Frozen Store-Bought Fish Sticks And Nuggets, Ranked From Worst To Best

Fish sticks may be nothing but a childhood memory for some of us, but there are plenty of reasons to stock your freezer with a box or two of breaded fish well beyond your younger years. Sure, they make great, dippable snacks or quick late-night food, but they can also be folded into tacos, stacked into sandwiches, and rolled into wraps for easy (and healthy) lunches and dinners.

The frozen fish market has evolved a lot since I was a kid, and the options extend far beyond the dense breaded sticks I grew up on. In fact, the options can be overwhelming, with a wide variety of shapes, breading, and price points making it impossible to know where to begin. To make it easier, I broke down 10 popular fish stick and nugget brands and ranked them using a strict set of criteria: Flavor of the breading, flakiness of the fish, and overall value. All but one brand uses pollock, but each fish stick is unique, with one clear winner that offers the best frozen fish your money can buy. If you're in the market for good, crunchy, flaky fish sticks, check out my definitive ranking from worst to best below.

Just like the name implies, Gorton's is a classic fish stick, likely even being the one you grew up on. In fact, Gorton's is the original ready-to-eat fish stick, created in 1953 as the first of its kind. The bright yellow bag is filled with a few dozen thin, breaded fish sticks, a great value for its barely $8 price point. The fish itself is wild-caught pollock that is processed in New England, where Gorton's has been located since 1849.

All that being said, it was a little surprising (and disheartening) to rank the original fish stick so low. The truth is, this is a fish stick that tastes like it is stuck in the past. This doesn't have to be considered a bad thing — if you're looking for the nostalgia of your childhood fish sticks at a very low price point, Gorton's is the way to go. However, these fish sticks are bland, with densely minced fish and unexciting breading. Compared to the other options on the list, Gorton's fell to the bottom; if I were buying Gorton's, I would choose their battered fish fillets instead.

A less surprising choice for the bottom of the list is Whole Foods's breaded fish sticks. Private label brands aren't known for being the best option in the store, usually offering a cheaper alternative for some compromise on quality. This is especially true for things like fish sticks or snacks, which can vary widely in quality. Because of this, I had no expectations going into this taste test, being that it could just as easily be the best on the list.

The bag is densely packed with a few dozen fish sticks at a price of just under $10. This is one of the best values on the list (right behind Gorton's), but it comes at a cost: The flavor. The breading has a slight edge to Gorton's, being crispy with a mild flavor, but the fish is about equally as flavorless and dense. Also minced, the fish doesn't have the flakiness of the sticks higher on the list. I rated this slightly higher than Gorton's only because the taste is better, and the breading is crunchier, making it the one I'd go for first.

Like many, my visceral reaction to frozen foods labeled as "gluten-free" is apathetic at best. For a long, long time, gluten-free foods simply weren't good, relegated to using substitutions that were bland, dry, and crumbly. These days, there are many more options on the market that offer creative, delicious alternatives to wheat, and some of them are just as good – if not better – than the originals, including some on this list.

Ian's fish sticks are not only gluten-free but are almost entirely free of the most common allergens (other than fish, of course). They are better than you'd expect and a good choice for those who need the allergen-free option but aren't the best fish sticks on the shelves. While the insides are flaky and tender, and the outside is perfectly crunchy, the overall flavor is a little off-putting, likely due to the corn used in the breading. While this isn't a dealbreaker, especially if you need an allergen-friendly fish stick, it caused Ian's to sink lower on my list.

Trader Joe's is known for budget-friendly frozen foods; in fact, it's kind of mastered it. The store offers two options for frozen, breaded fish sticks, one in a traditional stick form and the other in a nugget shape. I had fairly high expectations for the nuggets, thinking that the extra real estate would provide a more flaky interior. While that was true — the fish was very flaky – the flavor is what fell short. The fish itself is not very flavorful and the breading didn't quite crisp like the other crunchy options on the list.

The reason Trader Joe's nuggets score higher on the list is because of that flake and the wider, shorter shape. The nugget is closer to what you'd find on a fish taco, being one of the only nuggets on the list, but the drawback? You'd likely want to season them yourself to make them a little more flavorful. The battered fish nuggets are also one of the best values on the list at $5.99, so if flavor isn't a dealbreaker for you, they might just be a good thing to grab on your next grocery visit.

Started as a potato chip stand before evolving into frozen fish, Van de Kamp's, like Gorton's, is a brand with a long history. Widely distributed across the nation at a reasonable price point, it's also the next most likely brand you will see on the shelves. It's a classic fish stick, like Gorton's, with a thin shape and minced pollock interior. While the two are similar, what gives Van de Kamp's an edge is the flavor of the breading and the fresh taste of the fish.

As I ranked each fish stick, I noticed the minced varieties falling towards the bottom of the list. It's hard to achieve fresh flavor and flaky texture with minced fish, but Van de Kamp's did it the best, leading to its ranking above the others. The fish is light and densely packed, so the fish stick has a more fish-forward flavor. The fish stick also avoids being too dry, a common problem with the minced varieties. Though it wouldn't be my first choice (hence its ranking), it's a classic fish stick that, should it be your only option, would make a good choice for snacking or quick meals. If you are looking for a more flaky, flavorful, do-everything fish stick, though, you might want to look higher on the list.

Steve's nuggets are an outlier on the list being the only one to use salmon instead of pollock. Salmon is one of my favorite foods, so I was excited to try these and admittedly set my expectations a little high (don't worry, I still rated them fairly). On the first bite, I was immediately impressed with the flavor. It's rich and fishy like salmon always is, but with a strong lemon flavor that gives it an elevated taste — one that you'd find in a restaurant.

