West Coast crayfish is a signature dish of South Africa; we have verified places to eat it in Cape Town. The Cape rock lobster, kreef on a Cape Town menu, split and braaied with garlic butter or boiled and eaten cold. Start with where to eat West Coast crayfish in Cape Town.

West Coast crayfish · Cape Town

The Cape rock lobster, kreef on a Cape Town menu, split and braaied with garlic butter or boiled and eaten cold. A short legal season is what makes it a seasonal treat rather than a staple.

Jasus lalandii, the West Coast rock lobster, lives in shallow water from Cape Cross in Namibia round the Cape of Good Hope to Algoa Bay, and Cape Town has eaten it for as long as there have been boats in Table Bay. It is called crayfish locally and kreef in Afrikaans, and the coastal habit is to braai it rather than boil it. Overfishing changed the terms: the commercial fishery is capped by quota and the recreational season is short, with days gazetted each summer and a limit of four per person per day. Scarcity is why a kilogram now costs what it does.

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