Price is just a general rule of thumb though, and should not be used as the only indicator (I've seen some ridiculous pricing on fancy-looking fish sauce with a bunch of additives!). But once you've already considered the two points above, price can be used as a tiebreaker.

Another indicator of quality is protein content. As I explained in How is Fish Sauce Made above, lower quality fish sauce has more water added, and this naturally dilutes the concentration of fish protein.

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Finally, the price tag can tell you something. You can use price as a general indication of quality because the most flavourful fish sauce actually takes more fish to make, and should cost you more. Then to make the final bottle, the first press is combined with subsequent presses at a ratio specific to that brand. So the fish sauce quality is determined by how much of that first press is in the final product.

Yes, it smells fishy, but the magic of fish sauce is that once it's added to food, the fishiness disappears and you're left with that salty savory punch that can elevate any dish. Substitutes MEGACHEF. Megachef fish sauce has recently surged in popularity in Thailand, branding itself as more premium, but still affordable enough for everyday use. It has a great flavour and tastes more rich and flavourful than Squid. Note: Sometimes the label will list anchovy extract rather than anchovies. This does not mean they’re using artificial anchovy extracts or any such thing, but some brands use the word "extract" because there aren’t any actual fish in the bottle, only the liquid that had been extracted from the fish. In the same way that oyster sauce contains “oyster extracts” because the oyster bodies aren’t in the bottle. 2. Choose a higher protein content. If you're an occasional user, keep opened fish sauce in the fridge. If the fridge is not an option for some reason, at the very least store it in a cool, dark place. This is because over time, the flavour does deteriorate and becomes more pungent, and the color will be visibly darken. Keeping it cold, in the dark, and tightly sealed will slow this process down significantly. The official cookbook of 100 recipes from the cult favorite and top chef lauded fish sauce brand, Red Boat Fish Sauce

Leah Cohen, Chef and Owner at Pig and Khao and Piggyback, New York, NY

No. If that were true, most Thai dishes would taste fishy. I have received many messages from first timers who smell it, then immediately cannot imagine how this could be added to food. I've even had someone asking me if it had gone bad! It is a little saltier than most, with 1670 mg of sodium per tablespoon, so if you're watching your salt intake, you may want to go with another brand. But because of this, it is the brand that I now use for my recipe testing to ensure that if you follow my recipe using a different brand of fish sauce, you're not going to end up with something that's is too salty; which is something you cannot fix. I saw what he meant when we pulled into a narrow driveway, that didn’t look like it would lead to much from the street. The streets in Vietnam seem to be a jumble of everything, with different kinds of shops and restaurants, and other kinds of businesses, all mixed together. I was amazed at what kinds of businesses I randomly came across just walking around or passing on our motor scooter.