2 - Engaged
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Winkel van Sinkel operates with specific, documented practice in two areas.
Waste is the clearest of them: the kitchen separates into nine streams and sends its waste materials to Clique, which turns them into new products, so the spent coffee grounds grow the oyster mushrooms that come back as the house croquettes and bitterballen. Unsold food is offered through Too Good To Go. On energy there are solar panels, LED lighting with motion sensors, timers on heating and air conditioning, a water saving system in the wash up, insulation added during a roof renovation, and a replaced kitchen cooling installation that saves around 5,000 kWh a month. Deliveries arrive by electric vehicle, and delivery days are deliberately kept few.
The second area is the people side. Winkel van Sinkel is a recognised training company offering apprenticeships and work placements, selects on competence regardless of age, background or disability, and works with Koekfabriek so that colleagues who find it hard to enter the labour market take part in daily service and in events. Staff are recruited from the surrounding streets, which keeps the work in the neighbourhood.
The venue holds a Green Key Gold certificate, the highest level of that international hospitality certification, and has done so for seven years. Booking a meeting also plants a tree through Trees for All.
The impact dimensions
Low waste & circular practices✓
Sustainable animal products
Local origin is a sourcing value with some named suppliers and regional dishes marked on the menu.
The corporate responsibility statement says the kitchen looks at where its products come from and sources them from the Netherlands by preference, which makes origin a stated value of the kitchen. Two suppliers are named on the current card, Kaasfort for the cheese board and Frites van Zuyd for the chips. North Sea sole marks regional water origin.
The remainder of the card is built on French products including Comté, Gruyère, Mont Saint Michel oysters and Burgundy snails, so the share of key categories showing local or regional origin remains low. Named suppliers and a stated share of direct or regional sourcing would be the route to coverage.
The menu composition uses as many products in season as possible, and the dinner card includes a daily Plate du Saison the chef sets.
The corporate responsibility statement says the menu is composed using as many products in season as possible, and the dinner card carries a Plate du Saison, described as the seasonal dish of the chef and priced by the day. The published lunch and dinner card is dated May 2026, which shows the card is reissued rather than fixed indefinitely.
The core repertoire is a stable set of French classics including onion soup, bœuf bourguignon, cassoulet, steak with beurre Café de Paris and croque monsieur, around the seasonal slot. A documented quarterly or more frequent rotation across the mains would establish stronger seasonality.
Waste separated into nine streams with Clique partnership grows oyster mushroom croquettes from spent coffee grounds; solar panels, motion LEDs, water savings system, 5,000 kWh/month cooling replacement, electric supplier deliveries.
Practice is specific and named across food waste and energy. On food waste, the kitchen separates into nine streams and sends its waste materials to the named partner Clique, which uses them as raw material for new products, so the house oyster mushroom croquettes and bitterballen are grown on the restaurant's own spent coffee grounds; unsold food is offered through Too Good To Go.
On energy there are solar panels, LED lighting with motion sensors, timers on heating and air conditioning, an Aqua Fox water saving system in the wash up, insulation added during a roof renovation of the monument, and a replaced kitchen cooling installation reported to save around 5,000 kWh a month. Suppliers deliver by electric vehicle and delivery days are deliberately restricted. Booked meetings are carbon compensated through Trees for All.
The green fish list and bycatch policy are documented; North Sea sole and Mont Saint Michel oysters mark regional origin; meat dishes carry no named butcher, farm, breed or welfare certification.
The corporate responsibility statement sets a fish policy: to counter overfishing the kitchen works largely with bycatch or with alternatives that appear on the green fish list, which is a recognised independent reference. The current card supports this, naming North Sea sole by species and water and Mont Saint Michel oysters by origin.
Meat is the larger part of the card, with steak, beef tartare, bœuf bourguignon, poussin, confit de canard, pâté de campagne and cured ham, and no butcher, farm, breed or welfare label such as Beter Leven or organic is named for any animal category. A meat led card carrying only generic or country level origin claims holds this dimension at level 2.
Recognised training company offering apprenticeships and work placements. Works with Koekfabriek on employment for people distant from the labour market. Staff recruited from the surrounding neighbourhood. Green Key Gold certified for seven years.
Evidence spans employment and social sourcing. Winkel van Sinkel is a recognised training company, an erkend leerbedrijf, offering work placements and apprenticeships; states that recruitment and selection weigh competence regardless of age, background or disability; makes training and education accessible to all staff; and has a tested risk inventory and evaluation under Dutch working conditions law.
The venue works with Koekfabriek, a social enterprise employing people who find it hard to enter the labour market, and colleagues with a disability take part in daily service and in events. Staff are recruited from the immediate area as a stated contribution to the local economy. A cross departmental Green Key team, monthly internal newsletters and staff training on waste separation indicate the programme is run rather than only declared.
The dinner card carries vegetarian mains (cassoulet with beans, warm goat cheese salad) and vegan starters; meat and fish mains comprise about seven of ten dinner dishes.
The current lunch and dinner card of May 2026 was reviewed. Of ten dinner mains, the cassoulet of white beans with confit garlic, celeriac and carrot is marked vegetarian and the warm goat cheese salad is vegetarian in composition, so about a fifth of mains are free of meat and fish. Seven of the ten mains are built on a single animal protein: sole, cod, steak, beef tartare, bœuf bourguignon, poussin and duck confit.
Vegetables appear chiefly as sides, listed separately as gratin dauphinois, green salad, green beans in butter and gratinated chicory. Plant options are labelled and real but sit in the lighter courses, with a vegan vegetable croquette, a wild mushroom ragout and leek mimosa among the starters and two dishes marked vegan on request. A vegetable led main section and vegan mains rather than vegan starters would establish stronger plant-forward positioning.
