These Aldi Frozen Fish Fillets Aren't Worth Your Time Or Tastebuds

Aldi's fresh fish selection includes everything from plain Atlantic salmon and steelhead trout to tilapia and tuna. There are even options that come crusted with seasonings or stuffed with butter to make preparing dinner even easier. However, if you can't always get to the store midweek, it makes better sense to buy frozen to guarantee that you have a protein on hand to whip up a quick meal. That said, there's one packet of Aldi frozen fish fillets that isn't worth your time or your tastebuds: Fremont Fish Market Wild Caught Pink Salmon. The last in our ranking of six store-bought frozen salmon fillets, this product was the cheapest option we tried, and it showed.

Immediately on first glance, the fillets (that come individually wrapped) were thin and unevenly shaped. While thinner fillets can simply be cooked for a shorter period to prevent them from drying out, it can be tricky to cook three or four of them in the same pan when they all have different dimensions and thicknesses. Secondly, the appearance of the salmon was definitely lacking. The skinless fillets looked washed out and lacked the characteristic pinky-orange hue of wild-caught salmon, which gave them an unappealing vibe compared to the other brands we tried. Finally, and most importantly, the flavor of the salmon from Fremont Fish Market was uninspiring, even though it was quite fishy. The texture, too, was dry despite the fact that we topped it with a garlicky honey mustard marinade before pan-frying.

The one thing that Fremont Fish Market's offering has going for it? It's one of the Aldi salmon varieties that are wild caught, not farmed, making it free of antibiotics and other additives. Wild-caught salmon has a bolder flavor than farmed salmon, perhaps explaining why it had a fishier taste than the other options we tasted. It also has a firmer texture and a lower fat content because the fish swim freely and burn more calories than farmed options. This lower measure of fat means that wild-caught salmon cooks faster, too, which might account for its dryness.

Aldi's Fremont salmon fillets weren't wholly bad and could be rescued with some additional seasonings, but they simply didn't stand up to the competition and looked a little puny in comparison. In our opinion, the best frozen fillets are from Costco (the Kirkland Signature Farm-Raised Atlantic Salmon) because they were large, meaty, and had a distinctive pink color. They took longer to cook due to their hefty size, but the fish remained juicy and flaked well. Plus, although more expensive per pound, there were seven chunky pieces in the bag, in contrast to Aldi's five thin fillets.