The king crab meal at the end of a Kirkenes safari
Both Kirkenes king crab safaris end at a table piled with cooked crab legs. This guide covers what is served and where you eat in each season. It also says how full you leave and who should ask questions before booking.
What lands on the table
The meal is king crab legs, steamed (the word Viator uses) or boiled, served the Northern Norwegian way. That means plain food around the crab, just buttered white bread with mayonnaise and lemon on the side.
There are no heavy sauces and no long menu. The crab you watched come out of the water is the whole show, and one reviewer summed it up as very tasty and filling.
The simplest way to eat it is meat on buttered bread with a little mayonnaise, the combination in the photo below. A squeeze of lemon cuts the richness when you reach for another leg.
How much crab you get
Neither listing gives a weight per person, so nobody can promise you a number of legs. The winter listing describes an equally big king crab meal after the fishing, which tells you it is meant as a proper meal.
Treat it as a lunch or an early dinner rather than a tasting plate. A tip that comes up in reviews is to skip a big breakfast, so you have room when the legs arrive.
The operator sets the pots ahead of each trip, so you can expect crab on the plate. Still, nobody can guarantee what a given trap holds on a given day.
Cracking the legs
King crab legs come in sections with a hard, spiky shell. The guide shows how to open them, and after the first leg or two the job goes faster.
Expect wet fingers and a messy table. Ask the guide to show the trick again if the first attempt goes wrong, since a clean break gives you the meat in one long piece.
The thick upper sections of each leg hold the most meat. If you want to know which part is which before you sit down, our guide to where the king crab came from counts the legs and claws.
Summer: a boathouse across the fjord
On the summer RIB trip the meal is served in a rustic boathouse restaurant across the fjord from town. You arrive by boat after pulling the pots, and the crab goes into the pot there.
While it cooks you get coffee or tea, according to the summer listing. That pause is a good moment to warm your hands after the wind on the water and to take photos of the fjord.
The summer RIB safari from ~$284 holds 5.0 from 50 reviews on Viator. Our step-by-step RIB guide follows the route from the pier to the plate.
Winter: Teina at the Snow Resort
On the winter trip the sled brings you back from the ice to the Snow Resort, about 15 minutes' drive from town. There the guide prepares the catch at Teina, a king crab restaurant open only to safari guests and private events.
Viator's winter listing calls it a cozy farmhouse restaurant. An indoor table and hot crab are a welcome change of temperature after time out on the frozen fjord.
The winter ice safari from ~$376 runs only when the fjord ice holds. How the ice part works is in our guide to the winter trip.
Hot crab after the cold
The winter trip ends at Teina with the crab from the ice traps, served Northern Norwegian style. Its scores are high (5.0 on Viator, 4.6 on GetYourGuide) but rest on just 18 reviews.
Fitting the meal into your day
The crab comes at the end of a trip of about 3 hours on GetYourGuide (Viator says about 4), with the hotel transfer on top. The meal is the last stop before you head back to town.
If you meet the summer boat at the pier at 1:15 pm, the crab arrives sometime in the afternoon. Plan a light lunch or none at all, and push any dinner plans later into the evening.
In winter the start time sits in the booking calendar rather than the listing. Eat something small before pickup, since the cold on the ice burns energy and the meal only comes once you are back at the Snow Resort.
Children aged 7 and up can join both trips. Younger ones may need a hand with the shell, so sit next to them when the legs arrive.
Drinks and dietary needs
Drinks are not part of the price on either trip. The restaurant sells wine and beer as well as water, so bring a card if you want a glass with the crab.
A shellfish allergy rules out the meal, and the whole trip is built around it. Ask Snow Resort Kirkenes before booking if you have any doubt about what else is on the table.
Neither listing mentions a vegetarian option, so a vegetarian would likely be left with bread. If someone in your group does not eat crab, check with the operator first, since bread is a thin lunch for the price.
Crab dinner or crab safari
A crab leg dinner in a restaurant gets you the food without the fishing. On the safari you also pay for the ride out to the traps and the guide who runs it, with the meal folded into ~$284 in summer or ~$376 in winter.
What you gain is the context. You see the pots come up and hear where the crab came from, then eat it close to where it was caught.
Our breakdown of what a safari costs lists what is included and what you pay on top. For dates, see the timing guide. Our boat or ice page compares the two days.