Harlem Shambles

This is a great butcher shop! The staff is so friendly and helpful and their meats are amazing. They also usually have some great baguettes available for sale too!

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— Happy they had a duck to sell me (5lb. ~$ 65.) the day before Thanksgiving.
— Service was great, efficient and I was pleasantly surprised I didn’t get the snotty you-don’t-look-like-you-belong-here vibe that tends to accompany… hipstered-​out dressed-​for-​the-​part establishments. Read through the HS website and felt even better about the purchase, what they’re all about, supporting them, etc.
— The duck turned out well and tasted better than I expected. Magical bird.
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Got some lovely Strip Steak here for a nice dinner last weekend. It was delicious. Shopping was pleasant and the butchers were attentive and seemed knowledgeable. All the meats displayed looked wonderful. We will be shopping here again.

FRESH BACON. FRESH LARD. FRESH CIABATTA. And a plethora of different meats, cuts and fresh dairy and veggies that I didn’t buy.
Joy in one location. The kindest staff that is super knowledgable, informative and take their time for a plethora of questions.
Their prices, on the higher side, only reflect the freshness and amazingness of their products.
FRESH BACON. That is all.

Shop here! Everything is good, and their chicken actually tastes like chicken. I really didn’t know that chicken had much of a flavor from the stuff I got in grocery stores. Being local and free-​range must make a difference. No more grocery store chicken for me.

Excellent quality, good prices, quick help, and a variety of both meats and cuts that you just don’t get anywhere around.

Having such a high-​quality butcher shop in this area is a huge treat! I love that this place exists, although I wish I could shop here more… it’s just out of my price range unfortunately. The quality is definitely reflected in the prices, which is totally fine since they deserve it for their delicious meats! But it means being a little more careful with what you buy here. I’ve mostly gotten sausages, but the bacon and steaks both look incredible, and I can’t wait to try them. Everyone I’ve met here, both employees and patrons, have been very friendly. Highly recommend checking it out if you’re in the market for a good cut of meat!

Highly recommend this place. Excellent quality and the service is first rate. The Lamb is out of this world and they have an amazing Rib-​Eye. Price point is a touch high, but well worth it. You won’t be disappointed. Feel free to pre-​order.

This is an old-​school (that’s a *compliment*), high-​quality butcher shop. The butchers know how to select and present the best cuts of anything, and they start with healthy, well-​treated animals from local farms.
This store is so reminiscent of my childhood in an English village that I instantly feel better. You’re dealing with professionals who know their business and their product. Need a recommendation for a cut? Don’t hesitate to ask. Wondering whether to get the fat trimmed? Or more fat left on? These guys will give you well-​considered feedback and recommendations based on your intended purpose.
We need more places like this.

Thumbs up for what was previously an outlier in the area.

I’m not a fan of cornish pasties, i’m a big guy but am wimp when it comes to eating certain things. The aussie meat pies are my thing, and they’re always warm. They are so savory and juicy that you feel a little food-​stoned eating them. Once it’s in your stomache it just radiates happiness throughout your body. The meat is all excellent. Get the bacon, they sell eggs and milk too, it’s perfect. And they are very nice to me. I think the bearded guy is cool too, and NOT hipsters. He has a new york accent!

This is the kind of butcher we’re used to from Stockholm, Sweden.
It’s located in Harlem surrounded by shops of different quality.
We bought «Top sirloin» and a delicious ciabatta.
The meat was great one of the better I’ve had. I recommend this butcher.
Friendly guys and they know their stuff.
It’s not cheap but the quality is excellent.

If you like Dickson’s or Hudson and Charles, then make the trek to Harlem. The store is more spacious than H & C, funkier than Dickson’s.
When I came in for my second visit, a bearded and suspender-​ed butcher was wielding a hand hook, breaking down a whole forequarter hanging from a meathook, while singing along to Mambo Italiano (the Rosemary Clooney version). It was worthy of Tarantino.
The killer app here so far was ground lamb, which gave off a beautiful aroma of lamb chops grilling, as the burgers I fashioned from it cooked. That won’t happen with supermarket lamb. An Autumn’s Harvest chicken roasted up beautifully, superior to Murray’s or Bell & Evans, amazing fond in the pan.
Denver cut steak was a bit chewy, but very flavorful. Breakfast sausage was the opposite of a banger — high quality lean meat, very little fat, no filler. The only item that didn’t blow me away was chuck pot roast. Beautifully trimmed and tied, but it remained a bit chewy after a long braise. Tasty though.
If I ever wear a butcher shop’s t-​shirt this would be the one,

Got my Christmas rib roast here, had to try the brauts a loaf of sourdough and some coffee. Jason also sold me a first ever for me parve cut steal. Wow never ever buying from any other but her shop EVER!!!

That bacon is the most delicious thing I have ever bitten into.
While walking to the subway, I always peer into the window shop to check if they made any meat pies that day. When they first started making the Aussie meat pie several months ago, it was amazingly juicy and tender — the most recent edition is less juicy but still good.

