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

Cuchara

A fine dining room on a Lommel pedestrian street, where Jan Tournier builds long tasting menus from French and Belgian flavours with Japanese seasoning, and gives vegetables and fruit about half of every meal.

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

Cuchara

A fine dining room on a Lommel pedestrian street, where Jan Tournier builds long tasting menus from French and Belgian flavours with Japanese seasoning, and gives vegetables and fruit about half of every meal.

The essentials, at a glance


Documented practices
Independently
reviewed
Seasonal cooking
Plant-forward menu

Documented practices

Seasonal cooking Fixed menu moves with seasonal availability
Plant-forward menu Plant ingredients comprise about half of each menu

Style
Fine dining
Cosy
Trendy
Cuisine
Asian
French
Fusion
Good to know
Private dining room
Recognised by
We're Smart Green Guide
Recognised by
We're Smart Green Guide·3 radishes

The delicious details

Cuchara takes its name from the Spanish word for spoon, a nod to the Lepelstraat address it has held since 2009. Jan Tournier opened it in his grandparents' house and has grown it into a design led room hung with a seven metre glass tree blown from Lommel sand.

The cooking rests on classic French technique, carries Belgian flavours underneath, and takes its seasoning from Japan. Menus run long, 12 or 18 small dishes, with the product at the centre of each. Vegetables and fruit make up about half of a meal.

The fixed menu follows the seasons, with asparagus from the sandy soil near Peer in spring and forest berries as the year turns. Tournier is a culinary ambassador for the Nationaal Park Bosland that surrounds the town.

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

A fixed seasonal tasting menu of twelve or eighteen courses. French technique sets the structure, while Japanese seasoning, koji, miso, yuzu, dashi, nori, gives the accents. Vegetables and fruit carry about half of each meal alongside meat, fish and game; the kitchen cannot provide entirely vegetarian, vegan or meat-only menus.

Service is built around one fixed tasting menu that changes with the seasons, offered in a shorter and a longer form at both lunch and dinner.

French technique sets the structure and Japanese seasoning gives the accents: koji, miso, dashi, yuzu and nori run through the courses, alongside North Sea crab, Irish oysters and game in season. Vegetables and fruit carry about half of a meal, and the kitchen treats them as subjects rather than sides.

The restaurant states that it cannot serve an entirely vegetarian, vegan or meat only menu, and asks guests with a serious allergy to give notice in advance so the kitchen can plan around it.

Cuisine

Asian
French
Fusion
Allergies & intolerances
How this kitchen handles the EU-14 allergens
Handled on request
Public sources point to a working level of allergen accommodation, but no dedicated preparation area. Treat this as a starting point and confirm directly.
Always confirm your allergy directly with the restaurant when booking.
Researched from public sources · cuchara.be · not yet confirmed by the restaurant
Impact score
How this restaurant rates
2 - Engaged

Cuchara's menu is fixed and moves with the seasons: asparagus from the sandy soil around Peer in spring, forest mushrooms and berries as the year turns, and a rotation that follows what is actually available rather than a standing card. Jan Tournier holds a culinary ambassadorship for the Nationaal Park Bosland around Lommel, the landscape those seasons come from.

Vegetables and fruit carry about half of every meal, giving plants real structural weight on a menu that also features meat and fish. The We're Smart Green Guide lists the restaurant at three radishes in recognition of that plant-forward approach.

The impact dimensions

Local & direct sourcing✓

Seasonal cooking✓

Sustainable animal products✓

Social impact✓

Plant-forward menu✓

Regional asparagus from Peer arrives in spring and forest berries in season; a Japanese pantry and imported seafood and game complete the tasting menu.

Asparagus from the sandy soil near Peer arrives in spring, and forest blueberries, blackberries and raspberries from the Bosland landscape are named in the chef's ambassador profile and in Visit Lommel. The seasons of the region shape the kitchen's menu across these key crops.

The tasting menu also carries a substantial non-regional layer: Irish Mór oysters, Australian winter truffle, Japanese koji, miso, yuzu, nori, bonito and sake, plus imported tuna and hamachi run through the courses. The proportion of key categories with demonstrable local or regional sourcing sits below the threshold for a higher level.

Strongest sourceNationaal Park Bosland ↗

The fixed tasting menu changes continuously with the seasons, Peer asparagus in spring, forest berries as the year turns, autumn mushrooms, and a rhythm set by product availability.

The kitchen runs a single fixed tasting menu that changes with the seasons. The restaurant's own menu page states that the kitchen works with fresh daily products, so small changes occur continuously; listed dishes and prices may shift.

Spring brings asparagus from the sandy soil near Peer, autumn forest mushrooms, and summer blueberries, blackberries and raspberries from the Bosland landscape. The chef's ambassador profile and Visit Lommel feature both record this seasonal cycle explicitly, and the Gault and Millau entry and press coverage describe the fixed menu adjusted to the rhythm of the seasons and to product availability.

Strongest sourceNationaal Park Bosland ↗

Beef, venison, pigeon, suckling pig, crab, oysters, tuna and hamachi feature across the tasting menu, with Irish Mór oysters and North Sea crab named by origin.

Animal products are prominent across the tasting menu, with beef tartare, venison, pigeon, suckling pig, veal cheek, duck, lobster, North Sea crab, Irish Mór oysters, tuna, hamachi, koji-marinated salmon and smoked eel appearing across the twelve to eighteen courses.

Irish Mór oysters and North Sea crab are identified by region in the Gault and Millau entry. For other items, the regional or producer origin is not named on any published source.

Strongest sourceGault&Millau ↗

Jan Tournier holds a named ambassadorship for the Nationaal Park Bosland; he founded the restaurant in his grandparents' house in his home town of Lommel.

Jan Tournier holds a named ambassadorship for the Nationaal Park Bosland, which maintains his profile on its own site. The ambassador role centres on regional promotion.

He founded Cuchara in his grandparents' house in his home town of Lommel. The restaurant's own chef page records this founding story as part of the kitchen's rooted identity.

Strongest sourceNationaal Park Bosland ↗

Vegetables and fruit make up about half of each tasting menu. The We're Smart Green Guide lists the restaurant at three radishes for this plant-forward approach on a menu that also features meat and fish.

The We're Smart Green Guide lists the restaurant at three radishes. The listing records that vegetables, fruit and spices account for approximately half of the twelve or eighteen dishes in each menu, and describes a plant-focused culinary philosophy integrated through the whole tasting menu.

Animal proteins appear in every menu at every length. The restaurant's own menu page states that it cannot provide an entirely vegetarian, vegan or meat-only menu, so vegetarian and vegan options are not extensive or the kitchen's structural priority.

Strongest sourceWe're Smart Green Guide ↗
Visit & practical info
Address, price, and more
Address
Lepelstraat 3, 3920 Lommel, Lommel, Belgium
Open in Google Maps ↗
Price
€€€€
Format
Twelve- or eighteen-course tasting menu, by reservation
Hours
MondayClosed
Tuesday18:30–19:30
Wednesday12:00–13:30, 18:30–23:00
Thursday12:00–13:30, 18:30–19:30
Friday12:00–13:30, 18:30–19:30
Saturday18:30–19:30
SundayClosed
Not captured during screening; opening hours are sourced from Google Places by the server backfill. The restaurant's own pages state Tuesday to Saturday service with lunch arrival 12:00 to 13:00 and dinner arrival 18:30 or 19:00, closed Sunday and Monday.
Style
Fine dining
Cosy
Trendy
Good to know
Private dining room
Web
cuchara.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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