Main Street Meats

Once you buy your meat here, you’re spoiled and won’t go anywhere else because it is SO exceptionally good, as is their service. AND they gave me free sausages on my first visit :-)

Exceptional customer service, a couple of sausages on the house, and wait… the best grass fed steaks in the region. Shop here every week. You won’t be disappointed. They have a customer for life with us!

Best meat market in Ventura. Very helpful and friendly staff. Great selection and very competitive pricing for the quality of products! We buy all of our meat here — great place!

Fabulous standing rib beef roast cut to order and seasoned to perfection. Meat is so well ‘handled’ package is dry – no juice draining while waiting in the cooler. I bought a Thermapen to ensure proper temp and time. I’ll go back.

Delicious deli sandwiches. I got chicken caprese!!! Everything is very fresh and made to order. Definitely my new favorite place to get sandwiches.

I have been patronizing and you have great meats but
Just some constructive criticism, your bacon is cut too thick…
Next time I will ask if you can cut some to my liking
Thank you,
Carolyn

One stop farmers market greats anytime! I love this place!!! Seasoned our taco meat & it was delicious! Local, hormone free best meat around! Old school, know your butcher & butcher knows you! 3 flavor of Amazing kombucha in tap! 3 specialty organic, fair trade tasty coffees on tap! Refill growlers of both! Great price! Tastes are free! Sell awesome raw milk, butter & cheese! Eggs! Gourmet sandwiches! Local honey! Bulk flours! I’m all about local, pesticide & hormone free & this place is HEAVENLY! Make your $$ count!

Went today and bought all kinds of meets. The owner was there and was very knowledgable and willing to share information. I bought a pork chop, gorgeous porterhouse steak, couple pounds of ground beef, New York steak and bacon. She also wanted us to try her sausage so we have a couple of those too! Tonight we grilled the pork chop and it was heavenly. I can’t wait to try the rest. I loved the store and the attitude of the owner. Good job!

I stopped in here with an unusual request for a butcher’s help and the woman behind the counter (after some skepticism) did say they could do their best to help me. I’ll come back when I have my meat that needs cutting. In the mean time I bought some fancy artisan desserts from their fridge and was very happy with both of them. The staff behind the counter were friendly and polite and the woman (appeared to be the owner) was willing to entertain odd requests.

I can’t say enough great things about this place. Firstly, THE SANDWICHES. If you go here and don’t get a sandwich, you’re missing out on the best part of your day. My favorites are the turkey bacon panini (on naan bread!) & the mama mia (on an olive roll!).
They also have tons of organic flours & ingredients bulk, and overall awesome local sources for their stock. A kombucha bar, whaaaat?! Amazing local & organic coffees, honeys, nut butters, jams, baked goods, dairy… The list goes on & on. Last but not least, the meat– always amazing. Best chicken, best turkey, best pork (bourbon soaked bacon!!!) and best lamb. I haven’t tried the beef yet, but I trust this place to have that on lock too. They must be friends with all of the local farmers, because the quality of stock & freshness can not be understated.
The owner & butcher are both very friendly and always knowledgable & helpful when I come in (even when they are insanely busy, they make sure I don’t feel forgotten). I saw the bad reviews, and I think those people must just be impatient/​unrealistic, or else just unhappy people looking for flaws. I’ve been coming in here 2 – 4 x’s per month since late last year (upon recommendation from an acquaintance for their stuffed chicken– which is also amazing, btw), and I haven’t had one bad experience. Except for my mouth watering while they prepare my sandwich, which isn’t necessarily their fault. ;)
Did I mention the sandwiches?
Just go.

I’ve only been here once, and once is enough. I came to try the sandwiches for lunch since I had driven past it so many times I thought «why not».
I ordered to go, a Reuben and Bitchin Beef Sandwich with the kale salad and cucumber and peperonchini salad as sides.
Initial thoughts about the shop, good selection of unique items, (The BU kombucha on tap and nice selection of their flavors… the only reason they earn an extra star above 1) and friendly service. Wait time wasn’t bad either so I got my food in about 10 minutes and left.
The reason my review is so bad is because the quality of the food was really bad. The Reuben sandwich was cold, the cheese wasn’t melted and the bread wasn’t toasted, it had some sauerkraut on it but it didn’t taste crunchy and sour like i expected, and slathered in the sauce which I wouldn’t even call thousand island. I feel like I could have made a better sandwich, nothing special.
My boyfriend had the bitchin beef, and it was a similar experience, the bread was so thick, cold and dry you could barely taste the meat or other toppings. I tried a bite and wasn’t impressed and asked him what he thought, and all he was meh, it’s OK.
Even though I wasn’t thrilled, mediocre overpriced sandwiches shouldn’t warrant a 2 star review, but a side salad with wilted and BLACK pieces of kale and broccoli slaw do. Are you kidding me? This looks like it had been sitting for over a week, it was sloppy and soggy, and literally inedible. The cucumber «salad» was just giardiniera.
I like to try new places and find local favorites but hard pass on this one unless I’m coming for something prepackaged to buy.

