Seafood: With love, from South Africa

South African cuisine is often referred to as “rainbow cuisine” as it has a variety of flavors and colors. Seafood is one of its specialities.
Seafood lovers in Jeddah would be delighted to know that South Africa’s most loved seafood restaurant chain has opened doors in the city.
After its successful launch in Riyadh a month ago, Ocean Basket has arrived in Jeddah.
It is located in the Khalidiya Business Center on Sultan Street. Free parking space is available, though two other restaurants are sharing the space.
I visited the restaurant to sample their various seafood delicacies and found the whole place to be very attractive. The pleasant and friendly atmosphere, hospitality and quality food set the restaurant apart. It has a singles section and one for families.
The kitchen manager Eric Iravwan said they use special spices and ingredients that are brought from South Africa. A special sushi bar in the restaurant is where the chefs customize the dish according to the customers’ tastes and in front of them.
I started with the starters — mussels with a lemony garlic signature sauce that gave the dish a unique flavor that I had never tasted before. Next I tried a platter that featured Prince Prawns, fried Calamari, salad and fried cheese. This dish was accompanied with three complimentary sauces, of which the tartar sauce made the dish more delicious.
Diners can up the spice quotient in their dishes as and how they like.
Two fresh juices that were served included a Saudi cooler with mint and a flavored lemonade with mint. The former had a strong apple flavor with a touch of orange, lemon and mint, which I was told is more popular among the restaurant’s Saudi customers.
I sampled three types of soups next — lentil, Tom Yum and creamy seafood soup. I liked the creamy seafood soup, which was thick in consistency and had a mild fish flavor. The Tom Yum soup, which is the restaurant’s speciality was watery and had bits of seafood accompanying each spoonful of soup. The lentil soup was the simplest of the three and I am told it’s a favorite with their Saudi customers.
For the main meal, I tried the fish and chips and fried salmon with vegetables The fish and chips can be fried or grilled and you can choose a fish of your liking, such as, sole or kingklip.
Another enjoyable speciality included the Meze platter that consisted of Halloumi cheese, Tzatziki, olives, feta, calamari, calamari heads, hummus, cucumber and tomato with their signature sauces — creamy garlic lemon sauce and plain lemon sauce.
Those who are turned off by the thought of eating raw fish in sushi can order cooked sushi. Vegetable, salmon, avocado, cucumber and tuna are some of the sushi varieties on offer.
The comprehensive menu offers all delicacies from salmon, Nile perch, basa, hake, kingklip to calamari, prawns, mussels and shrimps with an amazing array of sauces, onion rings, sushi, large fried chips, soups and salads. While generally there is not much focus on the salad, the village table salad comprising fattoush, grilled calamari salad, seared salmon salad and seared tuna salad are a hit with health food lovers.
You can order your choice of fish, calamari, prawn or mussels on its own or as a combo meal.
A famous dish here is the Prince Prawns Special that comes with fried vegetables.
Omar Sultan, the restaurant’s regional operations manager, and Mohammed Al-Hawamdeh, general manager, said all spices and ingredients used in the restaurant are flown from South Africa so as to maintain the traditional quality of the food.
The restaurant takes excellent care of hygiene as I noticed when I toured its various sections. The kitchen and cooking areas are separate and the different seafood is washed and stored at separate counters so as to keep the freshness and taste of the food alive.
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