3 - Endorsed
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Storm's menus follow the North Sea season and the daily landings at the quay in front of the door. Both set menus, Laagtij and Hoogtij, are composed around the week's deliveries and the state of the catch, with the published menu rewritten roughly monthly and the fish course determined by what the boats bring in each day.
Known and lesser known North Sea species are worked from head to tail and nothing is discarded; the trim is turned into fermented fish sauce. The kitchen deliberately works with underused and commercially neglected species, a commitment formalised through chef Michiel Rabaey's membership of NorthSeaChefs, whose charter binds members to promote bycatch and lesser known species from local fishers and to respect fishing seasons.
Storm is also listed in the We're Smart Green Guide, the international guide to vegetable led cooking.
The impact dimensions
Low waste & circular practices✓
Sustainable animal products✓
Fish is bought daily from the boats moored at Oostende fish market; seasonal produce and meat from the surrounding polders; wild herbs from the dunes.
Local sourcing is a stated and well-documented value of this kitchen, and the buying relationship is unusually short. The restaurant's own kitchen page presents the menu as built on the diversity of the North Sea and the surrounding polders. The We're Smart Green Guide listing describes known and lesser known North Sea fish, seasonal products and fresh meat from the nearby polders.
Gault&Millau's chef feature reports that ingredients are sourced within a one kilometre radius and that even the interior objects come from Oostende itself. The Michelin Guide entry carries its own 'Farm-to-table' label. Fish is bought daily straight from the boats that moor in front of the door at the Oostende fish market, with wild herbs taken from the dunes.
Set menus rewritten monthly around deliveries and seasonality; the Catch of the Day changes daily with the fishing fleet.
Seasonality is the organising principle of the menu rather than a decorative claim. The restaurant publishes only two set menus, Laagtij and Hoogtij, and states that they are composed taking deliveries and seasonality into account, with dishes liable to change according to market availability and the weather.
The published menu carried a dated five-week window, which is rotation well beyond the quarterly bar. A standing Catch of the Day runs on whatever the boats land, and editorial coverage reports that the chef does not order specific fish but cooks what comes in as bycatch, working to the rhythm of the tides and the fishing seasons. The We're Smart Green Guide listing and the Michelin Guide entry independently cite seasonal products.
Fish processed from head to tail; fermented fish sauce from trim; cures and seaweed-based preparations; underused species diverted from fishmeal stream.
Concrete, named food waste practices are documented and independently corroborated. The restaurant's own kitchen page states that known and lesser known fish species are processed from head to tail and that nothing is lost.
Belgian press coverage from March 2024 describes a zero-waste approach in which every part of the fish is used. Earlier editorial coverage names specific methods: fermented fish sauce made from the trim, cooking with seaweed water, and a dry sausage in which part of the salt is replaced by algae. Cooking underused species and bycatch also keeps fish out of the fishmeal stream, which is the stated purpose of the NorthSeaChefs programme.
NorthSeaChefs member; 34 named North Sea species in regular rotation, including undervalued and bycatch species; whole-fish utilization.
The fish category carries a verifiable third-party sourcing commitment. Michiel Rabaey is listed on the NorthSeaChefs register, the Belgian collective founded in 2011 whose ethical charter commits members to use and promote undervalued species and bycatch landed by Belgian and Dutch fishers, to cook respectfully caught fish, and to respect fishing seasons.
The restaurant's own Catch of the Day page catalogues 34 North Sea species, including many commercially neglected ones (dogfish, pouting, whiting, scad, garfish, smelt, whelks, ray), which is species-level evidence of that commitment in practice. Fish is landed by the boats at the quay in front of the restaurant and bought the same day, and the whole fish is used from head to tail.
Fishing for Litter project with local fishers (2018); recent branding collaboration highlighting the local fishing trade.
One named community initiative is on record: Gault&Millau's chef feature reports that Rabaey runs a Fishing for Litter project challenging the Oostende fishers to bring back as much plastic as they can from the sea, with the chef cooking a dinner aboard the winning vessel as the prize. Fishing for Litter is a real, cross-referenceable Flemish fisheries programme.
Recent material from a December 2024 agency case study describes a branding collaboration by Michiel and Nathalie that puts the local fishing trade and its fishers in the spotlight. The business is run by the two owners, who both grew up in the city.
We're Smart Green Guide listing. Vegetables are composed elements in each course, but the kitchen is structurally fish-led with no vegetarian or vegan menu option.
Storm holds a We're Smart Green Guide listing, whose entry threshold requires fruit and vegetables to make up a meaningful share of the whole meal. The guide's own description of the kitchen centres on seasonal products alongside the fish.
Vegetables are treated as composed elements rather than garnish across the published menu: cauliflower with pickles and soy, oxheart tomato with hazelnut, parsnip with mushroom and celeriac cream, chicory and red chicory, celeriac with girolles, daikon, green asparagus, plus hummus and seaweed. The offer is two fixed fish and shellfish menus with every savoury course built on a North Sea species, and no vegetarian or vegan course is published on either menu.
Sourcing signals
Fermented fish sauce from trim, cures, pickles, black garlic, algae-salt sausage, and classic sauces and stocks are made in house.