I so want to love this butcher/​grocer. I buy into their vision. I support free-​range, grass-​fed, all-​natural – and I consider myself a foodie. I am a food blogger and writer by trade. And lastly, Main Street Meats is close enough to my house to walk to it. I want it to do well.
But a few major flaws keep me from being able to recommend it. I have shopped there five times and all five times, I received no greeting when I walked through the door – nor later while shopping. All five times, I have had to ask questions about the meats – because informative signs are not posted. All five times, I have had some mistake on the part of the person behind the meat counter which has caused the transaction to take longer. And all five times, there were only one or two other customers – so poor service could not be blamed on being busy or understaffed. On the most recent visit, I had the experience of getting reprimanded by the surly owner in front of the other patrons for asking an honest, non-​obvious question. Yes, really! If this establishment were bustling with eager shoppers any of these unfortunate experiences might be explainable – but they are not. My guess is the owner is tired of answering the same questions over and over again – but not «getting it» that perhaps she needs more effective signs explaining what’s available. That would save her biting a paying customer’s head off!
Now, in all fairness, other than the cute-​but-​clueless staff and the grumpy owner, the quality of the meats and dairy products are all excellent. If you don’t mind being treated like an interloper and a bother as long as the meat is good, then Main Street Meats is the place for you. One could do worse. For my money, though, I think I’ll drive a little farther up Main Street to the always-​wonderful customer service and the same kinds of fabulous meats at Ventura Meat Company.

Today I had another great experience at Main Street meats, read some of the comments about poor customer service I have no clue what those people are talking about??? Today I arrived at 615 which I found out was 15min past they’re closing time Sharon and Kyle were more than happy to assist me anyway. All the meats were already put away in the cooler I told them what I was looking for and they promptly pulled it out hand cut my NY steaks just the way I like them. Even though they were cleaning up for the day and probably wanted to go home for the weekend, they gave me nothing but a warm inviting vibe, and this is while I will continue all my meat and local grown grocery needs with them! Thanks so much guys!

We were so excited to try this place! Sadly, it didn’t live up to our expectations.
I ordered a Ruben. It had ½ cup of a very spicy sauce, 4 thin slices of meat and about a tablespoon of purple sauerkraut. It was insanely spicy and I couldn’t taste any flavor from the meat. By far worst Ruben I’ve had.
Husband had the pork belly slider which was, in fact, shredded bbq pork on a French roll. It was ok. Not great and not terrible.
We ordered the cucumber salad which was a few olives, cucumber, tomatoes and whit onions in a sauce. This was ok.
17.00 for lunch that was «eh» was disappointing.
We will go back for just the meats but won’t be eating at their deli again.

I was extremely disappointed by the lack of customer service after reading all the great reviews. Upon walking in I was not greeted at all, no hello, can I help you, nothing at all. Waited several minutes looked around and still no assistance. Several minutes later a woman walked in and was attended to right away. Not sure if it was my ethnicity or appearance, but staff were certainly not interested in assisting me. Again very disappointed with my experience and not sure if I’d give this place a second try.

As soon as I walked in I knew I was leaving with something. Everyone there was great and greeted us with a smile. i went in looking for korean bbq style cuts of meets, they quickly recommended me some cuts and i went ahead and got thin cut short ribs. they were so tender and had a nice marble of fat. they told me they had fresh chipotle sausage that they make at the store, and they hooked me up with some for free cause it was my first time there. they have so many great stuff to choose from from organic nuts to all sorts of great premium meats. we will definitely be going back soon because they told us they now sell cooked meats on the weekend.

I had hoped that the possibility of purchasing meats from a reputable resource with expertise and friendly customer service had arrived in Ventura. Unfortunately, my experience discouraged my wanting to cultivate a continuing relationship with this business. As a result, I do not trust that the intentions of this owner includes the best interests of the community in a variety of important ways.

I truly wanted to love this place.
I came in with my husband on a Sunday to buy some steaks for a small dinner party. I was choosing and purchasing the steaks. I was doing the cooking. The employee that cut our steaks would only refer to my husband, went so far as to ask his name and shake his hand but turned his back when my husband tried to offer my name. It just left a bad taste in my mouth. We are both classically trained chefs, so I found it a little offensive that I wasn’t being taken seriously, but after being a female and working in restaurants for ten years, that’s really nothing new.
All of that said, the steaks were great, I wish I had any desire at all to return.

Awesome tenderloin steak for Father’s Day dinner. There is nothing like it. So tender and flavorful. Love this place.

I’ve been waiting for so long for this store to reopen and I gotta say WOW. it’s simply awesome. It’s not a butcher shop anymore even though that’s the main reason I go there. They have everything… Mostly Organic and healthy
Bought some grass fed beef and I’m absolutely loving this place.
It’ll definitely be my regular butcher shop once again.
Oh wow forgot to mention the grains and the coffee.