Our Favorite Store-Bought Tartar Sauce Is Linked To A Popular Boston Restaurant

You can always make a simple tartar sauce from scratch to serve with your fried seafood, but sometimes a store-bought bottle is all it takes. When you walk down the condiment aisle at the supermarket, however, there are a wide range of brands and varieties of tartar sauce to choose from. So for anyone who doesn't already have a preferred iteration of the creamy and tangy condiment, Tasting Table has you covered with a ranking of the best store-bought tartar sauces.

Out of the 10 brands tested in our ranking, Legal Sea Foods House Tartar Sauce by Stonewall Kitchen took the top spot for a handful of reasons. For starters, its thick consistency stood out from the rest of the brands, making it ideal for dipping purposes. Meanwhile, the condiment had a great balance of sweet and savory notes according to our writer.

Perhaps another reason the tartar sauce is supreme is that it's connected to Legal Sea Foods, one of the best seafood restaurants in Boston that has locations in other states like Virginia and Rhode Island. The collaboration between the eatery and Stonewall Kitchen, which is known for its high-quality condiments and specialty foods, is likely why it's such a flavorful sauce. It costs around $8, but if you want a restaurant-quality sauce, it might be worth the extra cash.

We certainly trust our writer's opinion on the best tartar sauce, but taste tests are always subjective. However, the proof is in the other rave reviews that live online. For example, the sauce has a four-star rating on Stonewall Kitchen's website. The condiment also garnered a four-star rating on Amazon based on just under 300 customer reviews. 

The balance of flavors that stood out in our ranking and other reviews is likely due to ingredients like sweet pickle relish, caramelized onions, dried dill, and dehydrated bell peppers. The dip contains egg and soy, but both of those ingredients are to be expected in a premade tartar sauce. Hungry, now? When you score your bottle of Legal Sea Foods House Tartar Sauce by Stonewall Kitchen, try it with our beer-battered fish and yucca chips recipe or on a batch of our classic British fish and chips.