I've tried dozens of online seafood delivery services, and PureFish is by far the most convenient - it offers perfectly prepped fish that's ready for the oven

How it works and what to expect

PureFish's options are broken down into a series of themed boxes. The four-tray "Petite Box" (eight four-ounce servings) will run you $150 (shipping is included), and the larger, eight-tray (16 four-ounce servings) "Omega," "Rainbow," and "Custom" (choose-your-own) boxes cost $250. That's about $32 a tray, or $64 a pound.

You can also opt to subscribe to PureFish, which saves you 15% and breaks down to about $26.55 per tray.

There are no two ways about it: that's over $50 a pound for seafood. But it's delivered to your door rinsed, dried, trimmed, and with fins, spines, and blood meat (the red stuff that runs down the lateral line of a fish) removed.

What you get are restaurant-quality cuts and preparations, and all you have to do is pull the trays out of the freezer roughly 12-24 hours ahead of cooking (check each package), peel off the thin layer of shrink-wrapped plastic, toss the absorbent pad, season or marinate as you like, and pop them in the oven.

In the end, it's the time versus money conundrum. Do you want to get off work and spend 20 or 30 minutes peeling and deveining shrimp? Do you want to sit under a bright light and pluck 50 pin bones out of a fillet of salmon? What's that time worth to you? For many of us, it's worth a lot.

Portion sizes

We should note that PureFish's portions are on the lighter side. While you might normally expect six ounces per person with portioned-out meals, you'll find that these trays have eight ounces in all (or four per person).

We're not going to suggest how or what you eat, but you can either take this as an opportunity to cut back on your animal protein consumption, or you can double-up for a perfectly reasonable eight-ounce portion.

Again, when you take portion size into consideration, PureFish is pricey. But convenience (with sustainability not far behind) is the focus here, and by that measure, PureFish still offers a stellar package.

How to prepare your PureFish delivery

I'm not the most fanciful cook, and I keep things pretty simple when it comes to seafood, especially when it's of this quality. I typically toss my PureFish fillets (or shellfish) in a little salt and olive oil or butter, and bake them at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. I then eat them right off the tray and my dishes on those nights amount to a lone fork.

I did want to mention the brand's recipe book — with simple instructions for classic dishes like salade Niçoise and miso-glazed black cod, it's a useful tool for anyone who has some trepidations around cooking seafood. 

I followed PureFish's recipe for sesame-crusted seared tuna on an evening when I was pressed for time, and I had a highly agreeable, perfectly-seared dinner on the table in under 15 minutes. I also tried (and loved) a citrus-cayenne treatment for shrimp, which came together just as quickly. 

PureFish gives you a pristinely clean canvas to work with, so you can really let your imagination run wild. 

A note on sustainability

PureFish is forthright about what's farmed and what's not and lists the associated practices for each and every offering on the site. It seems like it's about the least you could offer, but it's all too easy to be mired in the muck of the global seafood chain, which is, generally speaking, gray at best.

You'll find a QR code on the back of each tray that will tell you more detailed information on what you're eating, including where and by whom it was caught (or farmed). There are a few other brands going to this same length, and some beyond, but not many. Here's the link to a QR code from a tray of shrimp I received. It didn't exactly contain a wealth of information — I learned that the shrimp are harvested artisanally by a co-op from a small town on Mexico's Pacific coast — and you don't get a precise location, but the brand does offer up sustainability ratings from Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch, and lets you know whether the fisherpeople are fishing independently or not.

To those looking to lower their ecological footprint: PureFish's offerings are packaged in a thin layer of plastic shrink-wrap, but it's so minimal it didn't even register on our kitchen scale. For reference, it's as little plastic as anything we've seen in our foray into online seafood and meat delivery. As for the aluminum tray, so long as you don't burn it, you can give it a rinse and toss it into the recycling. 

The bottom line

PureFish is the most convenient option for easy-to-prep, high-quality seafood. At about $32 per tray (or about $26.55 if you subscribe), know that it's going to cost you a bit more than most online delivery platforms for frozen seafood, but it will also save you a lot on time. 

You can find cheaper and (mutually exclusively) higher-quality seafood online. But frozen seafood when it's done right is superb — keep in mind that most top-dollar sushi is frozen to kill potential parasites and soften the meat — and this is about as good as it gets. Where convenience, quality, and sustainability intersect, you'll have an incredibly hard time beating PureFish, for now.

Custom Box (small)The Rainbow Box (small)The Grill Box (small)