4 - Recognised
i
Sourcing stays close to home. Producers are named on the card, including strawberries from Four de Freeze-boer at Dentergem and aubergine from Vermeulen, and the kitchen keeps direct ties with the growers and farmers it buys from. The menus follow the season, moving from spring asparagus and morels through high summer tomato, pea and strawberry. On waste, the veal course is taken nose to tail, and as a member of the North Sea Chefs collective since 2013 the kitchen commits to cooking bycatch and undervalued North Sea species and to respecting fishing seasons.
Vegetables carry a menu of their own, Root, Herb & Greens, at the same four to seven courses as the land and sea menu. The restaurant is listed in the We're Smart Green Guide, which records vegetables as a layering presence through the cooking.
The impact dimensions
Low waste & circular practices✓
Sustainable animal products✓
Named, traceable local producers appear on the published menus, including strawberries from Four de Freeze-boer at Dentergem and aubergine from Vermeulen.
Named, traceable local producers appear on the published menus, which places this at partial evidence of local sourcing. The dish titles credit strawberries to Four de Freeze-boer and aubergine to Vermeulen; Four de Freeze-boer is independently verifiable as a strawberry grower at Dentergem, about 15 km away, on the Flemish short chain platform Lekker van bij ons. Regional seafood is a second traceable channel: the chef is listed on the North Sea Chefs member roster, whose members work with fish landed by Belgian and Dutch fishermen, and the published menu runs North Sea crab and a catch of the day. Michelin's dish description names Rodenbach of Roeselare, about 20 km away, used in cooking.
The positioning is corroborated outside the restaurant: independent coverage describes the chef as an ambassador for the short chain who keeps close ties with his suppliers and buys as locally as he can, and his own site states that he selects high quality regional products.
Most dishes change with the season and seasonality is communicated as a guiding principle.
Most dishes change with the season and seasonality is communicated as a guiding principle. Rotation is visible across three independent snapshots of the menu rather than claimed: Gault&Millau describes white asparagus with morels and carnaroli, a spring composition; the current published menus are summer throughout, with heirloom tomato, Nantes carrot, courgette, green pea, elderflower, strawberry and a course named Summer in Green; and Michelin describes a further dish of pork cheeks with cuttlefish, cockles and mussels.
The restaurant states pure seasonal cuisine with respect for the land as its operating principle and independent coverage reports that the chef adjusts the menu according to the seasons and buys only the best seasonal products from local growers and farmers. North Sea Chefs members additionally commit to respecting fishing seasons.
Two concrete practices are named in the food waste sub area: cooking bycatch and undervalued fish species as a North Sea Chefs member, and the veal course taken nose to tail.
Two concrete practices are named in the food waste sub area. The chef appears on the North Sea Chefs member roster in the 2013 cohort; the collective was founded in 2011 and its members commit to cooking fish of lesser known and undervalued species and bycatch, and the published menu titles its veal course From Nose to Tail, a stated whole animal preparation. In the energy sub area the chef interview records electric vehicle charging on the car park.
The seafood category carries a real, independently verifiable commitment to North Sea fish, but the dimension is held at level 2 by high impact commodities (abalone and caviar) carried without a sustainability qualification.
The seafood category carries a real, independently verifiable commitment. The chef is listed on the North Sea Chefs member roster in the 2013 cohort; members commit to lesser known and undervalued species and bycatch from Belgian and Dutch fishermen, respect for fishing seasons and respectful preparation, and a chef interview reports that he serves only North Sea fish. The published menu is consistent with this in parts, running North Sea crab and a catch of the day, and the veal course is titled From Nose to Tail.
Against that, the same menu carries an abalone course and a 10 g Osetra caviar supplement, neither of which is a North Sea product and neither of which is published with a farm, certification or other sustainability qualification; the rubric caps the dimension at 2 where a high impact commodity is served without a named sustainability qualification.
Social and community themes appear in the restaurant's positioning through its owner-run structure and direct ties with suppliers.
Social and community themes appear in the restaurant's positioning through its owner-run structure and direct ties with suppliers. The restaurant is owner run, opened in 2016 by the chef with a hostess leading the dining room, and independent coverage describes service standards and a settled front of house team. The chef is an ambassador for the short chain who keeps close ties with growers and farmers, and his North Sea Chefs membership connects him to Belgian and Dutch fishermen through the collective's knowledge exchange.
A complete vegetable menu, Root, Herb & Greens, runs in parallel with the main menu at every service, at the same length and nearly the same price.
A complete vegetable menu runs in parallel with the main menu at every service, which is meaningful plant presence on a mixed menu. The restaurant publishes two standing tasting menus of equal standing: the land and sea menu, and a named vegetarian menu, Root, Herb & Greens, running the same four to seven courses at within five euro of the same price, with its own dishes titled by the vegetable that carries them, among them heirloom tomato with pecorino and caper, Nantes carrot with chermoula and hemp, cauliflower with mushroom and sesame, aubergine from Vermeulen, and a course named Summer in Green.
That is well beyond a handful of vegetarian dishes. The We're Smart Green Guide lists the restaurant and records that vegetables play a layering role through the preparations, citing a scallop dish built on salsify and chicory.
Sourcing signals
✓
Direct named-farm sourcing
Two producers are named on the published menus (strawberries from Four de Freeze-boer at Dentergem and aubergine from Vermeulen), with Four de Freeze-boer independently verifiable as a strawberry grower on the Flemish short chain platform Lekker van bij ons.
