4 - Recognised
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Primo has confirmed practice across five areas of responsible cooking.
Sourcing rests on named producers: vegetables and eggs from Françis via organic short supply chain farming, meat from Hoeve Cuvry farm in Dworp (Flemish Brabant, roughly 15 km from the restaurant), and bread and olive oil from Maison Barat in Brussels. Seasonal produce sets the shape of the card, which turns over through the year and carries a monthly dish drawn from one Italian region. The menu is written to use produce up rather than leave it behind, and the kitchen works without ready made industrial preparations.
Vegetables lead four of the nine pasta dishes and four of the seven starters, with the meat and the dairy traced to their farm and town of origin. The kitchen holds two toques under the Good Food Resto label, awarded by Bruxelles Environnement after an independent audit, and is listed in the We're Smart Green Guide.
The impact dimensions
Low waste & circular practices✓
Sustainable animal products✓
Multiple named producers supply vegetables, eggs, meat and bread from Belgium; semolina, cheese and oil are imported from Apulia.
Four producers are named on the Good Food Brussels listing and corroborated by independent press: Françis for vegetables and eggs via organic short supply chain, Hoeve Cuvry farm in Dworp for meat, Maison Barat in Brussels for bread and olive oil, and the Dibenedetto family mill in Altamura for durum semolina.
The restaurant describes direct, long-standing relationships with small producers, including a deliberate three-year search for the Apulian mill's bronze-drawn semolina. Fresh cheeses arrive twice weekly from Gioia del Colle in Apulia, a traceable chain without a named producer. Counting key categories, vegetables, eggs, meat and bread are demonstrably local or regional.
This placement at level 3 reflects the geographic split: Belgian produce covers roughly half of key categories, while semolina, cheese and oil that are structural to this cuisine are imported. Level 4 requires 60-80 per cent demonstrably local, which is not met because the flour and cheese are Italian by design.
The menu changes with the seasons and carries a monthly Giro d'Italia dish rotating through Italian regions.
Seasonality is stated as a guiding principle by the restaurant and corroborated by the We're Smart Green Guide listing, which records vegetables of the season as the basis of the cuisine. The Good Food Brussels listing confirms seasonal and mainly local products as the foundation of sourcing.
The menu read on 15 October 2026 is consistently autumnal across most dishes: butternut in two preparations, confit leeks in two, black truffle, celeriac, artichokes, sage and pear. Comparison against dishes described in press coverage from prior years (spaghetti alla chitarra cacio e pepe with fried artichokes, the Carbomare with bottarga and cod) confirms real turnover rather than a static card. Most dishes change with the season and seasonality is communicated as a guiding principle, meeting level 4.
The Good Food Resto label audit confirms a menu designed to minimise food waste and no use of industrially pre-prepared products.
The Good Food Resto label is awarded by Bruxelles Environnement after an independent audit, valid three years with a follow-up audit every two years. The label's mandatory criteria include not using fifth-range (industrially pre-prepared) products, corroborated by pasta rolled fresh on site daily and desserts made in house. The Good Food Brussels listing records a menu designed to minimise food waste.
Evidence reaches one concrete, partner-corroborated practice in the food-waste sub-area. Level 4 is not reached because no practice is evidenced in the packaging or energy sub-areas, and no waste partner, composting scheme, plastic elimination measure or quantified target is published.
Meat comes from Hoeve Cuvry farm in Dworp and eggs from Françis under organic farming; seafood sourcing is untraced.
Two animal categories have named, traceable sourcing. Meat comes from Hoeve Cuvry farm in Dworp, Flemish Brabant, named on the Good Food Brussels listing and in two independent press pieces, with the restaurant describing its meats as ethically raised. Eggs come from Françis under organic short-supply-chain farming, which is animal-specific organic sourcing. Fresh cheeses are delivered twice weekly from Gioia del Colle in Apulia, a traceable chain but without a named producer.
Seafood is the untraced category: one pasta dish (Oltre Mare) uses scampi with no species, origin, fishing or farming method, or certification published on any source consulted, and no MSC or ASC credential was found. One category traced with welfare and sustainability evidence meets level 3; level 4 requires named verifiable suppliers for most categories plus certified seafood, which is not met.
Four of nine pasta dishes and four of seven starters are built on vegetables; the kitchen acknowledges plant-forward intent.
Of nine fresh pasta dishes, four are vegetable-centred (black truffle with oyster mushrooms, tomato and basil oil with stracciatella, pistachio and basil pesto with cherry tomatoes, red pesto with sun-dried tomatoes) against four meat dishes and one seafood dish. Of seven starters, four are vegetable-centred. Vegetable share of the savoury menu is therefore roughly 44-50 per cent, with animal proteins equally prominent.
Plant-forward intent is explicitly acknowledged: the restaurant attributes its two Good Food toques to putting seasonal vegetables at the centre of its menus, and the We're Smart Green Guide listing states that vegetables of the season are the basis of the cuisine and that both pure plant dishes and vegetable preparations with dairy are offered. Independent press documents a fully plant-based freakadella, a vegan reading of the Belgian fricadelle. This meets level 3: meaningful plant presence on a mixed menu with plant-forward intent acknowledged.
Sourcing signals
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Certified organic ingredients
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Direct named-farm sourcing
Vegetables and eggs are sourced from organic farming via short supply chains; the Good Food Brussels listing, backed by independent audit for Bruxelles Environnement, records this foundation.
Four producers are named: Hoeve Cuvry farm in Dworp for meat, Françis for vegetables and eggs, Maison Barat in Brussels for bread and olive oil, and the Dibenedetto family mill in Altamura for durum semolina.
Fresh pasta rolled on site daily; pesto, sauces and zabaglione made in house; the Good Food Resto label audit confirms no industrially pre-prepared products.
