You might be as surprised as I am, the fish in the “seafood platter” at Ocean Basket is NOT the catch of the day (although people do refer to freshwater fish and Seafood as “catch of the day”, they claim) and it is not even salt water fish as she (and I) would have expected.
The fish they serve is in fact BASA, a fresh water fish imported from Vietnam. Holy crap are they that good to get the “catch of the day” all the way over from Vietnam to your plate in Ocean basket. “Catch of the Day” they conveniently want to say is a common word use for Seafood and Freshwater fish, seriously? To the general public/consumer yes people like ME and YOU that is plain old English for “it was caught today” or at the very least yesterday.
Don’t get me wrong, I have been in a lot of Ocean Baskets, plenty of times but from this point forward I would definitely not order the fish. When I go to a Seafood restaurant, I want Seafood not imported old fish from Vietnam.
Lisanne Brits lodged a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority of SA (ASA) against Ocean Basket. It was over an item listed on the menu as a “platter for two” (we assume Seafood platter, wrongly) but she argued she did not order a river basket. What she expected was salt water fish so the advertised platter was misleading.
Fin24.com reported:
Ocean Basket contended that it had never “held itself” to be a seafood restaurant exclusively, and that it had been serving freshwater fish since 2006.
Ocean Basket said customer satisfaction was important to them and it was prepared to have all its menus changed by the end of April to specify meals with freshwater fish.
The ASA accepted the undertaking on condition that the changes were made in all its stores by April 30 this year.
“The ASA has a long standing principle which holds that where an advertiser provides an unequivocal undertaking to withdraw or amend its advertising in a manner that addresses the concerns raised, that undertaking can be, at the directorate’s discretion, accepted without considering the merits of the matter,” it said in its ruling handed down last Friday.
We thank Lisanne Brits for all her efforts and for informing us of the fact that we are eating imported fresh water fish with our Seafood platters. So if you want salt water fish go to a real Seafood restaurant… I smell Something Fishy 😉
