When it comes to seafood, Capetonians don’t mess around, which is why local businessman Osman Parker is so pissed off with Ocean Basket.

The 41-year-old went to five separate outlets and found the same thing every time – when his children ordered the hake fish fingers they were served the less expensive angelfish.

When he voiced his complaints to the respective managers they admitted he was correct, with this below from IOL:

Hake, at R60 a kilogram, costs twice as much as angelfish, which sells at R30 a kilo.

Parker, the owner of Giant Hyper in Epping, says at first he took it with a pinch of salt, but after five similar experiences, he felt Ocean Basket was ripping off people and should be taken to task for it.

The restaurant chain on Monday admitted that they were caught out hook, line and sinker.

[Parker] said: “I did not want to fuss or anything, but my wife said it was not hake. She buys our food and was concerned as to what it might be. What if it’s something that could cause an allergic reaction?”

Parker said that when he confronted the managers, they admitted to using angelfish when they do not have hake in stock.

“You don’t do that to people,” an upset Parker said.

“I do not want money or anything from them. They must be transparent and communicate with their customers. Tell people there is no hake for the fingers and that you are using other fish. Give people the choice, don’t sell lies.”

As you can imagine there has been much scrambling from Ocean Basket’s side to cover their tracks, with this from a letter Group Marketing Executive for Ocean Basket Jean Sloan directed wrote to Parker:

“We understand that you are a long-standing, loyal customer of Ocean Basket and would like to offer you a dinner experience, at our cost, to the value of R500, as a sincere apology. May we recommend that you take up this offer at either Canal Walk or the N1 City restaurant where the manager will be expecting you and will ensure you have a pleasurable evening?”

Mr Parker wasn’t taking the bait:

Parker said by Monday night no one from Ocean Basket had contacted him yet.

However, he regarded the meal offer as an “insult” and reiterated it was not about the money.

This isn’t the first time they’ve come under fire, with confusion surrounding the sourcing of their fish coming to the fore back in January of last year (HERE).

I think we’ll stick to Cape Town Fish Market and their now legendary specials – R40 for a burger on Mondays, thank you very much.

[source:iol]