3 - Endorsed
i
Cécila brings together three areas of responsible cooking: local sourcing, seasonal menus, and a kitchen built around vegetables.
Sourcing is the first. Vegetables come mainly from Belgium, and the trout is named on the menu by its producer, a small fish farm at Waimes in the province of Liège. Herbs and edible flowers come from the chef's own garden through the summer.
Season sets the menu rather than decorating it. The kitchen keeps no fixed signature dishes, the lunch offer is built around what the day brings, and the chef describes the seasons and the market as the starting point for her cooking.
Vegetables carry the menu rather than accompanying it. A full vegetable tasting menu runs at every service alongside the marine one, at the same length, and the restaurant is listed at the highest level of the We're Smart Green Guide, which rates kitchens on vegetable led cooking. That vegetable menu was named Vegetable Menu of the Year 2025 by Gault&Millau, where the kitchen also holds 15 out of 20 and three toques.
The impact dimensions
Low waste & circular practices✓
Sustainable animal products
Vegetables come mainly from Belgium, with a named trout producer at Waimes; herbs and flowers come from the chef's own garden through the summer.
Vegetables, the dominant ingredient category, come mainly from Belgium. One producer is named directly on the current menu: trout from La Truite d'Ondenval, a small fish farm at Waimes in the province of Liège. The farm is independently verifiable through the Circuits Paysans short circuit cooperative. Belgian non alcoholic drinks producers also appear in the pairings, including Bôtan Distillery vegetable hydrolats.
The chef buys from markets regularly and states openly that for fish the local radius extends beyond Belgium, with some fish bought in France. Herbs and edible flowers come from her own garden through the summer.
No fixed signature dishes; the season decides the menu, with different menus recorded across every year.
Seasonality is the organising principle of the kitchen rather than a decorative claim. The restaurant keeps no fixed signature dishes because the season decides the menu. The chef describes the seasons and the market as the starting point for her cooking. The lunch offer is built as an Instantané du jour, and a Thursday evening menu runs outside the carte.
Independent reviews across 2024, 2025 and 2026 record entirely different dishes each time, supporting a menu that rotates fundamentally rather than superficially with the season.
Waste reduction is a stated principle; the chef aims to keep the strict minimum in the bin and wants to sort waste.
Waste reduction is a stated working principle. The chef aims to keep a strict minimum in the bin for ecological as well as economic reasons, and she wants to sort waste. She is sceptical of scrap-based zero waste cooking as a trend, preferring to work with whole, quality ingredients.
The 2023 interview is close to the three-year age limit, and a 2026 remark corroborates the waste-conscious posture but adds no new practice named or verified.
One named trout producer is featured with multiple seafood species; no certifications are evidenced for any animal product.
Fish and seafood are the animal categories here; meat is largely absent from the menu. One supplier is named on the menu, La Truite d'Ondenval at Waimes, a small spring-fed trout farm that is independently verifiable. Multiple species appear consistently across reviews, including scallops, langoustine, mackerel, skrei, king crab, cuttlefish and eel.
No MSC, ASC or organic certification is evidenced for any animal product. Swordfish, European eel and farmed hamachi are high-impact species appearing without a named sustainability qualification. The chef states that fish is sometimes bought in France.
Social positioning centres on good working conditions for staff; one dedicated menu for diners under twenty-seven is offered through the Jeunes Gastronomes club.
Social evidence is limited to positioning statements. The chef has acknowledged that younger staff expect better working conditions than her own generation accepted, and she regards offering good positions as the way to attract reliable and skilled people.
In early 2025 she built a dedicated four-course menu at 120 euros, all inclusive, for diners under twenty-seven through the Jeunes Gastronomes club.
The restaurant holds the highest We're Smart rating (five radishes) for plant-forward cooking; the vegetable tasting menu runs at equal length to the marine menu at every service.
Vegetables carry the menu rather than accompanying it. The restaurant is listed at the highest level of the We're Smart Green Guide, five radishes, which the chef confirmed in July 2026. The guide's listing describes a pure plant menu built on local seasonal vegetables, fresh herbs and edible flowers. A full vegetable tasting menu, Exploration Végétale, runs at every service at the same length as the marine menu, and Gault&Millau named it Vegetable Menu of the Year 2025.
Independent coverage notes that where many gastronomic kitchens treat vegetables as an accompaniment, at Cécila they take the leading role. The chef's stated aim is to let people rediscover the taste of vegetables, and she works extensively with algae and sea vegetables, describing the sea as a vegetable garden.
Sourcing signals
✓
Direct named-farm sourcing
Trout from La Truite d'Ondenval, a farm at Waimes in the province of Liège, is named on the marine menu and verified through the Circuits Paysans cooperative. Bôtan Distillery vegetable hydrolats appear in the non-alcoholic drink pairings.
