📍SeaBreeze Fish & Shell – 213 Bree St, Cape Town City Centre, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa
🌍Country: South Africa           
🔥Must-try dish: Hake Ceviche, Squid Ink Mayo
👍The high: This is your one-stop-shop to taste everything from the sea in Cape Town. 
👎The low: On the night I dined here, they were out of the Knysna Oyster, my favourite varietal in South Africa. 

Cape Town is wealthy in fish and seafood. The coastline wraps around the city and its surrounding areas, and the waters are teeming with an abundance of delicious things to eat. So, it’s not surprising that nearly all my meals included things from the sea. Whether you’re feeling like a Hake Fish and Chips, a Cape Malay Seafood Stew, or a fresh plate of oysters, you can easily be satiated. 

While on the hunt for oysters one afternoon in the city, we discovered that Seabreeze not only offers a daily oyster happy hour, but also showcases the country’s four indigenous oyster varieties.The fully-stacked oyster platter is the star of the show, but diners can have individual oysters, dressed oysters, or cooked oysters. 

• Saldanha Bay Medium Oysters: These oysters come from a region a few hours outside Cape Town and, unlike many found along the Garden Route, they’re medium in size, more reminiscent of Canada’s East Coast oysters. As a Maritime oyster lover myself, they’re the closest to Canadian oysters I’ve tasted anywhere in the world. I couldn’t get enough!
• Dressed Oysters: Seabreeze does jazzed up flavours like Bloody Mary, Soy, Ginger & Chilli, and Pineapple, Coconut & Lime on a raw oyster. Pick your poison as they’re all tasty! 
• Panko Crumbed Oyster: For anyone feeling more of a cooked vibe, these are for you. Each order comes with two shells with deep-fried and breaded oysters inside. Be sure to take advantage of the curried mayo for dipping. 

The next chapter of the menu offers small plates that are perfect for sharing. Only picking a few was a difficult decision since the majority sounded and looked exceptional. This menu is curated to make diners want to return again and again. 

• Local Smoked Trout Fishcake, Hollandaise, Not only is this a freshwater option, but it was my favourite of the smoked dishes on the menu. The richness of the hollandaise softens the smoky flavours, while the poached egg makes the dish more substantial, turning it into one of the heartier small plates if you’re feeling hungry.
• Classic Fish Soup: No matter the season, there’s something about a fish soup that always leaves me feeling satisfied.This is stacked with pieces of meat in a velvety tomato broth. On a rainy day it Cape Town, it was the ideal remedy to any lack of vitamin D. 
• Hake Ceviche, Squid Ink Mayo: Hake is a local, flaky white fish most commonly used for fish and chips, which makes it all the more intriguing to see it prepared as ceviche, which is typically a dish reserved for firmer fish. But Seabreeze doesn’t disappoint. The result is fantastic: the fish absorbs all the bright flavours and practically melts in your mouth. If you’re usually hesitant about white fish, try this dish first, then let’s talk.

A few other items tickled my fancy but there wasn’t enough room to consume it all, so I’ll give them a notable mention since they sound incredible: Sesame Prawn Toast, Saldanha Bay Mussels in Cape Malay Sauce, and Tuna Tartare. See how hard it was to pick? 

When it came to the larger dishes, choosing was just as difficult as there were simply too many great options on the menu. Standouts included the Winter Fish Pie, the Hake Fish and Chips, the Cape Malay Seafood Curry, and the King Prawns.

I love a menu that forces you to make tough decisions and practise a little restraint, even when your heart is telling you to order everything. Seabreeze does exactly that. The restaurant also has a hip, trendy vibe that makes you feel like you might be sitting in one of the coolest spots in town. The servers are incredibly knowledgeable, especially when it comes to pairing dishes with selections from their extensive wine list, something I happily took full advantage of. Who wouldn’t? 

Cape Town, and really all of South Africa, is a food lover’s paradise. The meats, seafood, and cheeses simply taste different (and better), and the wines are plentiful and always seem to pair perfectly with whatever’s on your plate. Once you’ve eaten here, it’s hard for anywhere else to feel quite the same.

Eat with you soon in Toronto, 

Mandrea Bike 

(Mat & Andrea)