Few appetizers achieve the coveted balance of low effort and luxurious with the ease of the best tinned fish on toast. Lay a briny anchovy or a meaty sardine over a charred slice of sourdough, pair that baby with a Spanish white wine, and you’re halfway to tapas night.
Shelf-stable tinned seafood is anything but fishy. It’s a ticket to tasty and nutritious weeknight dinners, punching well above its weight with concentrated umami flavor and jam-packed with protein, omega-3s, vitamins, and minerals. It doesn’t hurt that the packaging of many newer producers is often easy on the eyes: The artful boxes and tins of fish make for an ultra-chic (and economical) gift.
Many tinned fish companies are also placing increased emphasis on ethical, sustainable fishing. And while plenty of the best tinned fish brands are based in Portugal and Spain, for whom high-quality canned seafood is a specialty, others are bringing the practice home to North America.
Unfortunately, most grocery stores stateside still don’t stock a large selection of the truly high quality stuff—which is why we’ve rounded up the best and most flavorful tinned fish you can order online. Find our favorites below.
Add a pop of color to your canned fish collection with Fishwife’s beautifully packaged conservas. The female-founded company emphasizes sustainability, partnering with canneries in Spain, Washington State, and British Columbia. We flip for its canned smoked rainbow trout, Atlantic salmon, albacore tuna, and Cantabrian anchovy fillets packed in Spanish extra virgin olive oil. For salmon with a kick, try Fishwife’s collaboration with one of our all-time favorite chili crisp purveyors, Fly by Jing.
LA-based Siesta’s catalog includes squid, mackerel, clams, tuna, mussels, uni, anchovies, and sardines. It’s sustainably sourced from northern Spain and packed in extra-virgin olive oil. Their website invites you to “picture this: You’re on a remote small beach on the coast of Spain, the sun’s out, it’s sandy, but you’re cool enough in the salt water breeze.” Sold.
Scout, another US-based brand, is breaking free of the Mediterranean tinned fish mold. “They’re really proving how much great seafood can be sourced off the coast of North America—tuna and salmon from the Pacific Northwest, and mussels and lobster from Prince Edward Island,” says Anna Hezel, former Epicurious editor and author of Tin to Table: Fancy, Snacky Recipes for Tin-thusiasts and A-fish-ionados. Scout’s latest launch, Seafood Snacks, are a fun take on canned tuna, sourced off the coast of Mexico and packed with spices and herbs (don’t be fooled by the cartons; there are cans in there!). It’s a fun and flavorful upgrade from that yellowfin tuna you’ve been buying at Trader Joe’s.
This Portuguese producer offers a wide variety of fish, flavors, and preparations. Think: smoked trout fillets in olive oil, spiced mackerel in olive oil, mackerel fillets in curry, canned sardines in tomato sauce, octopus in olive oil with piri-piri, and even fried mussels in escabeche (made with extra virgin olive oil, wine vinegar, garlic, and spices). José Gourmet also offers many of its fish selections as patés, if paté is your thing. But even if it’s not, the boxes are worth picking up for the illustrations alone.
Minnow
Sourcing its fish from Spain, Minnow is run by the team behind Cervo’s, Hart’s, and the Fly, three New York restaurants beloved by BA staff. It offers sardines, cod liver, mussels, and even freshwater catches like salmon and trout. “I love the Minnow smoked trout, which comes in boneless, skinless filets,” Anna says. “It’s way more tender than a lot of smoked trout out there, which can be really dense and dry.
Ramón Peña
Drawing from over a century of Galician canning experience, Ramón Peña has set a standard for freshness and quality. Alongside more run-of-the-mill types of fish and shellfish varieties, the Spanish brand offers some unique offerings like mussels, scallops, and octopus in paprika sauce, packed in both olive oil and vinegar-based brines—some with aromatics like garlic.
Yes, that Patagonia. Eat its Savory Sofrito Mussels (tinted paprika red and delicious on crusty bread with good butter) while wearing your most normcore fleece. Patagonia sources from across the map, including anchovies from Spain and sockeye salmon from Alaska.
Conservas de Cambados
The netting-encased oblong cans from Conservas de Cambados make for especially handsome gifts. Find rarer picks like octopus, barnacles, razor clams, sea urchin caviar, squids in ink, and even baby eels among the Spanish brand’s offerings.
This article was originally published in 2020 and updated in 2025.
