Arabelle Meirlaen

Arabelle Meirlaen: Intuitive Cooking in Marchin

In Marchin, Belgium, chef Arabelle Meirlaen leads a restaurant built around what she calls “intuitive cooking.” The kitchen presents its food as healthy, elegant, and flavorful, and the restaurant holds one red and one green Michelin star, along with a score of 18/20 from Gault & Millau.

Meirlaen describes cooking as an expression of life: “like life itself—beautiful, flavorful, crisp, full of love and emotion.” The restaurant says food has a fundamental effect on health, particularly the digestive system, and works with the natural properties of plants and organic ingredients grown in the chef’s own garden.

Organic Ingredients and a Garden of Her Own

The food combines warm hospitality with balanced dishes, gently cooked to order, and explicit attention to visual presentation. Pierre Thirifays presents a selection of elegant, fruit-forward wines alongside the menu.

The website includes a section on the restaurant’s philosophy, featuring a reflection by philosopher and author Bertrand Dejardin (1949–2022) on intuition as an act of passion rather than a mental faculty or a sixth sense.

Menus and Sample Dishes

The restaurant offers menus by service. The website listed a four-course lunch for €75 for Thursday, September 17, and Friday, September 18, featuring current appetizers, a North Sea seafood course, the day’s sustainably sourced fish with Mediterranean red mullet, a red-fruit course, a chocolate option called Arabello, and handmade petit fours.

The website also includes menus, a shop, a photo gallery, a virtual tour, job listings, and an online reservation system.

Recognition

• One red and one green Michelin star.
• 18/20 from Gault & Millau.
• Belgium and Netherlands Jury Special Award at Star Wine List of the Year 2025, for the wine selection.
• Maîtres Cuisiniers de Belgique.
• Best Vegetables Restaurant 2020.
• Lady Chef 2008.
• DS Ambassador.

Guest Services and Policies

By request, the restaurant can provide access to a conventional 230 V or 400 V outdoor outlet for charging an electric vehicle, and parking for a motorhome without hookups. Pets are accepted under specific conditions: they must be small, clean, and calm, stay lying beneath the table, and remain on a leash.

The restaurant also provides a list of nearby accommodations and taxi services, including hotels, guesthouses, rural lodgings, and taxis in Marchin and nearby towns such as Huy, Wanze, Modave, Ohey, and Vierset-Barse.

Location and Contact

Chemin de Bertrandfontaine 7, 4570 Marchin, Belgium · Phone: +32 85 25 55 55 · Email: info@arabelle.be · Hours: Thursday, lunch and dinner; Friday, lunch and dinner; Saturday, dinner; Sunday, lunch; closed Monday through Wednesday.