Deep-fried hake with soft vinegar-soaked chips, wrapped in paper and eaten standing up at a harbour counter. Snoek replaces the hake when the boats are in and the price is right.
Where to eat it: 5 restaurants across 1 city.
Cape Town's fish and chip counter is a Greek and Portuguese inheritance, built through the twentieth century by families who ran the city's milk bars and fish shops, which is why a Cape Town fish shop still sells calamari beside the chips. Slap, from the Afrikaans for limp, is the point: the chips are fried once, kept soft and doused in white vinegar, not crisped. Hake is the everyday fish because the Cape trawl fishery lands it year round, while snoek and yellowtail are seasonal. Kalk Bay and Hout Bay harbours sell it a few metres from where the boats tie up.
Common allergens: Fish, Gluten, Egg
Tip from the editors. Skip the second fry on the chips: slap chips are meant to be soft and vinegary, and crisping them turns this into a different dish.
Kalky's is a cash only fish counter on the Kalk Bay harbour wall near Cape Town, where the snoek comes straight off the boats tied up outside.
Why locals goVisitors driving the coast road pass Kalk Bay's fishing harbour by, and the self-service queue at this cabin fills with locals, especially at weekends.
TipCarry small notes since the till only takes cash, and eat standing at the harbour wall rather than hunting for a table.
Snoekies is a fish and chips takeaway at the far end of Hout Bay harbour near Cape Town, where the brand began in a converted bus parked there in 1951.
Why locals goIt sits at the far end of Harbour Road, past the point on the Hout Bay waterfront where most visitors turn back, on the spot where its founder parked a converted bus in 1951.
TipHead upstairs if you have children: the Hout Bay branch has a big indoor play area with a jungle gym and sandpit beside the dining room.
Fish on the Rocks fries hake and chips for R120 at the far end of Hout Bay harbour, on the edge of the Atlantic under Chapmans Peak in Cape Town.
TryBattered hake and chips from the harbour-end counter
TipHake or snoek on its own is R110, so skip the chips if you are sharing a portion; the seals and seagulls come free.
Plumstead Fisheries fries fish and chips on Main Road in Plumstead, a southern suburb of Cape Town well away from the coastal harbour counters.
Why locals goSouthern suburbs regulars queue here straight after work instead of driving to the coast, since the fryer turns out the same fish and chips without the trip to Kalk Bay.
TipAsk what came in fresh that morning before ordering, since the counter also sells whole fish to take home and cook.
The Lighthouse Cafe is a pavement style eatery on St George's Street in Simon's Town, Cape Town, serving coastal breakfasts and fish and chips.
DrinkCappuccino
TipTake a pavement table and order the beer-battered fish and chips, made to Jamie Oliver's recipe, for lunch.
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