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Elders Food Identity independently researched
Food Identity independently researched Researched

Elders

A vegetable led gastro bistro on a market square in Ghent's Bloemekeswijk, where a short seasonal menu shifts with what is available and natural wine is poured at the bar.

The essentials, at a glance

AllergiesNot published Ask the kitchen ahead
Documented practices
Independently
researched
Seasonal cooking
Plant-forward menu

Style
Casual
Trendy
Cuisine
French
Italian
Good to know
Terrace
Garden
Bar
Dog-friendly
Recognised by
We're Smart Green Guide·3 radishes

The delicious details

Elders occupies a former pharmacy on Edmond Van Beverenplein, a market square in the Bloemekeswijk, well outside Ghent's centre. Chef Tom Pauwelyn cooks from an open kitchen in the middle of the room, and the menu is short and turns over with the seasons.

Vegetables carry the plate. Celeriac is served as a steak, thistle and beech mushrooms are given a course of their own with garum and pak choi, and a stuffed courgette takes a main course place, while fish and meat sit alongside rather than in front.

Music plays loud and the decor is spare: vinyl on the turntable, blue tiles, terracotta, neon. The bar takes walk ins for a glass of natural wine and a plate or two, and on Sunday the doors open early for the market outside.

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

The kitchen runs a short seasonal card that shifts with what is available. Vegetables lead the menu — celeriac as a steak, mushrooms as a course, courgette as a main — and a vegetarian alternative runs at every course on the lunch menu, with vegan dishes marked. Fish and shellfish take most of the remaining places, one meat dish alongside. Much is made in house: pasta from reginette to squid ink shapes, ferments such as garum and bread miso, and desserts.

Cuisine
French
Italian
Dietary options
Vegetarian options
Vegan-friendly
Impact score
How this restaurant rates
2 - Engaged

The kitchen follows the seasons closely. The card is short and built around what is available, so the dishes change as produce changes: winter chicory and blood orange give way to melon, courgette and stone fruit by high summer. Vegetables hold the leading role rather than a supporting one, with a vegetarian option at every course, vegan dishes marked on the card, and whole vegetables such as celeriac and courgette treated as main dishes in their own right.

Elders is listed in the We're Smart Green Guide, the international guide to vegetable led restaurants. It also holds a Gault&Millau score of 14.5 out of 20 and was named that guide's Gastro-Bistro of the Year for 2025.

The impact dimensions
Seasonal cooking✓
Low waste & circular practices
Social impact
Plant-forward menu✓

The card rotates with the seasons, from winter chicory and blood orange through to summer courgette and stone fruit.

Seasonality is communicated as a guiding principle. The restaurant's own site sells a seasonal six course dinner menu and a short three course lunch, and the We're Smart Green Guide listing describes dishes that evolve according to market offerings.

Independent food writing confirms a card that clearly rotates with the seasons. Comparing menus across coverage shows real turnover: braised chicory and dried cod with blood orange in the colder months, against melon with cucumber and shiso, stuffed courgette with mirabelle and corn, and stone fruit desserts in summer. Most dishes change with the season.

Strongest sourcelefooding.com ↗

A deliberately limited menu holds down food waste, though no specific practice is documented.

An independent review observes that the deliberately limited card holds down food waste. The official Ghent city listing carries a general responsible practice label, though without describing the specific measure.

A recurring fermenting, smoking and preserving programme runs through the cooking — garum, fermented paprika, bread miso, smoked turnip bouillon, pickled apricot compote — but every source frames these as cooking techniques rather than as waste reduction practices.

Strongest sourcejune.be ↗

Owner-run with a recurring Sunday market format and walk-in bar counter seats, though no named social commitment is documented.

Elders opened in 2022 as an owner-run business in the Bloemekeswijk, a residential district outside Ghent's centre. A recurring Sunday format is built around the weekly market on its own square, opening early for coffee and breakfast.

The bar takes walk-ins without reservation and holds back counter seats each service. These are recurring positioning choices rather than a stated social commitment; no employment practice, apprenticeship, living wage policy, charity, community project or partner organisation is named.

Strongest sourceelders.gent ↗

Whole vegetables lead the starter and main courses, and a vegetarian option runs at every course on the lunch menu.

The We're Smart Green Guide lists Elders and describes a chef with a weakness for vegetables. Gault&Millau describes him letting the product, preferably vegetables, speak for itself. An editorial round up describes a menu with vegetables in the lead role.

Vegetables lead the starters — Thai aubergine tempura, melon with cucumber and shiso, beans with smoked cream — and whole vegetables are built into main dishes in their own right: stuffed courgette as a main, celeriac served as a steak, a course of thistle and beech mushrooms. A vegetarian alternative runs at every course of the lunch card, and vegan dishes are marked.

Strongest sourceWe're Smart Green Guide ↗
Sourcing signals
✓
In-house preparation
✓
Low-impact beverage program

Pasta is made fresh in the kitchen, from garganelli and reginette to squid ink shapes. Fermented and preserved items — garum, fermented paprika, bread miso, smoked turnip bouillon, pickled apricot compote — and desserts including gelato, madeleine and sorbet are made on site.

The wine bar is built around natural wine from small producers including Homok (Austria) and Holass (Hungary). A dedicated craft and local beer selection complements the programme.

Visit & practical info
Address, price, and more
Address
Edmond Van Beverenplein 16, Gent, Belgium
Open in Google Maps ↗
Price
€€€
Format
Reservations, or walk-in bar
Hours
MondayClosed
TuesdayClosed
Wednesday18:00–00:00
Thursday12:00–16:00, 18:00–00:00
Friday12:00–16:00, 18:00–00:00
Saturday18:00–00:00
Sunday10:30–17:00
Not captured during screening (Google Places backfill). The restaurant's own site states: kitchen Wednesday to Saturday from 19:00, lunch Thursday and Friday from 12:00, wine bar Wednesday to Saturday from 18:00, Sunday 10:30 to 17:00 with the kitchen from 12:00, closed Monday and Tuesday.
Style
Casual
Trendy
Good to know
Terrace
Garden
Bar
Dog-friendly
Web
elders.gent
Reserve a table
Reviewed by My Treats
Last reviewed 21 Aug 2026
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 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.
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.

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
—
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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