Mediterranean Home of Seafood. Our fresh, delicious and generous portions of seafood are served at affordable prices, with our liquid gold (Creamy Lemon Sauce) and accompanied by complimentary bread and sauce trio. It is our purpose to put all our stakeholders in a good mood, through our offering and through our business.

The first Ocean Basket opened its doors in Pretoria in 1995. Brothers Fats (Peter) and George Lazarides had a simple dream: to open a restaurant where people could enjoy great seafood without spending a fortune. Only the best was good enough for their customers. The brand was founded on an obsession to serve, create happiness and to see people uplift themselves. When queues started forming outside their doors, the founders knew they had a winning recipe.

Soon they had 5 restaurants in Gauteng, and Pedro De Sambento came on board to take Ocean Basket to the Cape.

Their excellent offering and incredible knowledge of the customer, combined with a clever location strategy, saw the brand quickly grow to become one of the most loved and respected restaurant brands in South Africa.

Future aspirations include continuing to grow the brand into international markets and providing greater returns to existing and new franchisees in South Africa, whilst keeping our Mediterranean culture.

Our business is about bringing our offering of delicious seafood, generosity, abundance, affordability and a feeling of being welcomed to an area. Our target market is middle to higher income customers. We search out sites in shopping malls, convenience centers, neighbourhood centers and even stand-alone sites. The location needs to be easily accessible for our customers and have high foot traffic. We allow our franchisees equal opportunity and never over saturate an area. Since we serve a single protein, the operations of the business is simpler.

The typical staff compliment will vary from 18-22 back of house and 10-16 front of house.