4 - Recognised
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Sourcing is short and direct. Herbs, tea plants and fruit come from the garden behind the building, where more than 100 kinds are grown and used fresh or dried through the year, and the rest is bought straight from farmers on weekly visits to the region. That rhythm sets the cooking, with four dishes a day and a card that is replaced every month, so the menu follows what is being harvested.
Resources are handled on several fronts at once. The water the kitchen cooks with is rainwater collected and purified on site, the building runs on solar panels and heat pumps, the interior was built by studio Onbetaalbaar from recovered and bio based materials, and produce is kept through in house fermenting and shrub making. The building itself was one of five case studies in the Flemish Government Architect's Terug in Omloop review of circular redevelopment.
The Eatery also carries a public role. Lunch is priced to stay affordable, the room is wheelchair accessible, the kitchen and garden are worked by volunteer teams, and the Eatery anchors Foodways, a training route for food professionals run with Rikolto that puts working farms inside the learning environment.
The impact dimensions
Low waste & circular practices✓
Sustainable animal products
Every ingredient is sourced directly from the restaurant's own garden or from local farms visited weekly.
The Eatery works exclusively with local products bought directly from the farmer, and chef Michael Blanckaert travels to farms in the region every week to select ingredients.
The garden on site grows more than 100 kinds of herb, tea plant and fruit, used fresh or dried through the year. This is a traceable, physically verifiable local source sitting alongside the weekly farm visits.
The four daily dishes are replaced entirely each month as the garden and farm deliveries shift through the growing season.
Four dishes are cooked each weekday and the entire card is replaced every month, with produce drawn from the on site garden and from weekly farm collections.
The garden grows herbs, tea plants and fruit used fresh in season and dried out of it. Monthly replacement of the whole card ensures the menu follows what is being harvested.
The building runs on solar panels and heat pumps, collects and purifies rainwater on site for kitchen use, and the interior was built from recovered and bio-based materials.
Energy and resources: the building runs on solar panels and heat pumps. The water the kitchen cooks with is rainwater collected and purified on site through Timelab's own water lab, which filters rainwater to drinking quality.
Materials: the interior was built by studio Onbetaalbaar from recovered and bio-based materials. The building was designed as an experiment in circular construction and is one of five case studies in the Flemish Government Architect's Terug in Omloop publication on circular brownfield redevelopment.
Food waste: preservation by fermenting and shrub making is carried out in house.
Meat and fish are sourced locally from the same weekly farm visits, with no named butcher, fishmonger or welfare certification documented.
Animal products are served. One monthly card carried a curry offered with either chicken thigh or portobello. The kitchen's general claim that it buys locally and directly from the farmer extends to those products, giving a regional origin signal without a named producer.
No individual butcher, farm or fishmonger is named for any animal product. No welfare certification is evidenced. A regional sourcing signal sits alongside the absence of named suppliers or welfare verification.
Lunch is priced to stay within reach, the space is wheelchair accessible, and Foodways is an ongoing training route for food professionals run with partner Rikolto.
The Eatery is run by Timelab, a non-profit cultural city lab. Lunch is deliberately priced so that quality food stays reachable, the space is fully wheelchair accessible, and the kitchen and garden are worked by volunteer teams alongside the chef.
Foodways is a named, cross-referenced social commitment: a training route for food professionals run with chef Michael Blanckaert and partners Rikolto and EFRO. It runs 12-week learning trajectories, places working farms inside the learning environment, and is documented on both the Eatery and Timelab project pages.
One menu observed ran plant and meat curries at the same price, with the vegetable option as a direct equal swap rather than a secondary choice.
One monthly card ran a green curry with roasted cauliflower, a curry served with either chicken thigh or portobello at the same price, a Thai laab salad and a soup. A vegetable-centred main sits alongside every animal one.
The plant version of the curry is offered as a direct swap at the same price rather than as a lesser alternative, putting the vegetable share in the 30 to 50 percent range. Composition is driven by the on site garden and by weekly farm collections.
Sourcing signals
✓
Low-impact beverage program
The garden on site carries more than 100 kinds of herb, tea plant and fruit, used fresh or dried through the year.
Ferments, shrubs, lemonades and other drinks are made on site, and a changing four-dish card is cooked daily from fresh ingredients.
House-made lemonades, shrubs and ferments replace bought soft drinks, and infusions are made from garden herbs and tea plants. Water served and cooked with is on-site purified rainwater.
