the kitchen ahead

Documented practices
Independently
reviewed
Seasonal cooking
Plant-forward menu

Documented practices

Seasonal cooking Menu rebuilt entirely with seasonal produce arrival
Plant-forward menu Mushrooms structure every course, starter through dessert

Style
Casual
Cosy
Cuisine
French
Fusion
Recognised by
We're Smart Green Guide
Recognised by
We're Smart Green Guide

The delicious details

Café des Spores works from a single idea: mushrooms belong in every course, starter through to dessert. One short menu will carry shiitake, shimeji, oyster mushrooms, portobello, porcini and black truffle at the same time.

The kitchen works only with produce that is fresh and in season, so the carte turns over with availability rather than holding a fixed list. Heirloom tomatoes arrive with stracciatella and marinated shiitake, an oyster mushroom tart under pepper cream, gnocchi made in house in truffle cream.

Bread is baked next door at Hopla Geiss Bakery, the restaurant's own bakery, and is naturally leavened. Vegetarian dishes sit in each part of the menu, and a mushroom free option is always available.

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

Mushrooms run through every course at this small Saint-Gilles dining room, from marinated shiitake in a tomato tartare to a dried porcini cheesecake. The à la carte updates with seasonal produce availability, shaped by the narrow windows of wild mushroom species. One of three mains is fully plant-forward, with meat-free options across the cheese course and all desserts.

Every dish is built around a mushroom, which gives the carte an unusual shape: fungi carry the starters, the cheese course and the desserts as readily as the mains. Vegetarian cooking runs across the menu rather than sitting in a single slot, with an oyster mushroom tart among the starters, gnocchi in truffle cream as a main, a truffled pecorino cheese course and a cheesecake made with dried porcini. Salmon, sea bass and duck anchor the other mains, and a mushroom free option is always available.

Much of what reaches the table is made on site: the gnocchi are made in house, and the naturally leavened bread is baked next door at the restaurant's own bakery.

Cuisine

French
Fusion

Dietary options

Vegetarian options
Impact score
How this restaurant rates
1 - Starting

Café des Spores works with fresh, seasonal produce and places vegetables and fungi at the centre of its cooking. The carte changes with availability rather than holding a fixed list, so an autumn menu arrives built on heirloom tomatoes, peaches and raspberries. Shiitake, shimeji, oyster mushrooms, portobello and porcini all appear across one short menu. Mushrooms are the structural centre of that carte rather than a garnish, carried through the starters, the cheese course and every dessert, and vegetable led dishes sit in each part of it.

The restaurant is listed in the We're Smart Green Guide, the international guide to vegetable led cooking.

The impact dimensions

Local & direct sourcing✓

Seasonal cooking

Sustainable animal products

Plant-forward menu✓

One named local supplier is established: bread from the restaurant's own Hopla Geiss Bakery next door. Beyond bread, no origin documentation exists for other categories.

The restaurant states and the We're Smart Green Guide confirms that its bread is baked at Hopla Geiss Bakery, its own organic bakery at Chaussée d'Alsemberg 105, immediately next door. That is a direct producer relationship with no intermediary for one key category.

The mushrooms that define the menu, which span cultivated, dried and wild varieties, carry no named grower, cultivator or forager and no stated region. Fish, meat, dairy and other ingredients also carry no documented origin or supplier.

Strongest sourceWe're Smart Green Guide ↗

The restaurant updates the menu with seasonal produce availability, reinforced by the narrow windows of wild species like Caesar's amanita, which arrives only three times yearly.

The restaurant's own site states: 'we only work with fresh and seasonal produce, which is why our menu varies according to the season and the availability of produce.' The retrieved menu corroborates this: heirloom tomatoes, peach and chilli chutney, and raspberry sorbet are late summer and early autumn produce.

Mushroom cookery reinforces seasonality structurally, since wild species carry narrow windows. Trade coverage records the kitchen balancing wild, dried and cultivated varieties to sustain a year-round offer, with Caesar's amanita arriving in only three cases a year.

Strongest sourcecafedesspores.be ↗

The menu names its animal products, salmon, sea bass, duck, oyster, pecorino, without documenting sourcing, welfare certification or fishing method.

The menu is specific about species and cuts: salmon with white miso, sea bass ceviche, smoked duck fillet, marinated oyster, pecorino and fresh goat cheese. The restaurant's general positioning emphasises fresh, seasonal ingredients, but carries no identified producer, named farm, certifier or welfare statement for any animal product.

No MSC or ASC mark, no organic or welfare label, and no statement on fishing method or rearing standard appears in any channel. Historic coverage from 2013 records foie gras dishes, but these do not appear on the current menu.

Strongest sourcecafedesspores.be ↗

Fungi are the menu's organising principle, with one of three mains fully plant-led (gnocchi in truffle cream), and all meat-free cheese and dessert courses including a porcini cheesecake.

Fungi are the structural organising principle of the whole menu, appearing in every course from starter to dessert. The We're Smart Green Guide, the dedicated authority on vegetable-led kitchens, records that mushrooms are 'processed from the appetizer to the dessert' and that 'meat, fish and even vegetarian dishes get mushrooms as garnish'.

On the retrieved menu, one of three mains is fully vegetable-led (the gnocchi in truffle cream), the cheese course is meat-free, and all three desserts contain no meat or fish. Six of eleven dishes overall contain no animal protein.

Strongest sourceWe're Smart Green Guide ↗

Sourcing signals

✓
In-house preparation

Bread is baked at the restaurant's own Hopla Geiss Bakery next door (organic, naturally leavened), and gnocchi are made in house.

Visit & practical info
Address, price, and more
Address
Chaussée d'Alsemberg 103, 1060 Saint-Gilles, Brussels, Belgium
Open in Google Maps ↗
Price
€€€
Format
Evening service Tuesday to Saturday, à la carte with tasting formulas
Hours
MondayClosed
Tuesday19:00–23:00
Wednesday19:00–23:00
Thursday19:00–23:00
Friday18:30–23:00
Saturday18:30–23:00
SundayClosed
Style
Casual
Cosy
Web
cafedesspores.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.
This place
Engaged Credible practice across two dimensions.
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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