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David Watsky Senior Editor / Home and Kitchen
David lives in Brooklyn where he's spent more than a decade covering all things edible, including meal kit services, food subscriptions, kitchen tools and cooking tips. David earned his BA from Northeastern and has toiled in nearly every aspect of the food business, including as a line cook in Rhode Island where he once made a steak sandwich for Lamar Odom. Right now he's likely somewhere stress-testing a blender or tinkering with a toaster. Anything with sesame is his all-time favorite food this week.
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What's the best seafood delivery service for 2024?
Food delivery services can deliver all kinds of things straight to your door. So even if you don't live near the ocean, you can still get fresh seafood sent directly to your home. However, not all delivery services are created equal. We tested quite a few options and found some to be better than others. Many also give you wild caught and sustainable options. Of the ones we tested, Fulton Fish Market was our favorite due to the large selection of salmon, shrimp, shellfish and sushi-grade tuna.
You can find both familiar and rare species of fish online.
Fulton Fish Market/Screenshot by CNETIf you're a lover of seafood but underwhelmed with the grocery store selection near you or want access to a greater variety of fish, oysters, lobster, crab and other seafood, this list of online seafood subscriptions can help. The fish you'll get will either be fresh or flash-frozen at peak freshness, and your healthy dinner routine will be amplified by a regular supply of great seafood. We've tested tons of the top seafood delivery services to find the best places to buy fish online. Your options include traditional online fish markets, along with seafood subscriptions. Some vendors send fish along with beef, pork and chicken to round out your protein haul.
Below you'll find the best places to buy healthy seafood online in 2024.
About Fulton Fish Market: The name might sound familiar and that's because it's a physical fish market in New York -- the second largest in the world behind Tokyo's famously enormous Toyosu market. Fulton offers online sales, in addition to selling wholesale straight from the docks to some of the largest purveyors and restaurant groups in the world. That means that you'll have access to one of the largest selections of fresh fish and seafood anywhere.
You can get almost any variety of fish from wild and farmed salmon to fresh swordfish, halibut, trout and a few harder-to-find species. Fulton also has a wide selection of shellfish, including Atlantic and Pacific oysters, lobsters, scallops, crab meat, soft shell crabs, mussels and clams. That's not all: You can add tasty H. Forman & Son smoked salmon or tins of paddlefish caviar to your order.
How it works: At Fulton Fish Market, you order fish by the piece, box or a curated bundle. Different species like fresh tuna, wild snapper and cod are available in different counts, and you'll generally save more per pound if you order in bundles. Shipping cost depends on where you live and what you order. Orders of frozen fish over $125 ship for free ($20 otherwise) while fresh/live fish costs more depending on how far from New York you live.
You can also subscribe and Fulton will send a monthly, bimonthly or weekly curated box of fish starting at $125 per month for four six-ounce portions, but ordering a la carte is the best value.
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About SizzleFish: Sizzlefish might have a slightly smaller inventory than Fulton, but not by much. This online seafood vendor still stocks all the hits including wild salmon, sea bass, halibut, trout rockfish and tuna. Everything I tried in a heaping delivery tasted as fresh as any flash-frozen fish I've had. There's also a small selection of meats including filet mignons, ribeyes and ground beef.
One thing to note about SizzleFish is its higher prices, especially if you buy in small amounts. I couldn't find a single portion of salmon for less than $14, for instance. It's far more affordable if you order in bulk, like this 14-pack of farm-raised salmon filets for $110. Buying in bulk or signing up for a subscription is the best way to shop on SizzleFish and avoid busting your budget.
About Rastelli's: Rastelli's began as a small butcher shop in 1976 serving its small New Jersey community. The family-owned shop made a name selling some of the best meat possible, but more recently Rastelli has entered the seafood game, and its catch is as fresh as any on the list. You can score fish-fan favorites like wild tuna, Faroe Island salmon, shrimp, lobster and Icelandic cod. It may not have as big a selection as some others we reviewed but the beauty of Rastelli's -- beyond supporting a small business and not having to leave the house -- is ordering your seafood, beef, chicken and pork all in one place.
