6 Frozen Crab Cakes, Ranked

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There is a right way to enjoy a crab cake: as you sit down to an evening supper as the sun sets over the Chesapeake Bay. Your picture-perfect crab cake would be lightly crisped and teeming with fresh-caught crab meat. It may even be served with a lemon wedge or a ramekin of remoulade sauce. And you can bet that a freezer was never part of that crab's journey from sea to table.

That's the ideal scenario. But sometimes this little seafood bubble has to be burst, and we have to make do with what we have. For many of us who don't live along the East Coast, that means settling for a box of frozen crab cakes from the grocery store. It certainly doesn't offer the same experience in terms of ambiance, but you can still get a pretty decent crab cake out of the deal — that is, if you choose the right brand.

Since frozen seafood can get a bit fishy, I'm diving into the freezer aisle's selection of crab cakes so you don't have to. I picked up several different options to sample for myself to see how each recipe fares. I even ranked them from worst to best based on their ingredients, taste, and overall quality to help you figure out which ones are worth buying and which ones to steer clear of. So let's get cracking and see which of these frozen crab cakes are the real catch.

Prices are as of the date of publication and may vary based on region.

I love you, Aldi, but these aren't crab cakes. Not really. I'm afraid locals on the Mid-Atlantic Coast would reject them completely. Even I, coming from the landlocked state of Ohio, can admit that these Oven Ready Crab Cakes aren't the most traditional version of the beloved recipe.

Let's start with the ingredient list, shall we? Instead of a base of pure crab meat, the store's Fremont Fish Market brand combines real crab meat with imitation crab and fish flakes. We all know what that probably means: There's likely more imitation in the mix than the real deal. The real and lookalike crab are joined by a boatload of other ingredients and binders, including cream cheese, onion, green and red bell peppers, dehydrated veggies, and plenty of spices.

There's also breading wrapped all the way around each cake, so it looks like some kind of fried appetizer –  like a large macaroni and cheese bite — and the flavor isn't too far off either. It hardly tasted like fish at all, and there was a lot of filler. I even thought it tasted cheesy at times. Onions were also prominent, but despite all the spices, it didn't feel overly seasoned. A bag of five large cakes is just $4.99, which isn't bad. But by real crab cake standards, it misses the mark. The "restaurant quality" claim on the front of the bag is a bit of a stretch.

The Member's Mark Hand Made Crab Cakes from Sam's Club immediately jumped ahead of Aldi's version for two reasons. First, they're made with wild-caught blue swimming crab and none of that imitation stuff. And second: They're not covered in a layer of breading that makes them more fit for a sports bar starter basket than a proper seafood dinner.

But my high praise for these crab cakes quickly ended when I took that first bite. They had a very strange chemical taste, almost reminiscent of lighter fluid, though obviously not quite that intense. I couldn't figure out where it was coming from, and it's entirely possible I just got a bad batch. But whatever the cause, it really ruined them for me.

It's a shame, too, because these had a lot of potential. There's a decent ratio of real crab meat to panko breading, and the cakes were crispy on the sides yet moist all the way through. I also liked the pops of flavor from the red bell peppers, green onions, and a bit of lemon, which added to the otherwise savory and salty profile. Because of all these high points hiding underneath that unsettling chemical taste, I think I'd actually be willing to give these crab cakes a second chance. I'm just not sure what I'm supposed to do with the five others still sitting in my $17.98 box.

The Gorton's brand is known for seafood, and for its fish sticks specifically. You can always count on that yellow-jacketed fisherman for a no-fuss breaded fish dinner. But I didn't know how that expertise would translate when it came to a more sophisticated dish like crab cakes.

I didn't even know Gorton's made Crab Cakes, priced at $9.99, until this taste test, actually. They're meant to mimic the Maryland style, which typically calls for blue crab meat and very little filler. But it seems that the brand took a few creative liberties with the recipe. The ingredient list simply mentions generic crab meat, which is fine, but I wish there were a little more of it. The cakes were extra mushy and, at the same time, extra bready. That's probably the result of too many binders, like mayo, cream, and butter, along with plenty of breadcrumbs. Because of this, the mild fishy flavor was somewhat lost in the mix, and there weren't many other accompanying flavors to make up for it. The one exception was a strange sensation that almost felt like spice. It could have been the paprika or pepper, but I found it a tad odd.

