10 Store-Bought Tartar Sauces, Ranked Worst To Best

Tangy, rich, and salty tartar sauce is a classic accompaniment to seafood dishes, and you can also use it in place of mayonnaise for spreading on sandwiches or dipping fries. Being so versatile, it's worth having a bottle of tartar sauce on hand. But with quite a few options available, which brand deserves a place in the pantheon of sauces that presides over your refrigerator?

I've picked several tartar sauces that are easily available to consumers and put them to the test with a portion of french fries. But what's really in tartar sauce? In an ideal world, a simple tartar sauce recipe results in the flavor of tangy mayonnaise enhanced by a smidgen of salt, balanced by the briny taste of diced pickles, bright lemon juice, and grassy dill. 

While ingredient variations exist, a good tartar sauce should always find the middle ground between richness and freshness, as well as straddle sweetness and acidity. It should also have a texture thick enough to cling to a piece of fried fish, but not so thick that it clumps together into creamy globs — and a fair price point is always a plus. With all this in mind, I tried and ranked these store-bought tartar sauce brands to learn which are top-class condiments, and which are just plain fishy.

At the very bottom of this list is McCormick Tartar Sauce. McCormick is a trusted brand for a lot of folks, myself included, but my trust was broken by this tartar sauce. One look at the sad spectacle of this sauce, and I knew it wasn't good news. I could discern a few vaguely green specks, but the sauce mostly appeared a monolithic beige color, instead of the fresh whiteness that I'm accustomed to seeing when I look at tartar sauce. Furthermore, the lackluster ingredients came through in the taste, which was more like a poor-quality mayonnaise than a tartar sauce.

Although lemon juice concentrate, mustard, and sweet pickles are all listed on the ingredient list, their flavor was barely detectable behind an overpowering sweetness. In terms of texture, this sauce was thick and bordered on gelatinous, firmly holding its shape on a french fry like a pompadour with too much hair spray. I went back for a second bite to make sure my taste buds hadn't deceived me, and I won't be making that mistake again. 

Some argue that Whole Foods is the best store for organic shopping, and part of that is because 365 — the chain's proprietary brand — offers a lineup of fully organic products at fair prices. 365 Organic Tartar Sauce is no different. For being a fully organic product, I was pleasantly surprised by the affordable price of this sauce ... but my hopes for discovering a simultaneously low-cost and high-quality tartar sauce were soon dashed. 

The first thing I noticed was that the oil had separated from the rest of the sauce, so I had to vigorously shake the bottle to reintegrate it — and it's a good thing that I work out, because this wasn't easy. Even after the sauce achieved a uniform consistency, it was still notably oily on my tongue, and too runny to cling to a fry the way tartar sauce should. 

I appreciated the hints of mustard, garlic, and onion that I picked up, but the pickle pieces did not give me the crunch I needed. What's more, the subtle bite of vinegar and lemon juice was not enough to cut the intense sweetness. Unlike many other brands that use high-fructose corn syrup to sweeten tartar sauce, 365 uses organic cane sugar, which sounds much more attractive — but too much sweetness is too much sweetness, regardless of the ingredients' quality. 

I love a good pun, so Sau-Sea Classic Tartar Sauce immediately piqued my interest. True to Sau-Sea's nautical name, this family-owned company specializes in sauces crafted specifically for seafood. A narrow niche like this is usually a sign that a company has mastered its craft, but Sau-Sea missed the mark here. The biggest issue with this tartar sauce is that it lacked brininess and acidity. Without these flavors to balance out the added corn syrup, this dip tasted more like sugary mayonnaise than like tartar sauce.

The consistency was quite good, enveloping the end of my fry just enough. The texture, however, was lacking any hint of crunch from a pickle, and this gave the sauce an unappetizing uniformness. There were indeed pickle pieces in the sauce, which I could see before I took a bite. Sadly, they were mushy and didn't add flavor or texture. Some of these shortcomings may have been easier to stomach if this sauce had been purchased as a bargain, but it was one of the more expensive options on the list. 

There's something classy and European about the extra "e" in Colman's Tartare Sauce. This contender is unique among the sauces on this list in that it's made in the U.K., the birthplace of classic British fish and chips. And this sauce was so close to greatness! The mayonnaise base was rich and eggy, cut with just the right amount of vinegar, and the pickle pieces appeared every so often with a gentle crunch that gave the sauce a subtle freshness.

But there was no saving Colman's from the sin of sweetness. It wasn't enough to add sugar to this sauce — the makers of Colman's also added glucose-fructose syrup, making it even sweeter. While the remaining flavors were delicious and well choreographed, they were obscured by the curtain of sugar that dominated the sauce. Texture-wise, Colman's was thick, robust, and a pleasure to dip. If you've got a serious sweet tooth, this may be the tartar sauce for you. 

It took me a moment to figure out what was different about Bookbinder's tartar sauce, because it had a kick unlike any other sauce on the list. "Aha!" I thought to myself, "It's horseradish!" The addition of this fiery root certainly gave this tartar sauce a unique taste, and as a horseradish hound myself, I appreciated its presence. However, some of the other elements were lacking, and if you're not a fan of horseradish, steer clear of this one.

Beyond the piquant flavor of the horseradish, Bookbinder's maintained a decent balance between the richness of the mayonnaise base and the acidity of the vinegar. But it wasn't enough to cover this sauce's cardinal sin: too much added sweetener. High-fructose corn syrup hit my tongue with an unpleasantly strong sweetness that wasn't quite cloying but deterred me from wanting more. I was also wishing for a stronger pickle taste and texture, and although I could see chopped pickles floating around in the sauce, they didn't register on my tongue. 

