How to plan a seafood platter for your guests

A seafood platter is the easiest way to make a gathering feel special. Everything is cooked, chilled and ready to put on the table, so you can spend your time with your guests.

What to put on the platter

• Fresh cooked shrimps: the crowd-pleaser, eaten peeled by hand.
• Cooked langoustines: sweet and tender, a step up in elegance.
• Cooked crab claws or a whole Swedish crab.
• Fresh mussels, steamed just before serving.

Sauces and sides

• Aioli and roe sauce for dipping.
• Lemon wedges, fresh dill, crusty bread and butter.
• A cold white wine or sparkling wine.

How much per person?

Rules of thumb from our quantity guide, for a starter: 200–250 g of shell-on shrimps, half a lobster or one or two crab claws per person; for a main course, about double the shrimps and a whole lobster. If the platter is one of several dishes, plan a little less.

Three platters to start from

• Starter for four: about 1 kg of fresh cooked shrimps, a few langoustines, aioli, lemon and bread.
• Main course for six: shrimps, langoustines and crab claws, three lobsters cut in half, aioli and roe sauce, with a Västerbotten cheese pie on the side.
• A festive touch: add Swedish lobster in its autumn season, or a spoonful of Kalix löjrom with crème fraîche on toast.

Serving a large group or a company event? Ask about our Seafood Yacht, a boat-shaped platter we build and bring to your venue.

Practical tips

• Keep the platter chilled until the moment of serving, ideally on ice.
• Provide shell bowls, finger bowls or napkins, and crackers or picks for claws.
• Mix two or three shellfish rather than a large amount of one, so the table feels varied.

Browse the full shellfish collection. For storage and handling, see how to store and prepare fresh fish and shellfish.

See also: Swedish or Canadian lobster, king crab and langoustines, which sauce with which seafood and what to drink.

Related: how much seafood per person and plan a seafood dinner from order to table.