Fish & Seafood in Nairobi

Fish & Seafood in Nairobi: A Buyer's Guide

The fish counter is the one place in a butchery where freshness is not a matter of degree - it is the whole product. Fish deteriorates several times faster than red meat, which is why we keep ours on ice, clean and fillet to order rather than in advance, and sell it the day it arrives.

Between local and imported we cover most of what a Nairobi kitchen needs. Tilapia is the fish most households here cook, and a whole one is almost always better eating than a fillet - the skin crisps, the bones keep the flesh moist, and the cheeks and collar meat are the best parts. Kingfish is the coast's great grilling fish, firm enough to hold together over charcoal or in a coconut curry. Tuna should be treated like a steak and stopped while the middle is still pink. Prawns cook in ninety seconds. And our imported Norwegian salmon is the most premium thing on the entire counter.

We will clean, scale, gut, score, fillet or steak anything here, to order and at no charge. Ask us to score a whole fish - three or four diagonal slashes to the bone on each side - and it will cook evenly and take seasoning right into the thickest part instead of burning at the tail while the shoulder is still raw. It is the single most useful thing we can do to a whole fish for you.

Below is the full counter, followed by a guide to buying, judging and cooking it.

Choosing and Cooking Fish & Seafood

Whole fish or fillet?

Whole, if you have the patience for bones. Cooking a fish on the bone with the skin on keeps the flesh moist, adds flavour, gives you crisp skin, and includes the cheeks and the collar - the two best mouthfuls on the animal. A whole tilapia deep-fried until the skin blisters, or grilled over charcoal with lemon and ginger in the cavity, is hard to beat. Fillets exist for speed and for people who do not want to negotiate with bones - both entirely legitimate reasons. Ask us for even-thickness portions if you are cooking several at once, because thin cooks fast and thick cooks slow.

How to tell fresh fish

Four checks, in order of usefulness. Smell: fresh fish smells of clean water, not of fish. Eyes: clear, domed and bright, not sunken or cloudy. Gills: deep red or pink, not brown or grey. Flesh: firm and springing back when pressed, with scales tight to the skin. For a fillet, look for a translucent sheen and no gaping between the flakes. You are welcome to apply every one of these tests at our counter - the whole advantage of buying fish at a market is that you can.

Firm fish, soft fish, and matching the method

Firm, meaty fish holds its shape and suits charcoal, curry and anything with movement: kingfish and tuna both qualify. Softer, flakier fish wants gentler handling - baking in foil, a hot pan skin-side down, or steaming: that is tilapia and most white fillets. Salmon is its own case: its high fat content makes it forgiving and means it wants a hot dry pan, skin-side down, pressed flat, for most of the cooking time so the skin becomes the best part.

Prawns: watch the shape, not the clock

Prawns are the fastest thing we sell and the easiest to ruin. Ninety seconds is often the whole cooking time. The visual cue is completely reliable: a raw prawn is a straight grey C, a perfectly cooked prawn is a tight pink C, and an overcooked prawn has curled into an O. Stop at the tight C. Buy them shell-on where you can: the shells protect the flesh, and fried in butter then simmered they make a stock better than anything you can buy.

Buying, storing and freezing

Fish is the one thing here to buy on the day you cook it. If you must keep it, store it in the coldest part of the fridge on a plate over ice, loosely covered, and use it within one day - two at the absolute outside. Fish freezes better than most people expect: wrap tightly, exclude air, freeze fast and use within three months. Thaw in the fridge, never in water or at room temperature, and pat completely dry before cooking - wet fish steams instead of searing and sticks to the pan.

Also at the counter

Red snapper, Nile perch, octopus, crab and calamari come in to order rather than being kept daily - give us a few days' notice on 0707 700511. Our Norwegian salmon is also worth calling ahead for if you need a particular quantity for an occasion, and we will reserve it for you.

Ordering and delivery

We deliver fish & seafood across Nairobi every day - see our pages for Nairobi CBD, Westlands, Parklands, Kilimani, or all the areas we serve. Orders placed before 4:00pm go out the same day, chilled and insulated straight from our cold room. Delivery is a flat fee by area, from KSh 300 to KSh 1,000 depending on where you are, and it is added to your basket total automatically, so nothing is ever sprung on you at the door. Full details are on our delivery and payment page, and if you are ordering in volume for a business, see wholesale and bulk supply.

You are equally welcome to walk in. We are at Stall 55, ground floor, City Market, Muindi Mbingu Street, beside Jamia Mosque in the Nairobi CBD, open every day from 6:30am to 7:00pm Monday to Saturday, and 9:00am to 5:00pm on Sundays. Buying meat in person, where you can see it cut and ask questions, is still the best way to buy it - and it is the reason this stall has been here since 1959.