5 Costco Seafood Items That Are Seriously Worth It And 3 You Can Skip

Anyone who's ever shopped at Costco will know that it's not light on seafood. The store has a huge range of options from the briny deep to choose from, and offers a choice of frozen prepared seafood items, fresh fish, and a range of canned and preserved products. It's a seafood lover's paradise, but it also doesn't stick the landing every time. Costco's seafood items are, somewhat notoriously, a fairly mixed bag, and while there are several that you should snap up without thinking twice, there are also a few products that you should walk straight past.

The good news is that some of its best seafood items are sitting in its fresh section, and they balance excellent flavor with reasonable prices. Fish like walleye are frequently praised by customers, and also offer folks a slightly more interesting choice than standard tilapia or cod. Its frozen section also has a few winners in it, too, and its barramundi and wild Alaskan sockeye salmon are beloved by Costco regulars. Elsewhere, though, the store doesn't do too well, and some of its prepared refrigerated items, like its seafood gumbo and sushi trays, are pretty much the worst around. To figure out which seafood items were worth buying and which should be avoided, we looked at dozens upon dozens of customer reviews to figure out those that are favorites and those that are feared.

As seafood items at Costco go, few are better than its Kirkland Signature Wild Pacific Mahi-Mahi. This fish is frequently mentioned by customers as one of the best options in Costco's warehouses, and while it's in the frozen section, it seems as though the store doesn't sacrifice its quality to make it easier to store and ship. "The frozen mahi is awesome," said one customer on Reddit, one of many who voiced their approval for it. The fact that each fillet is individually wrapped is a nice touch, too, and means that you don't have to break out an ice-pick to separate the pieces.

Mahi-mahi has a mild flavor profile with subtle notes of sweetness, which gives it a nice versatility, working especially well with spicier flavors. Costco customers have recognized this too, and Kirkland Signature Wild Pacific Mahi-Mahi is a common pick for fish tacos, perhaps because of its nice firmness. That firmness and its inherent flavor also mean that it can stand just as well on its own, and some people prefer to keep it simple by grilling it with some lemon juice and a sprinkling of seasoning.

Oh dear. To be honest, we should have known that this product wasn't going to hit the mark; ready-made, refrigerated gumbo is never going to be as good as the real thing. However, we were surprised by just how much customers disliked Heritage Specialty Foods Seafood Gumbo, which is available at Costco. Folks utterly despise this product, with one customer on Reddit saying that "this is probably one of the worst consumer dupes I've ever experienced, from Costco of all places as well," while another in the same thread called it "actually awful." Yikes.

So, what's wrong with this dish? Well, where do we start? First off, despite marketing itself as a seafood gumbo, there doesn't seem to be a lot of seafood in it. Instead, this stew is mainly sodden rice and thick, unappetizing sauce, with the combination of the two taking on a gruel-like consistency. If you are lucky enough to find a shrimp in it, don't celebrate just yet: Customers have said that they have a rubbery texture. As for the sausage and chicken in the gumbo ... well, you'll be left desperately searching for those ingredients, too. Oh, and it also has barely any spice and way too much salt. Pass!

Even the best Costco stores around the country don't all stock its full selection of items. You may find that certain units have regional produce that isn't typically available elsewhere, and which can be somewhat rare. So, if you ever happen to see fresh wild walleye fillets in the fish section, it can feel like striking gold — and we're pleased to tell you that this fish isn't all bark and no bite. Costco's walleye is a delectable option, with customers praising its flavor and how easy it is to cook. "Bought the wild caught walleye the other day and it was delicious," said one Reddit user, while others rave about their obsession with the fish.

Costco's walleye is especially good when breaded, and people absolutely love how it comes out when dredged in flour and spices, then pan-fried until just cooked. However, you could just as easily bake or grill this fish, and we'd hazard a guess that it comes out just as well. If you're not in the Midwest, though, you might have trouble finding it, and folks who live in more Southern states have voiced their frustration that it's nowhere to be seen in their stores. Sorry, folks.

Kirkland Signature Fresh Farmed Atlantic Salmon seems like a good choice, right? We'd imagine it's one of the biggest sellers in Costco's seafood selection, and it feels like a reliable choice. However, recently, customers have started noticing that Costco's farmed salmon isn't all it's cracked up to be, and multiple people have pointed out quality control issues that have left them feeling a little cold on the product. "Been buying Costco farmed Atlantic salmon (not frozen) literally for years, at least once a month," said one customer on Reddit, before going on to explain that they had recently bought multiple different fillets with a mushy texture and unpleasant odor. Others chimed in to agree that they had the same experience.

