2 - Engaged
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Two areas of De Weijers Hoven's practice are confirmed in detail: where the produce comes from, and how closely the menu follows the season.
Vegetables, herbs and fruit come from the chef's own garden and orchard, which makes the restaurant its own grower for part of the kitchen. Regional origins are named for seafood, with Zeeland mussels and North Sea shrimp, and the family wine house carries Belgian and Limburg growers alongside French producers bought direct. Gault&Millau notes that local produce receives close attention in this kitchen.
The card and menus follow the rhythm of the seasons and are adjusted often, with dishes built around what is in: Jerusalem artichoke with celery and parsley, asparagus with lime and radish, cherry with chilli later in the year. A four course surprise menu is composed each Thursday from what is available.
The restaurant is listed in the We're Smart Green Guide, the international guide to vegetable led cooking.
The impact dimensions
Sustainable animal products✓
Xavier Conings keeps a small herb and vegetable garden and fruit orchard planted with unusual varieties, which set the direction of the cooking, and the kitchen sources Zeeland mussels and North Sea shrimp regionally.
Local and regional sourcing is a stated principle of the kitchen. The We're Smart Green Guide listing records that Xavier Conings keeps a small herb and vegetable garden and a fruit orchard planted with the more unusual varieties, and that these are what he builds his dishes around, which makes the restaurant itself a traceable local source for produce, herbs and fruit.
Named regional origins appear for seafood, with Zeeland mussels in the restaurant's own menu description and a bisque of North Sea shrimp in the Gault&Millau review, and the family wine house at the same address carries Belgian wines with an emphasis on Limburg growers alongside French producers bought direct from the estate. Gault&Millau states that local products receive close attention in this regional kitchen.
The card and menus follow the rhythm of the seasons and are adjusted often, with a four course surprise menu composed each Thursday from what is available.
The restaurant states that its card and menus always follow the rhythm of the seasons and are therefore adjusted often, and the published formats support a rotating kitchen: a four course surprise menu on Thursdays composed by the chef from what is available, a changing three course Sunday lunch, and a lobster menu run on set Fridays between late May and the end of July.
The We're Smart Green Guide listing describes dishes tied to distinct points in the year, Jerusalem artichoke with celery and parsley, asparagus with lime and radish, and cherry with chilli, while Gault&Millau describes a spring lunch built on North Sea shrimp and spring onion, and other published dishes name courgette, asparagus, scorzonera, chicory and parsnip. The chef's own herb and vegetable garden and fruit orchard reinforce the pattern, since garden produce arrives when it arrives.
Zeeland mussels and North Sea shrimp are named in the menu and reviews, but no butcher or fishmonger is identified and no welfare or fisheries credentials are evidenced.
Meat, game, poultry and seafood all feature on the published menus. Regional origin is named for part of the seafood: Zeeland mussels in the restaurant's own menu description and a bisque of North Sea shrimp in the Gault&Millau review, both of which narrow the sourcing picture without identifying a producer.
No butcher, fishmonger or farm is named anywhere, and no welfare or fisheries credential (Beter Leven, MSC, ASC, organic) is evidenced for any animal product. Published dish descriptions also include species that carry an environmental question and no stated qualification: swordfish in the Gault&Millau review and smoked eel in the We're Smart Green Guide listing.
Vegetables from the chef's own garden anchor dish composition through contrasts of hot and cold and sweet and sour, but the menu is built around fish, meat and game.
Vegetables carry real weight in how dishes are composed. The We're Smart Green Guide listing records that Xavier Conings plants the more unusual vegetables and fruits in his own garden and orchard, and that he builds his dishes around contrasts of hot and cold and sweet and sour with vegetables; the examples it gives pair a vegetable composition with a protein, such as Jerusalem artichoke, celery and parsley with haddock, or asparagus, lime and radish with smoked eel.
Gault&Millau and the restaurant's own menu descriptions name a wide vegetable range across dishes, including kohlrabi, courgette, celeriac, scorzonera, leek, chicory, parsnip, asparagus and spring onion. A vegetarian offering is listed on the regional tourism entry. The menu is nonetheless built around fish, meat and game, and no vegetarian or vegan main is published.
Sourcing signals
✓
Low-impact beverage program
The We're Smart Green Guide listing records that the chef keeps a small herb and vegetable garden and a fruit orchard, planted with the more unusual varieties, and that these set the direction of the cooking.
The family wine house at the same address imports directly from independent growers in Burgundy and the Rhône without intermediaries and carries Belgian wines with an emphasis on Limburg bottles. Refills for reusable water bottles are offered.
