Restaurant in Liernu, Belgium
Farm-driven tasting menu worth the detour.
L'air du Temps holds two Michelin stars and a Les Grandes Tables du Monde award in rural Liernu, Wallonia. Chef Sang-Hoon Degeimbre runs a vegetable-led tasting menu built on an on-site farm of several acres — fish and meat are secondary to the produce. Booking is Near Impossible; plan well in advance. At €€€€, it delivers one of Belgium's most coherent ingredient-to-table arguments at this price point.
The most common misreading of L'air du Temps is that it is primarily a French fine dining restaurant with some Asian influence. It is not. Chef Sang-Hoon Degeimbre has built something closer to a plant-forward tasting experience, where vegetables sourced from an on-site farm of several acres are the actual subject of each plate, and fish or meat appears as a secondary note rather than the headline. If you arrive expecting a classic Franco-Asian luxury dinner, you will be recalibrating from the first course. If you arrive understanding the premise, you will find one of the most coherent kitchen-to-table sourcing arguments in Belgium — or, for that matter, in Europe.
L'air du Temps holds two Michelin stars (2024 and 2025), a place in La Liste's leading restaurants at 88.5 points in 2025, a Les Grandes Tables du Monde membership, and a ranking of 61st on Opinionated About Dining's European list in 2024. That is a consistent track record across multiple credentialing bodies, which tells you the kitchen is performing at a level the industry takes seriously across disciplines — not just within one evaluation framework. The Star Wine List recognition (White Star, 2023) also signals that the wine program is worth your attention alongside the food.
The farm at L'air du Temps is not a marketing prop. It covers several acres, requires a dedicated team to operate, and drives the daily composition of what arrives at the table. This matters for the explorer-minded diner because it means the menu is genuinely seasonal in a structural sense: the kitchen cannot reach for out-of-season imports without undermining the premise. What you eat at a Tuesday dinner in October will be materially different from what you eat on a Saturday in April. That is not a commonly reliable claim at this price point, where luxury kitchens often maintain the appearance of seasonality while sourcing globally.
The We're Smart recognition frames this correctly: Degeimbre's kitchen is one of the reference cases for a vegetable-first high-end restaurant format. When you pay €€€€ here, you are partly paying for the operational cost of that farm infrastructure , the team, the land, the seasonal risk , and for the translation of that raw material into technically precise cooking that draws on both French classical training and Korean culinary sensibility. That combination is less common than it sounds. For a direct point of comparison at a similar technical level, Atomix in New York City executes a Korean-influenced fine dining format with comparable precision, but operates in a very different ingredient and service context. L'air du Temps' singularity is rooted in where it is, not just how it cooks.
Liernu is a small village in the Éghezée municipality of Wallonia , agricultural, quiet, far from Brussels traffic. The setting shapes the experience before you sit down. There is no urban noise bleed, no street energy, no background hum of a city neighbourhood. The ambient feel at L'air du Temps is deliberate and composed: the kind of room where the food and conversation hold the attention because nothing external competes for it. Diners who want a buzzy metropolitan energy are better served elsewhere. Those who want full focus on what is on the plate will find the quiet useful.
Service runs Tuesday through Saturday, dinner only, from 7pm to 8:30pm. The Sunday and Monday closure is firm. If you are planning travel from Brussels or further afield, factor in that this is an evening-only commitment in a rural location, so overnight accommodation nearby is worth arranging. See our full Liernu hotels guide for options, and our full Liernu restaurants guide if you are extending the trip.
Booking difficulty is rated Near Impossible. At two stars with a restaurant of this profile, tables are genuinely scarce. Plan well in advance , several weeks at minimum for a standard booking window, and potentially longer for weekend slots given the limited operating days. There is no walk-in culture at this level. Contact the restaurant directly and have alternative dates ready. If your target dates are unavailable, consider the broader Belgian two-star circuit: Boury in Roeselare and Hof van Cleve in Kruishoutem operate at a comparable level and may have more availability depending on your travel window.
For context on the wider Belgian fine dining circuit, Zilte in Antwerp, Willem Hiele in Oudenburg, and Bartholomeus in Heist each offer distinct profiles worth considering depending on your priorities. If you are in Brussels itself, Bozar Restaurant offers a different register of the city's fine dining options.
| Detail | L'air du Temps | Boury | Comme chez Soi |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price range | €€€€ | €€€€ | €€€€ |
| Stars (Michelin 2025) | 2 Stars | 2 Stars | 3 Stars |
| Booking difficulty | Near Impossible | Difficult | Difficult |
| Service days | Tue–Sat, dinner only | Check directly | Check directly |
| Setting | Rural, Wallonia | Roeselare town | Brussels city centre |
| Format | Tasting, vegetable-led | Creative French | Classic French-Belgian |
Dress code is not specified in available data, but at this price and award level, smart to semi-formal is the standard expectation across comparable Belgian two-star restaurants. Arrive dressed accordingly.