Kraft is a powerhouse when it comes to affordable foods. The company has been around for well over 100 years, earning its products a spot in countless fridges and pantries across the country. Since Kraft is hardly a mom-and-pop brand with artisanal products, I went into this tartar-sauce taste test with an anti-establishment attitude toward this option, which I'm pleased to say was handed back to me on a deliciously dipped french fry. While it isn't at the top of this list, Kraft tartar sauce is a solid budget-friendly option. The mayonnaise base was tangy and rich, and the flavor of the sweet pickles shone through nicely.

The texture was also near perfect, with a consistency just a bit thinner than mayonnaise, which makes it perfect for dipping crunchy bites of fried cod. The only downside was that this sauce was too sweet. The heavy-handed use of high-fructose corn syrup is palpable, giving the sauce a sugary flavor that's overpowering, competing with the salty pickles and the tangy mayo. 

Primal Kitchen does things a bit differently. The brand is dedicated to using top-quality ingredients and steering clear of artificial sweeteners, and it shows. This tartar sauce tasted lighter and fresher than most of the other options, and the use of organic lemon juice gave it a citrusy brightness. While I could've done with a few more chunks of pickle, the hefty inclusion of dill rounded out the flavor with a vibrant herbaceous quality.

While it was a relief to come upon a solidly savory option after trying a few sauces that were too sugary, I did find myself wanting just a hint of sweetness to counter the tangier flavors. That said, the lack of sugar makes this product great for people following the keto diet — and also for people who have money to burn, since this was one of the list's pricier options. Primal Kitchen's tartar sauce was one of my favorites in terms of flavor, but the consistency was much too thin, and it was difficult to get a fry really smothered with it. 

This bottle of Inglehoffer tartar sauce caught my eye, because you can see through the clear container that the sauce is chock-full of green specks of herbs and pickles. Upon inspection of the ingredient list, I found that this bottle contains capers, peppers, celery, and parsley. This sauce also advertises its use of lemon, and the citrus flavor adds a delicious freshness that cuts the fat from the mayonnaise.

Something people should know before buying a bottle of Inglehoffer: This tartar sauce is for dill and caper lovers. These can be two polarizing ingredients, and they're both found in this bottle in notable quantities. The way this sauce softly enveloped my french fry when I dipped it indicated a near-perfect texture. This sauce is a departure from "normal" tartar sauces that rely more on a balance between a rich mayonnaise base and the briny crunch of pickles. Instead, Inglehoffer is packed with other ingredients that, in this tartar taster's opinion, are just as good. 

I'll start by saying that not everybody loves dill, and if you're one of those people, Captain Toady's Tasty Tartar with Dill is not for you. If you're like me, however, and you hold the grassy and slightly citrusy freshness of a sprig of dill in high esteem, then you'll be pleased to grace your seafood with the presence of this uniquely delicious sauce.

Apart from its dill-forward flavor, Toady's sauce contains by far the most pickle pieces of any option on this list. Every bite contains a pronounced crunch that adds freshness to cut the fat of the sauce's mayonnaise, not to mention the oiliness of the fried food being dipped in it. 

There's also just the right amount of sweetness, which gives this sauce depth and balances its light acidity without making it cloying, like some of the other sauces. The high pickle content does give this product a chunkiness that's not exactly the traditional tartar sauce texture, and this makes it a bit more difficult to coat your fry with just the right amount. But in short, if you like dill pickles, this is the tartar sauce for you. 

Legal Sea Foods is hands down one of the best seafood restaurants in Boston. This legendary fish joint is famous for serving up Beantown's most famous nautical fare, and this tartar sauce is made with the same recipe as what's used for cod lovers to dip their chips into at the restaurant's locations. This sauce is a collaboration with upscale condiment brand Stonewall Kitchen, and it's on the pricier side, but it's worth the extra few bucks if you consider yourself a tartar sauce aficionado.

This is the thickest condiment on the list, and although a tartar sauce that's too thick is better than one that's too runny, I thought it could've been a bit thinner so that it doesn't clump onto food. Nonetheless, this sauce maintains a strikingly perfect balance between sweet and savory, due in part to the creative inclusion of caramelized onions, which are certainly not found in your average tartar sauce. Mustard powder, ground celery seeds, and dehydrated bell pepper give it a savory zing, and a dash of white vinegar cuts the richness just enough. 

After a bit of research, I rounded up 10 popular tartar sauces that are relatively easy to buy across the country. Tartar sauce was made for fried food. This aioli-adjacent dip goes well with fresh, salty fries, so I ordered a plate of them from my local diner and started dipping. 

First, I tried a dab of each sauce on its own to get an unadulterated sense of its flavor. I was looking for a mayonnaise base that was slightly tangy, and complementary to the brininess of pickles and the freshness of herbs. A good tartar sauce also strikes a perfect balance between sweetness and acidity, usually in the form of lemon juice or vinegar.

Then, I dipped a fry in each sauce to get a sense of the texture. Tartar sauce should be thick enough that just the right amount of sauce clings to your food (a consistency just a bit thinner than mayonnaise). Tasting the sauce on a fry gave me a chance to see how the flavors in the sauce can hold up to a salty crunch, which is how tartar sauce is most often consumed. I also took into account the price of each sauce, and how that correlated (or didn't correlate) with its overall culinary quality.