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Jan Van den Bon Food Identity independently reviewed
Food Identity How restaurants source, cook and care. Independently reviewed

Jan Van den Bon

A long standing Ghent gastronomic address beside the Citadelpark, where a chef who tends his own city garden builds French Belgian menus around herbs and forgotten vegetables.

Allergies Not published, ask the kitchen ahead

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

Jan Van den Bon

A long standing Ghent gastronomic address beside the Citadelpark, where a chef who tends his own city garden builds French Belgian menus around herbs and forgotten vegetables.

The essentials, at a glance

Allergies Not published, ask the kitchen ahead

Documented practices
Independently
reviewed
Seasonal cooking
Health-intentional kitchen

Documented practices

Seasonal cooking Menu rebuilt seasonally with the garden
Health-intentional kitchen Specific health practices named in at least one sub-area

Style
Fine dining
Cuisine
French
Good to know
Terrace
Garden
Recognised by
We're Smart Green Guide
Recognised by
We're Smart Green Guide

The delicious details

Jan Van den Bon has been a fixed point in Ghent dining for more than three decades, cooking in a family run townhouse beside the Citadelpark.

The city garden is the heart of it. Guests look out over it from the dining room, aperitifs are served on the terrace, and the chef tends it himself: gardening here is a family tradition passed from father to son. The adjoining herb garden feeds the kitchen directly.

Growing up in the vegetable country around Mechelen left him with a preference for herbs and for crops that fell out of fashion, among them parsnip, salsify and chervil root. The cooking is French Belgian and rooted in balanced nutrition, and nothing finished crosses the threshold.

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

Menus follow the season rather than a fixed card: three course lunch, four course seasonal menu and six course degustation, each rebuilt as the garden and region change. Sauces are made without cream, built from stock reductions. Nothing finished enters the house, bread, amuses, desserts and petit fours are all prepared on site.

Menus follow the season rather than a fixed card: a three course lunch, a four course seasonal menu and a six course degustation, each rebuilt as the garden and the region change. Fish and game birds lead most courses, with vegetables worked in around them in quantity, sorrel, spinach and kohlrabi with river eel, a courgette lasagne with aubergine and tomato beside croaker.

Nutritional intent sits in the technique rather than in labelling. Sauces are made without cream, built instead from vegetable and meat stock reductions in a slow simmered style, and the kitchen works from whole ingredients throughout.

Nothing finished enters the house. Bread, amuses, desserts and the petit fours served with coffee are all prepared on site.

Cuisine

French

Health-intentional kitchen

Specific health practices named in at least one sub-area
Self-declared

Health intent is stated and attached to concrete technique. The kitchen page opens by saying the kitchen reflects the chef's food culture and personality, shaped by parents who put balanced nutrition first, so nutritional quality is named as a formative principle rather than a marketing line.

Sauces are made without cream, built from vegetable or meat stock extracts in a slow simmered style, which is a stated and verifiable policy of fat and dairy restraint. The kitchen works from whole ingredients throughout: no finished product crosses the threshold, with bread, amuses, sauces, desserts and petit fours all made on site, supported by own grown herbs and vegetables.

Impact score
How this restaurant rates
2 - Engaged

Seasonality shapes what reaches the plate. The restaurant runs a named seasonal menu alongside its degustation, and the dishes move with what the garden and the region give: late summer courgette, aubergine and green beans give way to winter root crops.

Vegetables are the second focus. The chef grew up in the vegetable country around Mechelen, grows part of the produce himself in the city garden behind the restaurant, and works deliberately with crops that most kitchens have dropped, such as parsnip, salsify and chervil root.

The restaurant is listed in the We're Smart Green Guide, which assesses vegetable led cooking.

The impact dimensions

Local & direct sourcing

Seasonal cooking✓

Sustainable animal products

Plant-forward menu✓

Regional sourcing is stated as a value; the chef grows vegetables and herbs in the city garden and builds on forgotten Mechelen crops including parsnip and salsify. No external supplier is named for protein or dairy.

Local and regional sourcing is positioned as a value of this kitchen. The kitchen page states that the products come from the region and lead to cuisine du terroir, and names the forgotten crops of the Mechelen vegetable area that the chef works with: parsnip, salsify, turnip, red cabbage and chervil root.

The restaurant grows part of its own vegetables and herbs in the city garden behind the townhouse, which is the shortest supply chain available. Against that, no external supplier is named anywhere: not a grower, a butcher, a fishmonger or a dairy, in any channel. The published menus carry no origin for the lobster, croaker, river eel, pigeon or duck liver.

Strongest sourcejanvandenbon.be ↗

The restaurant publishes a seasonal menu rebuilt with the garden and region; late summer courgette, aubergine and green beans on published menus give way to winter root crops. Archived menu history was not available to confirm rotation frequency.

Seasonality is structural here rather than decorative. The restaurant publishes a standing menu format called the seizoensmenu, a four course seasonal menu priced alongside the six course degustation. The kitchen page states that the restaurant works to seasonal menus.

The city of Ghent tourism listing records that the restaurant has long used seasonal products, often from its own back garden, and describes a kitchen garden with greenhouse supplying the menu. The published menus are consistent with the stated season: river eel with sorrel, spinach and kohlrabi, croaker with courgette, aubergine and tomato, pigeon with green beans and mushrooms, all late summer produce.

Strongest sourcevisit.gent.be ↗

River eel and duck liver appear on both published menus with no traceability or welfare qualification; no butcher, fishmonger or farm is named; European eel is a species under pressure and foie gras raises welfare concerns.

Animal products run through every course of both published menus: duck liver terrine, river eel, croaker, lobster and young pigeon. The menus name the species and the cut, which is a partial sourcing signal, and the kitchen page's general statement that products come from the region attaches a region of origin without naming a producer.

No butcher, fishmonger or farm is named, no welfare standard is described, and no MSC, ASC, organic or equivalent certification appears in any channel. River eel, a species under severe pressure, is on both the degustation and seasonal menu with no sourcing or method qualification given. The degustation opens with a duck liver terrine, foie gras, raising welfare concerns.

Strongest sourcejanvandenbon.be ↗

The We're Smart Green Guide lists the chef's vegetable-led cooking. The menu is built on animal protein, duck liver, river eel, croaker, lobster, pigeon, with vegetables as components rather than the core, and vegan options available on request only.

There is a genuine vegetable identity here and the We're Smart Green Guide listing records it, describing a chef from a family in which vegetables, herbs and aromatic seasonings belong to their DNA, showing in preparations that bring a large number of ingredients together into a whole.

The kitchen page centres vegetables, naming parsnip, salsify, turnip, red cabbage and chervil root as crops the chef builds on and prepares individually to bring out texture and flavour, with part of that produce grown in the restaurant's own garden. The structure of the published menus is animal protein led: every course of both the degustation and seasonal menu is built on duck liver, river eel, croaker, lobster or pigeon, with vegetables carried as components rather than as the dish.

Strongest sourceWe're Smart Green Guide ↗

Sourcing signals

✓
Own-grown produce
✓
In-house preparation

The restaurant runs a deep city garden behind the townhouse, divided into ornamental, vegetable and herb gardens, which the chef tends himself; the herb garden is described as of vital importance to the cuisine.

No finished product crosses the threshold; the kitchen makes daily bread, amuses, sauces, desserts and petit fours served with coffee on site.

Visit & practical info
Address, price, and more
Address
Floraliënlaan 22, Gent, Belgium
Open in Google Maps ↗
Price
€€€
Format
Three-course lunch and four-course seasonal menu, six-course degustation. Book online.
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
Good to know
Terrace
Garden
Web
janvandenbon.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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