The High Liner Sea Cuisine Ponzu Glazed Cod from Costco is easy to make but looks like a gourmet entree. Combining wild cod with the flavors of ponzu, soy sauce, garlic, red bell pepper and lemon sounds pretty good to me! We all know how hard it is to make perfectly-cooked fish though. Is it possible to create a truly delicious fish dish that only needs to be baked in the oven, or does this Ponzu Glazed Cod sacrifice taste for convenience?
Cod is probably my favorite white fish but I don’t eat it often because Sean is not a fish eater at all. When I do have fish it’s usually at restaurants or for lunch. I was contacted by High Liner and offered free samples of some of their products that are available in the United States. I don’t do paid sponsored reviews because it’s important to me my reviews are honest but I did agree to take some free samples to try.
Other seafood products from Costco I love are the Kirkland Signature Stuffed Salmon, Dom Reserve Singles Steelhead Salmon Poke, Kirkland Signature Fish & Chips Meal, Kirkland Signature Tempura Shrimp, Seacore Frozen Lobster Tails, Olivia Marinated Butterfly Shrimp, Kirkland Signature Breaded Panko Shrimp and the High Liner Miso Glazed Cod.
Location in Store
This can be found at Costco in the Northeast US and they’re in the freezer section, near the other frozen seafood products.
Taste
The first thing I notice is that the cod doesn’t smell fishy at all when baking it in the oven which is a major positive in my husband’s eyes. When it comes to taste the cod is very flaky and light, you don’t need a knife to cut it, it just falls apart easily with a fork. The cod melts in your mouth and isn’t fishy tasting whatsoever but it does taste a bit oily.
The glaze has a citrus flavor with a hint of heat. The main citrus note I taste is lime which I like, there’s also a lot of savory flavor noticeable from the soy and the garlic.
Similar to the Miso Glazed Cod from High Liner the glaze on top had a bit of slimy texture I don’t love and a lot of the glaze ran off during cooking. However, the quality and flavor of the cod is excellent.
Cost
The two-pound box costs $19.99 USD at Costco. Each box has around eight portions of cod but there can be more or less depending on the size of each portion of cod.
Convenience
There are baking instructions for the cod on the box. I lined a baking tray with aluminum foil and we used our conventional over to bake the cod at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 minutes. I do wonder if using an air fryer to cook the cod would help make the texture of the glaze on top a bit more appealing.
The cod needs to be kept frozen and the best-before date is about a year and a half from when I received the cod. I kept it simple and served my cod with whole-grain basmati rice and broccoli. I think it would also pair well with sides like sauteed cabbage, noodles, carrots, salad or quinoa.
Nutrition
Calories
Three-quarters of one piece of ponzu glazed cod contains 100 calories, one grams of fat, 260 milligrams of sodium, three grams of carbohydrates, zero grams of fibre, one gram of sugar and 17 grams of protein. That’s quite a bit of protein for not many calories or much fat. The sodium isn’t ridiculously high and I like that it’s low in sugar.
Ingredients
The ingredients are pretty much what I expected to see. I don’t love a few ingredients like soybean oil and corn syrup solids. Also, I wish that the cod was made gluten-free so those with gluten intolerance could also enjoy it. I like that the fish is responsibly sourced and MSC certified. You can read more about what MSC certification means on the MSC website.
Scoring
Taste: 7/10
Cost: 7/10
Convenience: 9/10
Nutrition: 8/10
Overall
Give it a try!
My favorite part about this cod is how light and flaky it is, the quality of the cod is great. The glaze’s flavor is nice but I don’t love the texture.
Have you tried this cod? What did you think?
Please note that this review was not paid for or sponsored by any third party. However, Costcuisine was given a free sample of this product for the purpose of producing this review. The provision of the free sample was not contingent on Costcuisine providing a favorable review of the product and Costcuisine retained full editorial control of the contents of this review. The opinions in this review are strictly those of Costcuisine. Costcuisine is not affiliated with Costco or any of its suppliers.
