WA’s Best Lobster Restaurant Competition: Western Rock Lobster Council’s search for top seafood eatery

From Manjimup truffles to Margaret River cab sav, Western Australia is home to some of the most highly prized produce in the world.

And there’s one ingredient that’s perhaps more sought after than any other: lobster.

With WA Day just around the corner, a competition has been launched to find the best destinations to indulge in locally caught Western rock lobster.

The Western Rock Lobster Council, in partnership with The West Australian, has opened entries for the annual WA’s Best Lobster Restaurant Competition. Now in its fourth year, the campaign was designed to coincide with WA Day in a bid to encourage West Aussies to embrace the beloved crustacean, both in their kitchens and when eating out.

WRLC’s Natalia Perez Haedo says the idea is to highlight those eateries that are doing amazing things with lobster, while also positioning it as our State’s unofficial dish.

“Similar to what lamb is for Australia Day,” she says.

“We’re trying to inspire people to celebrate with lobster . . . and for the last few years, we’ve also been trying to work closely with the restaurants to make sure that it’s not just people at home cooking lobster, but it’s also more restaurants featuring lobster on their menu.”

Perth-famous eatery The Cray in Belmont is going to be hard to top, after beating more than 100 nominees such as the Lobster Shack in Cervantes and Southerlys Tavern and Restaurant in Port Denison to claim the title in 2023 for the third time.

As well as crowning the best restaurants, Ms Perez Haedo says the WRLC plans to launch a search engine on its website, backofboat.com, which will help users find local venues with lobster on their menus.

The website is also a great resource for those looking for inspiration on how to serve up their own lobster feast at home, with recipes, tips and help finding a local fisher to buy from via the WRLC’s Back of Boat directory, which was launched in 2020 as a means of directly connecting fishers with the general public.

“There’s a cooking section — explore that and all your questions are answered, from exactly how to transport them from the back of the boat to your home, to all the different steps that you need to do to send them to sleep, dispatch them, prepare them, clean them, and then different ideas for cooking them,” Ms Perez Haedo says.

“That’s the idea (behind) why we created that page. It’s not just for connecting the fishers but also giving people the confidence to say, ‘OK, I’ve got my lobster, and now what do I do?’”

Vote for WA’s best lobster restaurant

Have you found Western Australia’s most impressive lobster dish?

To celebrate WA Day, The West Australian and the Western Rock Lobster Council are searching for the State’s top destinations for lobster lovers, with $1000 worth of prizes on offer for a few lucky voters.

Members of the general public are invited to cast their vote for their favourite restaurant, cafe, bar or hotel — any venue that features lobster on its menu. The top three will be crowned and five voters will each win a $100 voucher to spend at their nominated venue, as well as a $100 online voucher to buy freshly caught lobsters from their local fisher via the Back of Boat website.

You can vote at backofboat.com/win. Entries are open till May 31, and the winners will be announced in The West Australian on June 7.