Canales Quality Meats

I was searching all over the city for some beef ribs on the rack and thankfully came across this place. I called and made an inquiry and to my surprise they had what I was looking for. The staff were very friendly and gave me what I needed. I loved how responsive they were when I called, when I showed up in person and the overall service that my sister and I received. I highly recommend supporting their business!

THESE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE ALREADY CLEAN CHITTERLINGS!!!Let me say this!I use to by clean them yourself chitterlings before they start selling pre-clean chitterlings.I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THIS BEFORE IN MY LIFETIME OF CLEANING CHITTERLINGS!!!!!!!!I spent well over a 150 dollars for this!!In which pre-clean chitterlings are way more expensive then self-clean.Self-clean you may pay 20 dollars less then the pre-clean ones.I asked the sales associates 3 times are these the already clean ones?they both said yes.I took the chitterlings out the freezer ready to pre-clean them again, anybody who knows about chitterlings,knows that you just don't throw them in a pot without going over them again,because even with the pre-clean chitterlings you my have a bad one slip throw.BUT THESE CHITTERLINGS ARE TRULY A DEATH SENTENCE IF YOU DONT NO ANY BETTER.i have also shared the msg and pictures with the BBB,FDA,They should be fine for selling something like this.If you look at the pictures close up!you will see the hogs rectal area in the pictures.I am begging anyone who buy anything from this vendor BE WARE!!!

I have come to this place a few times to get ribs for BBQ and some Chorizo. All really good and great service. Ribs were high quality and turned out great. The chorizo was great as well. Customer service here was great and attentive to what I wanted and was happy to help.

I'd purchased from Canale's in Eastern Market before. But when unwrapping fresh spare ribs at home, I noticed a slight "off" smell. I paused. Smelled again, but concluded that I trusted the folks at Canale's. I put them in the smoker, ate them several hours later and experienced 36 hours of misery that followed. Lesson learned. Don't trust the butcher. Smell the meat before buying and trust yourself.

I have been going there for 10 years now, even though I no longer live in that neighborhood. Señor Canalas has remembered my face from day one. Probably why I quickly became so loyal. He is incredibly kind and warm and ALWAYS there! He works too much and it is a family business. So this is why you should consistently get excellent customer service. If you are into pork belly, and not a fan of bacon, try the bacon with the skin. Its really good and has so much more meat to fat ratio than bacon. My husband loves it and he is a big bacon fan unlike me. They have a small restaurant around the corner--Tortilla Cafe---now googling it, it looks like its made it on Food Network's Diners, and Drive ins--who have rated their papusas.

What a suckling pig has to do with a pepper party I'll never understand, but Alex (co-host of said pepper party) wanted to smoke a suckling pig... if we could find one. I put in butcher shop and meat shop in the Yelp search tool (oh how handy) and up came a variety of options. I called Canales first, and Carlos took my call. He answered a few of my irrelevant questions and I hung up to call another meat shop. During the first call, I did not ask the price. Moving on... I called a few other places to inquire if they had a suckling pig and they all did (minus the halal place [WHOOPS]) and quoted me anywhere between $6.95-$9.00 for a suckling pig under 20 pounds. One of the establishments had horrible customer service so scratch them off of the list, then the other place had good customer service but was in Alexandria. It was now neck and neck with Carlos from Canales Quality Meats. I called back Carlos for the second time and his customer service skills were out of this world. Not only did he have the cheapest quote of $5.90 a pound, he also had a pig in stock and answer all of my questions. ALL OF THEM. What is a suckling pig, is it frozen, how long to thaw, can you thaw it?, what type of pig, how do you cut it, blah blah blah. He patiently answered all of my questions. Based on his customer service, price, and location, I committed to Carlos for the suckling pig he had in the freezer but it didn't stop there. We drove to go visit the damn thing four days before the event. Carlos is even cooler in person. He went out of his way to get the pig from the freezer, took out and let us inspect AND measure it. We had to... how else was it going to fit into the smoker? Carlos answered more questions and while Alex blabbed away, I checked out other items for sale and holy smokes, they had some brisket, too! Fuck yeah! Brisket AND suckling pig! OINK OINK COWWWW FATTY WE GO! Oh, and they have fresh, not frozen, Andouille sausage?! One stop shopping indeed! Oh and the pig was ready for pick up on Friday as we specified. Great customer service, what appear to be fantastic prices, quality meats... my now go to location for all of my food needs. Oh and they have oxtail which I'm going to make this weekend!

I don't know why its taken me so long to put fingers to keys and write up my review of Canales. I moved to DC from Iowa a few years ago and quickly realized that the crap they sell at Safeway and Harris Teeter is a waste of money and terrible quality. I needed a real butcher.I tried out all of the shops in Eastern Market: Canales Delicatessen (closest to the bread), and Union Meats (long counter closest to the fish), and Canales Quality Meats (very short counter in the middle) is the best. The butchering is much better, the meat is excellent quality, and the sausages are delicious. I never go any place else, and I don't know how I'll ever live without the sausages if we move away from the area!!!

So I went here because I thought they had grass-fed beef (as per another review). Unfortunately, they use Naturewell beef which is corn-finished beef (the last couple months of the life of the animal they feed it corn). Search around and see if this affects your decision to buy. On the upside, they have great bacon (yes, I can see the irony here).

We got a whole pig for a roast through these guys.Not only did they have the best prices around (less than half the cost of some other competitors) but the guys who worked here were very helpful, knowledgeable and logistically competent. If you're looking for meat in large quantities this is the place to go.

I'll add in my two cents - their all-natural grass fed beef is the best beef I have tasted. It is on par with the best steaks I had in Argentina. It takes a bit more work in grilling it to get it both tender and medium-rare, but even if you go a bit overboard, the taste is out of this world. Their sausages are reliably creative and juicy, and they have never failed to be helpful in my selections.