Branzino substitute

Best substitute

Whole dorade or sea bream (orata)

Use the same amount by weight as the branzino you are replacing

Best for whole roasted fish

Close match

The best swaps are another small whole roasting fish of the same size: whole black sea bass, whole dorade or sea bream, whole porgy, or whole rainbow trout, all at 1:1 by weight with the same cooking time. Dorade is closest of all and often sits in the same case. If you only have fillets, sea bass, barramundi or snapper fillets taste right but you lose the whole-fish presentation and need to cut the roasting time roughly in half.

Other branzino substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Whole black sea bass
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
The best American substitute and widely available on the East Coast.
What changes
Black sea bass is a little firmer and meatier than branzino with a slightly more pronounced, more savory flavor, so a whole roasted fish eats a bit more substantial and less delicate. The skin crisps just as well. Because the body is thicker through the shoulder, give it three to five extra minutes in the oven and check the flesh at the backbone.
Best for
whole roasted fish, grilled whole fish, steamed whole fish, Chinese-style steamed fish
Scales are tough, so ask for it scaled and gutted. It is excellent steamed with ginger and scallion as well as roasted.
3Whole rainbow trout
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight
The cheapest and most reliably stocked whole fish in most supermarkets, and it roasts in the same pan for the same time.
What changes
What changes is the flavor register: trout is softer, oilier and carries a mild earthy, slightly nutty note where branzino is clean and briny, so a lemon-and-herb roast tastes richer and less like the sea. The skin crisps beautifully but is thinner and tears more easily when you turn it.
Best for
whole roasted fish, grilled whole fish, pan-fried whole fish, stuffed with lemon and herbs
Trout is boneless-ish in the sense that the pin bones lift out in a sheet with the spine, which makes it easier to serve to nervous eaters than branzino.
4Whole porgy or scup
Close match
Use the same amount by weight
An underused and inexpensive bream relative that behaves almost exactly like branzino in the oven.
What changes
Sweet, clean, moderately firm flesh with crisp-friendly skin. The catch is bones: porgy has more of them and they are finer, so it is fiddlier to eat and less suited to serving guests who will not pick through a fish. Flavor and cooking are otherwise a very close match.
Best for
whole roasted fish, grilled whole fish, fried whole fish, acqua pazza
Score the sides two or three times to help it cook evenly and to make the skin crisp faster.
5Whole red snapper (smaller fish)
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight
A very good roasting fish with firmer, meatier flesh and a slightly sweeter, more distinctive flavor than branzino.
What changes
The real adjustment is size: snapper is usually sold from two pounds upward, so one fish feeds two or three people and needs roughly ten extra minutes in a hot oven. The thicker body also means the skin is sturdier and less likely to tear, but it takes longer to crisp.
Best for
whole roasted fish, grilled whole fish, steamed whole fish, salt-baked fish
If you buy one large snapper in place of two branzino, aim the thermometer or your knife at the thickest part just behind the head.
6Sea bass, barramundi or snapper fillets
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
The right choice when you cannot get a whole fish at all, with a clear trade-off.
What changes
The flavor is essentially correct and a skin-on fillet still crisps, but the whole-fish presentation, the moisture the bones and head keep in the flesh, and the theatrical filleting at the table all disappear. Expect drier, plainer results, and compensate with a sauce, a spoonful of the pan juices or a bright salsa verde.
Best for
roasted fillets, pan-seared fish, grilled fillets, weeknight cooking
A skin-on fillet needs only ten to fourteen minutes at 400F, roughly half a whole branzino's time. Start it skin down in a hot pan and finish in the oven for the crispest result.

What is Branzino?

Branzino is Branzino, known in English as European sea bass and on menus as loup de mer or spigola, is a small farmed Mediterranean fish with delicate sweet white flesh and thin skin that crisps easily, almost always cooked and served whole at about a pound per person.

Cooking tips

Branzino is bought by the fish, not by the fillet: one whole fish of about one to one and a quarter pounds serves one person as a main. When you substitute, match the weight per person rather than the number of fish, since a two-pound snapper replaces two branzino, not one.
The reason recipes specify branzino is the skin, which is thin enough to go genuinely crisp in a home oven. To get that from any substitute, dry the skin thoroughly with paper towels, salt it fifteen minutes ahead, blot again, oil it lightly and roast at 425F or higher. A damp fish steams and the skin goes flabby.
Score the thickest part of the sides two or three times down to the bone on any whole fish you swap in. It lets heat into the shoulder, which is what is still raw when the belly is done, and it stops the fish curling on a grill.
Whole fish is done when the flesh at the backbone behind the head has just turned opaque and pulls away cleanly when you probe with a knife tip, not when a timer goes off. This is the single most useful thing to know when the fish you are cooking is a different size or shape from the one in the recipe.
The cavity is a seasoning opportunity that fillets do not offer. Lemon slices, fennel fronds, thyme, garlic and a little salt inside the fish perfume the flesh from the inside as it roasts, and it works identically in dorade, sea bass, porgy or trout.

Frequently asked questions

What is branzino called in English?

European sea bass. Branzino is the Italian name, loup de mer is the French, spigola and robalo also appear on labels, and British fishmongers usually just say sea bass. They are all the same species, so any recipe using one of those names is asking for the same fish.

Is branzino the same as the sea bass at my supermarket?

Often not. American markets label several unrelated fish as sea bass, including black sea bass, which is a good and close substitute, and Chilean sea bass, which is not a bass at all and is a rich, oily, thick-fleshed fish that behaves nothing like branzino. If the fish is a slim silvery one-pounder sold whole, it is probably genuine branzino or a bream; if it is a thick white loin fillet, it is something else.

Can I just leave the branzino out?

No, because in every recipe that names it the branzino is the dish. What you can do is transfer the recipe wholesale onto another small whole fish, since the lemon, herbs, olive oil, capers or acqua pazza broth around it are what create the flavor. Dorade, black sea bass, porgy and trout all take those treatments without any change to the method.

Can I use tilapia instead of branzino?

It is the weakest option on this page. Tilapia is sold as boneless fillets, so the whole-fish presentation goes, and its flesh is denser and blander with a faintly muddy background note where branzino is clean and sweet. If it is genuinely all you have, roast it with plenty of lemon, olive oil and herbs and treat it as a different, simpler dish rather than a branzino stand-in.

How do I substitute fillets for a whole branzino?

Use the same total weight of skin-on fillets, about six ounces per person, and cut the cooking time roughly in half. A whole branzino takes twenty to twenty-five minutes at 425F; a fillet takes ten to fourteen. Because you lose the moisture the bones hold in, spoon the pan juices over the fish before serving or add a sauce.

Related substitutes

More seafood substitutes

Branzino substitute

Other branzino substitutes

2Whole black sea bass

3Whole rainbow trout

4Whole porgy or scup

5Whole red snapper (smaller fish)

6Sea bass, barramundi or snapper fillets