Costco shoppers have also noted that its Kirkland farmed salmon develops a fishy odor if it's been frozen and then thawed, making it a pretty unappetizing prospect. There are also folks out there who'd drifted away from Kirkland Signature Fresh Farmed Atlantic Salmon long before these quality issues started appearing, switching to its Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon and never looking back.

If you haven't tried barramundi, this is your sign to pick it up next time you see it. This fish is also known as Asian sea bass, which speaks both to its appearance and its flavor: It delivers all of the beautiful butteriness, firmness, and slight sweetness of the latter fish, but it doesn't have any of that overtly fishy note that can put some people off. You want to make sure that you're getting a good product, though, which is why we recommend grabbing your barramundi from Costco. The store stocks Australis All Natural Barramundi in its frozen section, and judging by the countless comments online in praise of this option, we'd say it's a winner.

What really stands out about The Better Fish Australis All Natural Barramundi is how accessible and user-friendly it is for people of all ages. "This is a great product. Comes individually portioned, takes overnight to thaw," said one customer on Reddit. "Fish has a mild flavor and is super easy to cook. Even my toddlers will eat it." Other people appreciate that it leaves their house smell-free after cooking it, in comparison with other fish, and it's also an adaptable protein that can go with a host of different flavor profiles. You can lean into punchy Asian-inspired flavors with sriracha and soy sauces, or a European profile with capers, lemon, and butter.

Costco sells a lot of underrated prepared foods, but it also has a fair few items that look better than they taste. Its sushi trays, which seem so appetizing in its prepared section, are a classic example of this. Costco's sushi is a must-avoid item according to its customers, who point out that the fish used to make it is tasteless and bland, with no apparent effort put into delivering the kind of flavor you expect from this dish. Amazingly, too, the fish may not be the worst thing about its sushi: Some customers have pointed out that the rice is absolutely awful, and is hard and totally unpalatable, and some have questioned whether Costco even uses proper sushi rice.

To be fair to Costco, the quality of its sushi does seem to vary from place to place. In places like Hawai'i, customers have reported that its sushi and sashimi can be pretty good, and overseas in its Japanese stores, it seems to hit the spot (as you'd hope, really). Elsewhere, though, its quality can vary, and to be honest, this is the kind of product that you want to be good every time. Throw in the fact that a similar product, the Ahi Wasabi Poke, was part of a huge Costco recall in 2025, and we're not feeling super confident about buying this one.

Given the unstoppable dominance of salmon, it's no surprise that Costco stocks it. In fact, it stocks several different types, and not all of them are as well-loved as each other. If you're going to spend your hard-earned money on this fish (which isn't exactly cheap, y'all), then you want to get the good stuff, and Kirkland Signature Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon is the one to go for. This salmon is almost universally considered to be the best of Costco's salmon options, and for a lot of people, it's a regular buy, both for its great flavor and its quality.

Because it's wild-caught, Kirkland Signature Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon is more expensive than the farmed versions sold at Costco, but don't let that put you off. You get what you pay for here, with thick, moist, fresh-tasting fillets that cook up both easily and beautifully. Costco keeps the skin on each, a fact that customers love, and they vacuum-seal each fillet individually, so you can pull out the ones you need and thaw them while the others remain frozen. As far as salmon goes, it's hard to go wrong with this one.

Sick of boring shrimp of questionable quality? Switch to Kirkland Signature Wild Raw Argentinian Red Shrimp, and you'll never look back. This seafood product is a customer favorite at Costco, with folks falling over themselves to sing its virtues and praises. "If you're not eating Argentina wild caught shrimp you are surely missing out," said one happy shopper on Reddit, adding, "The downside is they've ruined me on other shrimp." Others have also spoken highly of the flavor of this shrimp, and their ability to be cooked up in dishes like shrimp bisque, where you'd usually use the regular kind.

Being so eye-catching also makes them a great choice if you're serving shrimp on their own or as the star ingredient in an appetizer. Judging by how highly customers think of them, you may well want to allow them to stand out. "They're the lobster of shrimp," said another customer on Reddit about the Kirkland product, speaking to its classy nature. Hey, we don't need telling twice — we're going to go and drown these shrimp in butter.

Determining which products are worth buying and which should be avoided is tough for a store like Costco, which has hundreds of different locations, so we knew that it wasn't enough to rely on one taste-test here. Instead, we searched far and wide for customer reviews of its seafood products. To find these, we looked primarily at Reddit, which has an active and vocal community of Costco customers who provide honest and up-to-date opinions on products, but we also scoured other social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram. We ensured that all reviews were written in the last year, so that we were working with relevant and timely information on these products.

To figure out whether items were worth it or not, it all came down to enthusiasm about the product in question: If there were plenty of people saying that a product tasted good, was good-quality, or particularly versatile, it was included as a must-buy. We took a similar approach for the products that should be skipped, based on issues people had with quality, poor consistency, and bad taste.