See the full comparison section below for how L'air du Temps sits relative to Castor, Cuchara, De Jonkman, and other €€€€ Belgian restaurants.
If you are building an itinerary around Wallonian dining, L'Eau Vive in Arbre and d'Eugénie à Emilie in Baudour are worth including. For local exploration beyond the table, see our Liernu bars guide, our Liernu wineries guide, and our Liernu experiences guide.
| Venue | Cuisine | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| L'air du temps | French - Asian, Creative | L'Air du Temps is a restaurant in Liernu, Belgium. It was published on Star Wine List on October 19, 2023 and is a White Star.; La Liste Top Restaurants (2026): 87pts; Sang-Hoon Degeimbre is a chef who not only understands the art of communication but who also works miracles with vegetables from his own garden, a garden that now covers acres and keeps a whole team at work. Every day it provides the raw materials for the new flavours and combinations with which the now world-famous chef excels. We think back to his many creations of vegetables or fruits where fish and meat rather as an extra touch in a limited number of dishes. We may certainly put this culinary temple forward as an example for the concept of a We're Smart ® restaurant of the future!; Sang-Hoon Degeimbre is a chef who not only understands the art of communication but who also works miracles with vegetables from his own garden, a garden that now covers acres and keeps a whole team at work. Every day it provides the raw materials for the new flavours and combinations with which the now world-famous chef excels. We think back to his many creations of vegetables or fruits where fish and meat rather as an extra touch in a limited number of dishes. We may certainly put this culinary temple forward as an example for the concept of a We're Smart ® restaurant of the future!; Michelin Plate (2025); La Liste Top Restaurants (2025): 88.5pts; Les Grandes Tables Du Monde Award (2025); Michelin 2 Stars (2025); Opinionated About Dining Top Restaurants in Europe Ranked #61 (2024); Michelin Plate (2024); Michelin 2 Stars (2024); Star Wine List #1 (2023); Opinionated About Dining Top New Restaurants in Europe Ranked #38 (2023) | Near Impossible | — |
| Boury | Modern Frlemish, Creative French | Michelin 3 Star | Unknown | — |
| Comme chez Soi | French - Belgian, Classic Cuisine | Michelin 1 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Castor | Modern European, Modern French | Michelin 2 Star | Unknown | — |
| Cuchara | Modern European, Creative | Michelin 2 Star | Unknown | — |
| De Jonkman | Modern Flemish, Creative | Michelin 2 Star | Unknown | — |
Comparing your options in Liernu for this tier.
At €€€€ with two Michelin stars and a La Liste score of 88.5pts (2025), L'air du Temps sits at the top tier of Belgian fine dining by any verifiable measure. The case for the price rests on the farm operation: a dedicated multi-acre growing team that shapes the menu daily, which is a different sourcing model than most restaurants at this price point. If vegetable-led, chef-driven tasting menus are your format, the value holds. If you want a more conventional protein-focused fine dining experience, Comme chez Soi in Brussels may suit you better.
L'air du Temps runs a tasting menu format driven by produce from Sang-Hoon Degeimbre's on-site farm — specific dishes are not listed à la carte and change with availability. The kitchen's identity is vegetables-first, with fish and meat appearing as secondary components rather than the focus. Ordering here means committing to the menu as constructed on the night, not selecting from a fixed list.
No bar dining option is documented for L'air du Temps. The restaurant operates Tuesday through Saturday evenings only, with a single dinner service window (7–8:30 pm). At two Michelin stars in a rural Wallonian setting, the format is a seated tasting menu experience rather than a casual counter service.
Yes, and the setting reinforces the occasion: a quiet village in agricultural Wallonia, well away from city noise, with a two-star kitchen and Les Grandes Tables du Monde membership. The booking difficulty is rated Near Impossible, so plan several weeks or months ahead. For a milestone dinner where the journey itself is part of the experience, it works well. For a low-key celebration in Brussels, Comme chez Soi is easier to access and book.
No dress code is explicitly documented, but at two Michelin stars and Les Grandes Tables du Monde level, smart dress is a reasonable baseline. The rural Wallonian location — a working-farm environment — gives the setting a less formal register than an urban two-star, so severe formality is probably not required. When in doubt, err toward polished rather than casual.
The tasting menu is the only format here, so the real question is whether the concept justifies the commitment. Ranked #61 in Opinionated About Dining's Top Restaurants in Europe (2024), with two Michelin stars held across consecutive years, the kitchen's credibility is not in question. The menu is vegetable-led by design, not by trend — Degeimbre's farm supplies the raw material daily. If that philosophy aligns with what you want from a tasting menu, the answer is yes. If you want classic French progression with premium proteins at the centre, De Jonkman or Boury may be a better fit.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
