The First Taste of Spring Starts with Seafood

It takes approximately one warm day for South Africans to decide winter is over. The group chat that’s been threatening to “make a plan” finally produces an actual time and place, sleeves get shorter, and staying indoors starts to feel like a poor use of good weather.

While spring may be the official season, in South Africa September has always felt more like summer’s soft launch. It changes what we feel like eating, too. After winter’s heavier plates, the appetite shifts toward prawns straight off the grill, calamari with a squeeze of lemon, sushi and, naturally, enough lemon butter sauce to need another serviette. 

Seafood always tastes a little like being on holiday, even when the closest you’re getting to the coast is an Ocean Basket table in Joburg.

The Season Before the Season

September occupies a particularly good bit of the South African calendar because the weather is warming up, but the end-of-year scramble hasn’t arrived yet.

The beauty of this stretch is that plans don’t need much planning. Restaurants aren’t full of office parties and you can suggest Saturday lunch without consulting six diaries and a spreadsheet. It’s a small window, and an underrated one.

That easy-going approach to eating out has always been part of Ocean Basket. Seafood can have a reputation for being saved for special occasions, but Ocean Basket has spent years making the opposite case: that fish, prawns, calamari and sushi belong at the everyday table, too. And what better way to soft launch summer than with the food that already tastes like it?The Long Lunch is Back

There’s something about warm days that makes staying indoors at meal times feel ridiculous. Seafood is particularly at home here with food that already tastes like the season you’ve been waiting for.

That’s where Ocean Basket’s Reel Love Platter at R145 finds its moment. It’s a platter for one loaded with prawns, calamari, fish, rice and chips, and Ocean Basket’s signature creamy lemon sauce. It’s a proper seafood spread for the person who came hungry and has no intention of negotiating over the last prawn.

For something with a little more ceremony, Summer Wave at R295 lives up to its name. With a generous serving of queen prawns alongside fish, calamari, mussels, rice and chips, it’s the sort of platter that lands on the table and changes everyone’s afternoon’s plans.

At R99, Shore Thing is for the more spontaneous kind of lunch. Fish, prawns, calamari and chips come with Ocean Basket’s creamy lemon sauce. It’s proof that a proper seafood fix doesn’t have to wait for payday, the weekend, or a reason beyond the sun being out.

And when the mood calls for sushi, Sushi20 at R145 puts a full twenty pieces on the plate, featuring a mix of rolls with enough crunch, salmon, and spicy sauce to keep things interesting. Twenty is generous enough to share, but not so generous that sharing is compulsory. That’s for the table to decide.

Take Summer’s Soft Launch Home with the OB App

The Ocean Basket app brings the menu to you with delivery at restaurant prices. But there’s so much more in it than delivery.

OB Rewards lets members earn points on every visit, while new members get double points to reach the Reward Zone sooner. For those eating in restaurant, there’s also Burn the Bill! At payment, app users get the chance to have their entire bill covered by Ocean Basket. Because a table full of prawns is good. Finding out Ocean Basket is paying for it is even better. 

Get the app on iOS, Android, and Huawei.

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