Thank you Natalie for your honest reviews.
I personally appreciate them. That being said I don’t buy everything you recommended, just what appeals to me.
As for your negative commentor on here, maybe she needs to find something else to read. ๐
Have a great weekend
And thank you for your time and efforts.
Some of us do appreciate you!
I think it is important that we realize that Natalie is providing a very useful service to many of us even though many of us might not agree with everything that she says. Certainly Costco doesn’t need Natalie to support and promote their products.
I have never questioned Natalie’s reviews and find them to be quite in line with my own keeping in mind that she is comparing to other types of similar products be they from Costco or other similar stores. Personally, I was only hoping to dissuade other readers from buying everything frozen and convenient in this age of mass production and convenience. Going forward I will no longer be making such comments.
Give it a try? Have you trademarked that phrase?
Natalie. I’m going to stop visiting your blog. I just don’t understand your taste, Many others I know don’t either, but perhaps that’s just my social circle.
While you claim not to be affiliated with Costco in any way, and that you don’t receive any promotional consideration or benefit, I remain skeptical that someone, somewhere, maybe your partner in BC is influencing you to write overly positive reviews of Costco products.
I find that your reviews are so consistently positive (with rare exception they’re not) that it’s hard to believe that they’re not influenced by someone.
Perhaps you just really love Costco products. Maybe you’re a Costco superfan. But whatever the reason, your reviews are starting to feel more like advertisements than genuine reviews.
So, I’m out. I’m not going to waste my time reading reviews that I can’t trust.
Hi Tina!
I am definitely a naturally positive person and I do like Costco but I always disclose any compensation or free samples. If you don’t feel like the blog is worth your time I’m sorry to see you go. I don’t feel that what I score item is all that important. Taste is subjective and I try to describe the features of the product so people who have different tastes can decide whether or not its something they can enjoy ๐
Kind regards,
Natalie
Hi Tina.
I thought I would take this opportunity to reply to your recent comment. I think your comments are more of a personal attack against Natalie and her blog. I don’t think she deserves such comments directed towards her regardless of whether you agree with her reviews or not.
Personally, I completely agree with the way that Natalie has divided her reviews into the two groups of either Give it a Try or Walk On By. This gives people a quick way to determine whether they might not even want to read the review. I use it in this fashion all the time. In general, if you don’t agree with her reviews, then the website would be a little used to you: I get that. I will say that if Natalie tells me to Walk On By in her review I most likely will. On the other hand, if she tells me to Give it a Try, then I may or may not actually give it a try. In the end, my decision is based on my own knowledge and my personal priorities. I don’t feel that her reviews are advertisements in any way. In fact, in the future, I will be refraining from commenting by comparing Costco products to something that I could personally make myself from scratch. I don’t think that is the intent of her blog.
Give it a try? Have you trademarked that phrase? I am not sure what you meant by this comment. Why would she do that?
I can’t for a moment think that anyone has a vested interest in promoting Costco products on Natalie’s blog. As you may very well be aware, there are not a lot of readers of the blog. Many of her products and reviews don’t have a single comment. On average, there are only a handful for each review that she does. I also wonder what your comment was about someone in BC promoting and influencing her reviews. Perhaps you could explain what you meant by that comment. I have read practically all of her reviews and fail to see a link to anyone in BC and what benefit this would have for anyone.
Finally, most of the people who read this blog are Costco fans/superfans however that does not mean that we purchase every Costco product we can set our hands on.
The more I see Costco products like these, the less I opt for them. Frozen, fresh and fish are words that normally don’t go together. I bought a whole fish from the biggest grocer in Canada a few days ago. Fresh, not frozen, and enough for four people for less than $8. And it was salmon, not cod. Hard to believe, I know. Sure, not a fillet, but once it’s cooked, the bones just pull off and the meat separates easily from the skin. Really not that much effort and the fresh fish flavor comes through. Could have easily been marinated with Ponzu sauce. Not to mention I didn’t have to eat the same meal over and over and take up extra freezer space.