How it works: Seafood from Rastelli's can be ordered in semi-bulk (eight filets of cod, for example). You can shop a la carte for fish, shrimp and meats, and prices are reasonable. Shipping is free when you spend $200, so you can get the month's meat and fish supply in a single order and pay nothing for delivery.
About LobsterAnywhere: As the name implies, this company specializes in tasty crustaceans and ships them live and direct from the cold waters of Maine, the lobster capital of the US. They sell only hard-shelled lobsters, including live Maine lobster which are more expensive than soft-shell but are also considered to be the best. You might be able to find cheaper lobsters in your supermarket, but LobsterAnywhere promises the absolute best in quality. Because of market fluctuation, LobsterAnywhere's prices also fluctuate but are generally competitive.
How it works: There are other offerings available like shrimp and scallops, but Maine lobster is definitely the main draw here. You can order whole, live lobsters, as well as lobster tails (frozen and in the shell) and lobster meat (shelled) by the pound. This is not a subscription, so you order exactly what you want and it ships in roughly two days.
About Vital Choice: Vital Choice may sound more like a vitamin brand than a seafood market, but that could be by design. The online market sells shoals of fresh seafood, shellfish, canned seafood and more eats from under the sea, but also has a massive section dedicated to seafood-derived health products and supplements like omega-3s, fish oils and immune boosters. Check out the supplements, but the real star of the show remains the sprawling selection of wild sockeye salmon in addition to halibut, sea bass, crab, shrimp, scallops and much more.
Vital Choice puts an emphasis on wild and sustainably caught seafood where possible, claiming that it limits most of its offerings to fish and shellfish from fisheries that are either certified sustainable or considered sustainable by experts.
How it works: Vital Choice operates like most other online retailers, allowing you to build a cart and place a one-time order of any of its seafood products. You can order a single portion of some fish varieties, but many have a six-portion minimum. Any order over $99 ships for free.
There's also a monthly subscription option called Vital Box with three distinct categories. One option is the Wild Salmon Box which features 10-14 servings of salmon for $140 per month.
Vital Box's website could probably use an update and some sections aren't the most intuitive, but there are lots of great options for sustainable seafood and other seafood products, so it's worth a few broken links and extra clicks to get where you're going.
About Sea to Table: Americans really eat just a small handful of types of fish at home, according to Sea to Table's Sean Dimin, and one of his aims is to introduce folks to great catches like Atlantic skate, redfish or Dover sole. Sea to Table's fish all come from US wild domestic fisheries and are caught, landed and processed in the US. To prove it, each pack of fish has a traceability label so you know exactly what you're getting and where it came from, down to the actual fishing vessel that landed it.
How it works: You can choose from boxes that feature a variety of serving sizes, from two to sixteen, from sustainable fisheries including Maine redfish, scallops and skate, starting at just $17. Choose either a one-time order or a (slightly cheaper) subscription to be delivered every four, six or eight weeks. Everything ships FedEx ground, fresh-frozen and packed with dry ice in recycled denim packaging.
About Riviera Seafood Club: If you're looking for a really special piece of tuna belly, hamachi or yellowtail to sear quickly on the grill or serve sashimi-style, I would direct your attention to this family-owned online seafood purveyor based out of Los Angeles. The Ito family procures some of the best high-end sushi-grade fish, along with some more common catches like salmon, black cod and prawns. I had a filet of fresh bluefin tuna delivered and it was an immaculately fresh piece of fish with gorgeous marbling and rich flavor.
How it works: Riviera Seafood Club ships fresh or flash-frozen fish to all 50 states and Washington, D.C., and most of it is sashimi-grade, meaning you can slice and eat -- no cooking necessary. It's also very reasonably priced. To avoid shipping charges you'll have to get your cart over a certain dollar amount between $125 and $175 depending on where you live.
About Wild Alaskan Company: As you might have gathered from the name, this company specializes in fresh wild-caught seafood including wild salmon. It is generally thought to be both healthier and more sustainable than farmed fish, and company founder and Alaska native Arron Kallenberg has set his sights on helping American consumers gain access to good, fresh fish. All the fish is caught either in Alaska or the Pacific Northwest with a commitment to sustainability and transparency.
