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Restaurant De Refugie Food Identity independently reviewed
Food Identity How restaurants source, cook and care. Independently reviewed

Restaurant De Refugie

A long running Franco-Belgian restaurant on the edge of Tienen, where Dover sole meunière and shrimp croquettes sit beside a fixed menu that is rewritten every month and always published in a full vegetarian version.

Allergies Not published, ask the kitchen ahead

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

Restaurant De Refugie

A long running Franco-Belgian restaurant on the edge of Tienen, where Dover sole meunière and shrimp croquettes sit beside a fixed menu that is rewritten every month and always published in a full vegetarian version.

The essentials, at a glance

Allergies Not published, ask the kitchen ahead

Documented practices
Independently
reviewed
Seasonal cooking

Documented practices

Seasonal cooking Monthly menus built around seasonal produce

Style
Casual
Cosy
Cuisine
French
Seafood
Good to know
Terrace
Wheelchair accessible
Dog-friendly
Child-friendly
Children's menu
Recognised by
We're Smart Green Guide
Recognised by
We're Smart Green Guide·1 radish

The delicious details

De Refugie has been cooking in Tienen since 1995, and it calls what it does bistronomie: an unforced dining room, Franco-Belgian cooking, and a bill meant to suit every budget.

The carte holds the dishes the kitchen is known for, from oysters and a seafood platter to Dover sole meunière, shrimp croquettes and a vol-au-vent. The fixed menus are where the year shows. They are rewritten every month, so October runs on figs, butternut, girolles and the catch of the day, and game appears through the autumn.

Every one of those monthly menus is also written out in full without meat or fish, at three or four courses, and two of the starters on the carte are marked as vegetable dishes. There is an outdoor terrace, a separate menu for children, and the room is wheelchair accessible.

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

Franco-Belgian cooking for every budget, built on a fixed menu that changes every month alongside a long-standing à la carte of oysters, Dover sole meunière, grey shrimp croquettes and roasted meats. Each monthly menu also publishes in full without meat or fish, at three or four courses, with a children's menu available.

The repertoire is Franco-Belgian and built around fish and seafood: oysters, a seafood platter, Dover sole meunière, langoustines, pike-perch and the catch of the day, with beef, duck, lamb and game alongside.

Vegetable cooking runs in parallel rather than as a footnote. Each monthly menu is published in a full vegetarian version at three or four courses, and the carte keeps its own vegetable starters: an eastern style radish carpaccio with lime, soy, ginger root and coriander, and a warm chicory tarte tatin with feta and walnuts.

The fixed menus change every month, so the autumn card reads differently from the winter one. A separate menu is written for children under twelve.

Cuisine

French
Seafood

Dietary options

Vegetarian options
Impact score
How this restaurant rates
1 - Starting

De Refugie rewrites its fixed menus every month, building each one around what the season offers: figs, butternut, girolles and the catch of the day in October, with game on the carte through the autumn.

The We're Smart Green Guide, a dedicated guide to vegetable and fruit cooking, includes De Refugie at one radish, the level it awards to a traditional kitchen that has brought genuine vegetable preparations onto its menu.

The impact dimensions

Seasonal cooking

Sustainable animal products

Plant-forward menu✓

Three distinct monthly menus, each built around the season: October features figs, butternut squash, girolles, and game.

The restaurant publishes three distinct monthly menus side by side, for October, November and December, each in a standard version and a full vegetarian version. The October card is clearly built on autumn produce: figs, butternut squash, girolles, a Calvados apple tart, with pheasant and venison on the à la carte through the same period.

The Tienen city tourism listing describes the kitchen as seizoensgebonden, seasonal. The à la carte itself remains largely static around the house classics, oysters, Dover sole meunière, grey shrimp croquettes, vol-au-vents, but the monthly menus are where the year shows.

Strongest sourceRestaurant submission

Named species on the menu, Dover sole, langoustines, grey shrimp, pike-perch, oysters, and beef, without named suppliers or certifications.

The menus are animal product heavy across both the carte and the monthly menus: oysters, a seafood platter at €69 per person, langoustines, Dover sole, grey shrimp, pike-perch, smoked river eel, catch of the day, beef, duck breast, lamb, pheasant, venison and Petits Gris snails. Named species and cuts narrow the sourcing picture.

Strongest sourceRestaurant submission

Full vegetarian version of each monthly menu at three or four courses; two plant-only starters marked Veggie on the à la carte.

The restaurant is listed in the We're Smart Green Guide, the dedicated guide to vegetable and fruit cooking, at one radish, the level awarded to a traditional kitchen in evolution that has brought genuine vegetable preparations onto its menu.

Each of the three published monthly menus carries a complete parallel vegetarian version at three or four courses, priced at €39 and €49. The à la carte carries two starters explicitly marked Veggie: an eastern style radish carpaccio with lime, soy, ginger root and coriander, and a warm chicory tarte tatin with feta and walnuts.

Strongest sourceWe're Smart Green Guide ↗
Visit & practical info
Address, price, and more
Address
Kapucijnenstraat 75, 3300 Tienen, Tienen, Belgium
Open in Google Maps ↗
Price
€€€
Format
Thursday to Sunday 12:00-13:30 and 18:00-21:00
Hours
MondayClosed
TuesdayClosed
WednesdayClosed
Thursday12:00–13:30, 18:00–21:00
Friday12:00–13:30, 18:00–21:00
Saturday12:00–13:30, 18:00–21:00
Sunday12:00–13:30, 18:00–21:00
Not captured during screening. Opening days and hours are sourced from Google Places by the dedicated backfill. The restaurant's own site states closed Monday to Wednesday, and service Thursday to Sunday from 12:00 to 13:30 and 18:00 to 21:00.
Style
Casual
Cosy
Good to know
Terrace
Wheelchair accessible
Dog-friendly
Child-friendly
Children's menu
Web
derefugie.be
Reviewed by My Treats
Last reviewed 15 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.
This place
Engaged Credible practice across two dimensions.
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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