Best Clam Chowder Delivery Services

With a wide selection, many options with free shipping, and great customer service, Goldbelly takes the prize.

Goldbelly is dominating the mail-order food game, and with such a large selection of clam chowders from many famous and amazing chowder houses, Goldbelly was an easy choice for best overall. In fact, Goldbelly is the only service we could find that delivers all three styles of clam chowder: New England, Manhattan, and Rhode Island. If you're not familiar with the Rhode Island-style, the broth is clear, containing neither cream nor tomato.

Goldbelly covers clam chowder thoroughly, with many clam chowders from top producers like Seattle's Pike Place Chowder, Boston's Bay Shore Chowders, and Iggy's of Rhode Island. Speaking of Iggy's, that's the company that makes all three styles of chowder, all of which are available on Goldbelly by the half-gallon. Goldbelly offers many clam chowder combo kits as well, just in case you want to pair your chowder with a lobster roll or a grilled cheese sandwich, or serve it in a sourdough bread bowl.

For the best deal, check out the New England Clam Chowder from Blount's Family Soup Kitchens of Fall River, Massachusetts. You can get a half gallon for about $40, with free shipping included. Goldbelly ships to anywhere in the continental United States, but shipping to Alaska and Hawaii costs extra.

For those who prefer tomato to cream, Haskell's of Long Island makes Manhattan-style clam chowder with perfectly briny top neck clams.

With a little red wagon and a cooler, young Peter Haskell sold his fresh-caught seafood door-to-door on New York's Long Island. Today he's Captain Haskell, and his business has grown from that wagon and cooler into one of the area's best boutique seafood companies. Haskell's focuses on seafood from the North Atlantic that's caught in small batches using sustainable methods.

Haskell's makes its Manhattan clam chowder from scratch, including the clam stock, which the company prepares from top neck clams harvested on Long Island. Click the Nutrition Label tab on the company's website to see the chowder's ingredients. You'll find only real whole foods on the list, with no ingredient that sounds like it was made in a lab—just broth, tomatoes, clams, vegetables, and seasoning. Is it good? One customer put it this way: "A culinary masterpiece! Local clams, homegrown tomatoes, fresh local veggies, and a perfect combination of spices. The tastiest Manhattan Clam Chowder on the Island. Foodie approved!"

Haskell's Manhattan clam chowder comes in two-packs of 16-ounce portions and ships frozen. Each two-pack—a quart of soup total—costs about $30. Haskell's provides a table of shipping charges on its website, and you must order at least $65 worth to qualify for shipping, so order at least three-quarters of a gallon.

Legal Seafood's clam chowder is served at presidential inaugurations and ships fresh to your door by the gallon.

Legal Sea Foods has two mottos. The first is "If it isn't fresh, it isn't Legal." The second is "Legal Sea Foods is a fish company in the restaurant business." George Berkowitz founded Legal Sea Foods in 1950 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At the time, Berkowitz's father Harry owned a grocery store called Legal Cash Market, and George opened his new fish market right next door. Nearly 20 years later, the family opened a seafood restaurant next to the fish market. The establishment quickly became well known for high-quality, simple preparation and a minimalist New England aesthetic. Today, Legal Sea Foods has two dozen restaurants from Massachusetts to Virginia, but it remains "a fish company in the restaurant business."

Legal's New England clam chowder has been served at every presidential inauguration since 1981. It's a strong recommendation. But reviews from regular folks are just as enthusiastic. "It is literally to die for," writes one customer. "I have never had better New England Clam Chowder. It's amazing how tender you get the clams," says another. "Off the charts fantastic. I buy a gallon every year...." You get the idea.

Legal's chowder ships fresh by the gallon. Each one-gallon bag costs about $70, with a substantial discount available if you buy two bags at once. After the chowder arrives, you can simply reheat it within three days or freeze it for up to 30 days. A gallon serves about 15 people and comes with oyster crackers. Shipping costs extra.

LobsterAnywhere is the best purveyor of frozen New England clam chowder, shipped in convenient boilable Cryovac pouches.

LobsterAnywhere is, unsurprisingly, mostly a lobster company that specializes in distributing live Maine lobsters throughout the United States, a trade in which the company has been engaged since the early 1990s. Turns out that if you become an expert at shipping premium live Maine lobsters across the country, shipping clam chowder doesn't pose much of a challenge.

LobsterAnywhere makes New England clam chowder featuring sweet, tender surf clams. The chowder ships frozen in boilable, vacuum-sealed packaging. Sold in packs of two, each Cryovac pouch holds 16 ounces of soup. Because the packs are boilable, you can put the sealed bags of frozen chowder into boiling water to bring it to serving temperature. Customers love the convenience, saying things like "Thank you for this high quality, delicious chowder—so easy to fix." "I was amazed at the freshness and fantastic taste...I am a fan for life." "This is the best clam chowder I’ve ever had that I didn’t make." And "highly recommend this company. Have ordered twice and the quality is superb."

Each 16-ounce bag sells for around $13. For a great deal, check out the Clam Chowder special, which includes free shipping and four, 16-ounce Cryovac pouches (one half-gallon total) for around $80. If you want to branch out from clam, check out the New England Soup Sampler, which includes Lobster Bisque and free shipping for about $90.