The most intriguing transfer of RSC Anderlecht’s summer did not happen on the pitch. It was completed in the kitchen. Since 27 August 2026, the restaurant at the heart of Lotto Park has carried a new name and a new ambition: Saint Guidon by Sir Kwinten.
Chef Glenn Verhasselt and sommelier Yanick Dehandschutter now oversee the restaurant, succeeding Yves Mattagne after three seasons. Their first service coincided with Anderlecht’s European meeting with Kairat Almaty. Gastrognito attended the launch and witnessed a handover whose significance goes beyond a change of menu or kitchen team.
Lotto Park is not merely recruiting a chef. It is welcoming a partnership, a dining identity and one of the trajectories most closely followed in Belgian gastronomy.
A Succession Built on an Existing Ambition
Yves Mattagne’s departure should not erase the work achieved since 2023. The Brussels chef helped establish serious gastronomic dining inside the stadium through Saint Guidon and La Table du Chef. Under his direction, dinner was no longer treated as a convenient prelude to the match; it became one of the evening’s events.
Verhasselt and Dehandschutter therefore inherit a restaurant with an established audience and an unusually demanding operational framework. Their task is not to manufacture prestige from nothing. It is to translate the world of Sir Kwinten into a venue governed by the rhythm, emotion and strict timing of football.
Two Michelin Stars Enter the Stadium
Glenn Verhasselt and Yanick Dehandschutter are best understood as a single creative unit. One constructs the plate; the other extends its meaning through the glass. Sir Kwinten received its second Michelin star in 2024, when the guide highlighted the exceptional dialogue between Verhasselt’s cooking and Dehandschutter’s pairings. The restaurant also holds 17.5 out of 20 from Gault&Millau.
Their individual records reinforce that shared reputation. Verhasselt was named Gault&Millau’s Chef of the Year 2025, while Dehandschutter was recognised as Sommelier of the Year in 2019. His work reaches beyond the predictable codes of a classical wine list: gueuze, sake, rare bottles and wines from the Dappersveld estate can all become part of the narrative.
That complementarity is the real Sir Kwinten signature. Saint Guidon will not simply be Glenn Verhasselt’s restaurant at Lotto Park. It becomes a new stage for the duo.
Fine Dining Governed by the Match Clock
A stadium restaurant obeys rules that conventional fine dining rarely encounters. Saint Guidon can receive around 120 guests. On match nights, a four-course experience has to unfold within roughly two hours before the crowd moves towards the stands. A different menu is planned for each home fixture.
The pressure is structural rather than theatrical: preserve the precision expected of a two-star team while working inside an evening shaped by arrivals, kick-off and the collective tension of the match. The challenge will be to ensure that speed never feels hurried and that the football environment enriches the dinner instead of overwhelming it.
A First Evening with Symbolic Weight
Marc Coucke’s presence at the launch was significant. RSC Anderlecht’s principal shareholder joined the club, restaurant and invited guests for the first evening, underlining the place hospitality occupies in the broader Lotto Park experience.
RSC Anderlecht operates seven dining concepts and welcomes a substantial business audience on matchdays. Entrusting its most emblematic table to a two-star duo is therefore not a decorative partnership. It is a positioning decision about how a historic club chooses to receive.
The Third-Star Question
One question now follows almost every major Sir Kwinten development: can Verhasselt and Dehandschutter eventually reach three Michelin stars? The duo is frequently mentioned among the Belgian teams with that potential. The observation reflects their momentum, but it remains analysis rather than an announcement from Michelin.
Verhasselt himself has remained measured. A third star cannot be scheduled, and Saint Guidon is not designed as a replica of the Lennik restaurant. The stadium imposes a different setting, audience and tempo. It may nevertheless become a compelling laboratory: a place to test whether a precise culinary identity can survive — and even gain energy from — one of hospitality’s most codified environments.
When Gastronomy Meets Anderlecht Fervour
Verhasselt and Dehandschutter are not outsiders parachuted into an unfamiliar sporting culture. Both have been presented as long-standing Anderlecht supporters. That connection matters. A successful stadium restaurant cannot ignore the chants, anticipation and nervous energy surrounding it; those sensations have to enter the experience without compromising its precision.
Saint Guidon by Sir Kwinten now brings together elements rarely aligned with this degree of ambition: a historic club, a stadium charged with emotion, a two-star culinary language and a partnership looking towards the highest level of Belgian dining.
The succession of Yves Mattagne has produced a project with real coherence. Glenn Verhasselt brings the cuisine; Yanick Dehandschutter, an unusually broad language of pairings; Lotto Park, a stage few restaurants can offer. The transfer is official. The culinary match has only just begun.
Editorial disclosure: Gastrognito attended the launch of Saint Guidon by Sir Kwinten as part of an editorial collaboration. The invitation did not determine the content or conclusions of this article.