Like many others on the list, the minced fish is what made these sink lower in the rankings despite being so full of flavor. Because they are wider than a typical fish stick, I expected the nuggets to be tender and flaky despite being minced; instead, I found them to be dry and dense. Had the fish inside been flaky, these might have rated near the top of the list. The other issue? These are the most expensive on the list by far, coming in just under $13. This is a good value if you love salmon and want an easy, flavorful snacking option, but it is otherwise a high price to pay for a frozen snack. Ultimately, I placed Steve's Family Foods's nuggets squarely in the middle of the pack — would I eat them again? Sure, but not before a few other options.

Remember what I said about gluten-free foods sometimes being even better than their wheat counterparts? Starfish's panko-breaded fish sticks are the perfect example of that. Not only are they the largest, meatiest fish stick on the list (the sticks are nearly double the size of all the others), but they are also one of the crunchiest, with a dazzling dark brown breading made out of gluten-free panko. You'd never know that these were completely allergen-free, which makes them an even more valuable buy.

Value, though, is also what makes these a little harder to love: Though the package is only $7 and the fish sticks are large, you only get about 10 per package, amounting to barely over two servings. This might be worth it for the allergen-free benefits, but it is otherwise hard to look past the others that have two to six servings each. Still, the fish sticks are tender, crispy, and fresh, landing them solidly in the top four.

What Trader Joe's lacked in a fish nugget, it brought to the table in the stick form. I figured, after trying the battered nuggets, that the fish sticks would be about the same (if not worse). After all, the recipes couldn't be that different. I was surprised to find that the fish stick is far better than the nugget, with a different flavor altogether. The fish is rich and impossibly buttery, like a freshly fried filet you'd have at a fish fry.

What I noticed during my taste testing was that the breading was soggy, almost as though the breading couldn't contain the buttery fish inside. As I began to rate the fish stick, I wondered if perhaps an extra minute longer than instructed would crisp the breading. In trying again, with the extra minute added, the fish sticks came out of the air fryer crispy, with a considerable, crunchy bite that complemented the buttery insides. I reconsidered my rating based on this, ranking it highly now that the breading balanced out the fish. Still, the breading itself didn't have a lot of flavor, which is why it only sits at number three on the list — though the breading flavor is hardly a deal breaker with how buttery the fish inside is.

Maybe it was the bright green packaging or the fact that these fish sticks are advertised as having hidden vegetables, but I had admittedly low expectations for the KidFresh fish sticks. Don't get me wrong: I like vegetables, but too often, this comes at the cost of flavor. Combined with the advertised chickpea flour used in the breading, I was dreading a dry, tasteless, healthified version of my favorite fried snack. To my surprise, I was very wrong.

The KidFresh fish sticks are small but mighty, packing a lot of flavor into the bite-sized portions. The breading is the most flavorful of the list and notably one of the only ones to use seasonings like garlic powder, onion powder, and celery seed. What also contributes to the success of the breading is the chickpea flour, which darkens and crisps the breading, also adding a mellow, earthy flavor. These fish sticks only get points off for the fish inside, which is flaky but lacking in volume, likely due to the fish sticks' small size. I'd happily give these to kids as a snack, but more importantly, I'd also happily eat them myself, too, especially knowing that they offer a few health benefits — though I don't see any evidence of those hidden veggies (they must be hiding really well).

Sort of by chance, I tried the Trident fish stick first, and it ended up tasting so good that it set the precedent for every fish stick thereafter. I'd read a little bit about The Ultimate Fish Stick before going into the taste testing, so I knew it was Costco's fish stick offering and, as such, a likely high contender (Costco has yet to fail me on frozen snacks). It didn't disappoint and remained a steady number one even after the deliciously crunchy KidFresh and buttery Trader Joe's. The truth is, these are what fish sticks should be: Classic, simple, fresh, flaky, and crunchy, all rolled into one easy-to-eat stick shape. There's nothing overdone here, and yet, the sticks boast a great flavor and even better texture.

The flavor of the fish is, like the salmon nuggets, vaguely lemony, a bright and zingy flavor that helps the flaky filets taste fresh. The breading is impressively crispy and flavorful thanks to unique ingredients like malted barley flour, cornmeal, and ranch seasoning, which is listed as a blend of onion and garlic powders, salt, and buttermilk powder. The shape is that of a classic fish stick, not too large nor too small, and is flaky enough to be used for creative meals like fish tacos; chicken Caesar wraps, and po'boys while still being sturdy enough to dip into tartar on their own. The Ultimate Fish Stick is aptly named, it seems — because out of 10 great choices, it really is ultimately the best.

Though not every fish stick had instructions for the air fryer, I used my air fryer to cook each one in order to fairly rank them side-by-side. I opted for the air fryer because it would give the most ideal results — after all, fish sticks are fried food, which is what the air fryer does best. For the brands that didn't list air fryer cooking instructions, I matched the cooking times with brands that had similar oven-baking instructions. By using the air fryer, I could easily achieve the brands' intended crispiness and compare them fairly against each other.

As for ranking, I tried each fish stick and assigned a rating on a scale of 1-10 based on my initial reaction. To fully validate my ranking, I tried a second stick of each, this time taking the time to examine the breading, fish, and overall value, ensuring that the breading was crispy, the fish was flaky and fresh, and the fish sticks were worth the price tag. For tiebreakers, I'd try them again side-by-side, ultimately rating whichever one I'd more likely buy again.