WOW Harlem Shambles! I walked in and was blown away by how pristine everything was. I have never been to a butcher before but expected blood and guts. This was not like that AT ALL. I was looking for a small chicken to roast and they had chickens of all sizes. Very friendly people behind the counter and they even threw in a couple of zucchini the size of my forearm for free. BONUS!
I so do enjoy eating locally grown products and i also love that all of their butchers come from all walks of life and all live within a few blocks of the shop. It enforces an ultra authentic vibe and I’m totally into it. Also bonus, it’s on my way home from work so I will be back and OFTEN. Thanks guys!

I still remember when Harlem Shambles was a concept, a location near by under construction which would soon unveil a old style butcher shop in the heart of Harlem. More specifically in the revitalized part of Harlem. I’m embarrassed to say that I didn’t even go in when they opened. They’ve probably been around a year plus, still I hadn’t gone in. For shame.
This week I finally took the trip. There was an article on edible Manhattan and the pictures were so drool worthy, I had to get up and walk the mere 0.8 miles and get some steaks.
The place is everything I had dreamed of and more. Sausages? Check. Huge butchers block with pig legs from an earlier chop down? Check. Massive steaks, terrines, and cured meat? Triple Check.
I went with some NY Strip Steaks, Beef pastrami and beef cheek terrine. The steaks here are aged about 10 days and are fresh as fresh can be. Are they more expensive or simarly priced to Whole Foods or Fairway? Yes. Are they twice as good? Damn right they are. The pastrami was spicy and delicious. The terrine was something I’d never seen before and also awesome.
The steaks.wow. To do these justice, you should just pan sear them and serve them medium rare. I’d also recommend salting them the night before in the fridge for full flavor. They should have a sign saying you aren’t allowed to cook them more than medium rare. It’s a crime and ruins these flavorful steaks.
You can bet your bottom rump roast I’ll be getting my meat here from now on.

For valentines day, my girlfriend and I decided to avoid restaurants and dine in. We decided to have steak for dinner. This was my first time visiting a butcher shop. I was pleasantly surprised to find one so close to my place.
I asked the butcher to show us a steak that would knock us off of our feet. He presented a valentines day special cut of rib eye. (Which was in the shape of a heart)
The butchers here are true artists… Or «Butch-​Artist» as they claim.

Minus the ironic ‘stash, suspenders, and liberal arts degree… I’m about as hipster as they come. I like pickled vegetables as much as any millennial, composting is something I find value in, and I’ve never met a third wave cup of coffee I won’t pay $ 4 for (and thoroughly enjoy it). That said, of course I have a fondness for Harlem Shambles’ grass fed butchery in the depths of this slowly gentrifying area of Manhattan.
Sadly my bar is set pretty high with 4505 Meats in SF and not even a deep tissue massage from Pat LaFrieda himself could sway me from my blind allegiance to what Ryan Farr does out west. But so far with my first trip to the 116^th St. Corridor, this is about as good as I’ve seen in The City. Grass fed meats from local farms, White Stripes songs streaming while tattooed guys in pork pie hats machete hunks of bovine into oblivion, and good enough prices to justify a 30 minute bus ride on the M2 one way make it worthy of my expendable income. From ground beef to odd looking entrails, they’ve got you covered.
You really should take value in where your food comes from. For the piece of mind in knowing my dinner didn’t spend its life on some wretched farm in the middle of the Bible Belt knee-​deep in its own fecal matter while being pumped full of human growth hormone, it’s worth every minute on public transportation to ride home with a $ 38 bag of meat. You may not feel the same way… But hey — to each is own.

I often hesitate to shell out extra money for «organic» or «local» meat unless there is a clear difference in taste. I avoided this place like the plague for the first year of its existence, because I was just not interested in spending that kind of money when I’m perfectly happy with the quality of meat I get from Costco.
This all changed with a recent steak craving. I don’t know much about buying a steak to cook at home, so I mistakenly bought the wrong cut from Best Yet Market. I left it in the fridge at home, planning to use it for something else, and decided that since it was just me at home that week, it might be worth it to shell out for something at Harlem Shambles.
I came in after my run, sweaty and gross, and asked one of the guys behind the counter what cut they recommended for a steak. He suggested the Denver cut, and showed me what they had in the case. It was beautifully marbled, and even at $ 15.99/lb, I figured it might be worth it since it was just me. I *almost* asked for a pound and then remembered that it was just me having steak (although I’ve certainly knocked out a pound of steak before), so I ended up paying $ 8 for half a pound of freshly cut steak (they take the whole piece out and slice it right in front of you). I went home and cooked it in a bit of butter, and the quality of this steak with just butter rivals the quality of steak I’ve had at various steakhouses.
I’ve come back for the porkchops and the cornish pasties, and they are also excellent.
I still get most of my meat from Costco, but when I need meat for a dish that requires very little seasoning, I get it from here. I’m perfectly happy shelling out the extra cash when the meat tastes this good.