How it works: The company bills itself as a share more than a traditional retailer or marketplace and offers a monthly subscription. You can choose from salmon-only boxes, whitefish boxes or a combo, and the monthly shipments of fish (frozen at "peak freshness") start at $145 per month for 12 six-ounce portions. You can skip months, pause your membership or choose to get shipments less frequently with 1.5-month or 2-month shipments anytime at no extra charge.
About KnowSeafood: This direct-to-consumer seafood shop puts transparency and seafood tracing front and center. Every step in the online fish purveyors blockchain is traced and you can see it all when you scan the barcode that adorns each piece of seafood. Scan the code and you'll see when and where your scallops were caught, processed and transported, plus information on how best to defrost and store them. All the seafood is flash-frozen for peak freshness and everything I got in my delivery was just that -- fresh. KnowSeafood uses only heavily vetted fisheries around the world.
How it works: You can either create a custom box of seafood from KnowSeafood's selection of fish, shellfish and prepared foods including salmon and tuna burgers or choose one of the online market's curated seafood boxes and enjoy a variety of healthy fish.
Fulton Fish Market has some of the best fish and seafood the internet has to offer.
Joey Skladany/CNETWe analyze each services overall menu and seafood selection, although more options isn't always better. Quality is weighted more heavily than quantity, especially considering some services specialize in a particular variety such as salmon, sushi-grade fish or fresh lobster. We note how easy the seafood selection is to navigate and how simple the ordering process is. We also take into consideration the level of transparency provided about the fish and seafood including those relating to sustainability. Some services offer detailed tracing of their products while others provide sparse information on the origin of the fish and seafood.
Testing seafood delivery services is largely anecdotal, but we've ordered at least one shipment of fish from every service on this list, often two or three deliveries. The biggest concern is freshness, so we take care in smelling, cooking and tasting every piece of fish sent from every service. If there are any sub-par pieces of seafood we'll note them. We also look for any signs of insufficient packaging.
We look to see if the fish is still frozen (if it's meant to be) and that there is no leaking or cross-contamination.
Joey Skladany/CNETPremature defrosting, ice melting and cross-contamination are big concerns with shipments of seafood so we look for well-sealed fish that is fully frozen upon arrival. If it's a delivery of fresh seafood, we ensure that the ice packs or frozen cooler bag has not melted or damaged and that the fish is still cold to the touch.
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What type of seafood can you order online?
Online fish marketplaces stock everything from crab cakes to shellfish including prawns for your favorite grilled shrimp recipe or clams for salty New England clam chowder. You'll be able to order a fresh haul of salmon, tuna, cod, sea bass, halibut, crab, mussels, mahi mahi, swordfish, lobster, smoked fish and caviar, even if you don't live anywhere near the sea. You'll also get harder-to-find species of fish like monkfish, rockfish, wahoo, king crab, sablefish and grouper.
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Is the seafood from seafood delivery services fresh?
Except for select species like lobster, most seafood you order online ships and arrives frozen or, in some cases, partially thawed. If that gives you pause, remember that much of the "fresh" seafood you're buying at a grocery store has already been frozen and defrosted before being laid out on the ice or wrapped in plastic. It's also important to know that frozen fish is just as good for you as fresh fish, provided it's handled and packaged properly.
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Is fish from a seafood delivery services fresher than a fish market?
If you live near a great fish market that sells actual fresh seafood (not frozen and thawed) and also has a high turnover, then that might be the freshest fish available to you. I don't have that luxury and neither do many others who are landlocked or miles from a reliable seafood shop. That means the freshest fish for us is probably what you'll find online from a reliable seafood vendor that flash-freezes each filet immediately after it's caught.
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How do seafood delivery services ship seafood?
Most seafood purchased online is flash-frozen, carefully packaged with dry ice and delivered to your door as a one-time order or in a recurring subscription. Every box I ordered from each vendor on this list arrived with all the fish still fully frozen, which is exactly what you want. The rare exception is live shellfish including lobster and crab which are sometimes shipped fresh overnight. Freshness and transparency are key when buying seafood and many companies are finding innovative ways to ensure both while supporting sustainable seafood fishing practices. Many retailers provide detailed records of exactly where the seafood came from, when it was caught and even how far it traveled.
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