Belgian restaurant criticised for planning meal sizes around diners' height, weight and exercise

The new restaurant promises 'perfectly tailored portions' for its customers. Photo / Getty Images

A new restaurant in Ghent has been criticised for requesting prospective diners' height, weight and gender so it can create "perfectly tailored portions" for individual customers - a gimmick inspired by pro cyclists.

"Kwiek" is due to open this month in the Flemish city, initially as takeaway-only because of Belgium's Covid ban on restaurant dining. The Mediterranean-influenced eatery comes with a twist though.

Diners will be asked to provide their vital statistics before placing their orders, including their height, weight and age, as well as how much exercise they plan to do that day. Meals will then be tailored appropriately to suit individual needs.

Veal meatballs, peppered steak and spicy tempeh are on the menu but chips, a staple of Belgian cuisine, will be absent.

The concept is the brainchild of trained dietician Robbe Vandenhoucke, who was inspired by professional cycling's adherence to strict eating regimes during races like the Tour de France.

"Cyclists get daily servings that are really personalised. Based on weight, height, but also based on how they will race that day. So a climber gets more on the day of a big mountain stage than when he goes along quietly in the peloton during a flat stage," Vandenhoucke told De Standaard.

When he and girlfriend Laura De Meyer open Kwiek, the kitchen will take into account all the information provided by diners and prices will reflect how much ends up on the plate. Customers can also opt to choose portion sizes themselves.

The restaurant has provoked online criticism, including accusations that Kwiek will only serve "carrots and water" to some customers and that the kitchen will end up giving the wrong nutritional guidance.

"We will not judge whether a customer should lose or gain weight," the restaurant said on its Instagram page, in response to mounting criticism that the eatery would dole out unwanted advice. It reiterated that its metric would not just use Body Mass Index.

Kwiek's owners were also keen to emphasise that their method might actually mean diners get more nosh than they would have thought.

According to a 2019 study, nearly half of Belgians are overweight and more than 15 per cent are classed as obese. Despite falling rates of smoking and drinking, eating habits have worsened and people lead increasingly sedentary lifestyles.