The cakes didn't crisp up much on the outside, either. Instead, the exterior became a bit hard and chewy. So, overall, these were just okay. They weren't necessarily off-putting like Sam's Club's version or as much of a departure from traditional crab cakes as Aldi's, but I think we can do better.

Kroger's Private Selection brand makes its Maryland Style Crab Cakes, priced at $9.99, with a fairly straightforward list of ingredients. It's one of those refreshing cases where you can actually recognize every ingredient, including real crab meat, a mustard- and mayo-based sauce, breadcrumbs, and seasonings — nothing too out of the ordinary.

On paper, that sounds pretty close to the traditional Maryland crab cake formula. Each cake is certainly pretty crabby, with a good balance between the meat and all the other add-ins. But when it came down to it, I found the taste boring overall.

Nothing really stands out. The crab meat itself is fairly sweet and moist, but it doesn't have a particularly bold taste. The other add-ins also seem a bit washed out. I couldn't taste the mustard at all, nor could I pick up on most of the spices, like celery salt, red pepper, or paprika. The cakes didn't crisp up much around the edges during their stint in the oven, either. So while I do appreciate a simpler recipe, and a crab-focused one at that, these cakes needed to do a little more to keep me hooked.

The Phillips company has been selling its original restaurant recipe crab cakes for over 60 years. Needless to say, crab is all over this company's résumé.

And you can immediately tell that these are quality crab cakes. They're made with lump crab meat and follow a similar recipe to Kroger's, with a mayo-based sauce, mustard, breadcrumbs, and spices. But Phillips, which cost $10.99 at Target, also adds a splash of Worcestershire sauce into the mix. You certainly won't be wanting for more meat with these crab cakes, and the Worcestershire sauce adds a little umami depth that I didn't get from any of the previous options. The texture is also satisfying. There's the lightest of crunches on either side, while the middle is tender and falls apart into juicy pieces of crab meat.

The only setback was that they were a smidge too fishy for my liking. I also found a few tiny bits of shell hiding in with the meat. They were like a stamp of authenticity, but, at the same time, not the most pleasant of things to crunch down on. So, Phillips, the self-proclaimed Maryland seafood authority, ended up taking second place on this one.

SeaPak has its own storied, 75-year seafood history, though it's a bit different from Phillips. For one, the company got its start on an island off the coast of Georgia rather than along the Chesapeake Bay. It's also better known for its frozen (and often breaded) fish and shrimp specialties. But, as ironic as it is, this Georgia-based company makes the better Maryland Style Crab Cake. 

You still get plenty of real crab here, but the fishy flavor isn't super in-your-face. Instead, it almost tastes fresh — surprisingly fresh for a frozen product — and it's complemented by the taste of red bell pepper, mustard, and onion. As for texture, there's a crispy crust all the way around each cake, and the inside never felt too mushy or too bready.

Of course, the fact that this box also comes equipped with its own remoulade sauce is a major perk. It's a lemony sauce, and when I say lemony, I mean really lemony. The amount of citrus flavor reminds me of a lemon dessert. But it has a thick, mayo-like consistency that's satisfying when smeared onto the cakes. SeaPak also happens to have Phillips beat in terms of price; an 8-ounce box is $7.99. So, with a better taste and price, and a sauce included, SeaPak wears the crab cake crown.

In my mind, the perfect crab cake is made up of at least 80% real, quality crab meat. It would have minimal binders, perhaps just enough breadcrumbs and saucy ingredients to give it some shape and hold everything together. It would be tender and moist on the inside with a light crisp on the outside (maybe even a little more crisp, depending on how you cook it). And it would be elevated by spices and other additional ingredients rather than bogged down by them. This is what I was looking for as I ranked each of these frozen crab cake brands.

To conduct this taste test, I picked up every type of frozen crab cake I could find at various grocery stores. I focused specifically on frozen offerings rather than fresh or refrigerated options. At home, I decided to bake them all in the oven rather than pan-frying or using another cooking method. Many required different cooking times and temperatures, but sticking to the oven helped maintain some consistency across all the products. From there, I sampled each crab cake and made notes about its flavor, texture, and overall quality to decide which ones I liked best.