Rare Cuts Gourmet Meats

We had an amazing private dinner for my husband’s 40^th birthday! An evening we will never forget. Does anyone know what happened to this wonderful place and the owners!!!

Sorry to hear of the closing. I went to Chris Specialty Meats in Lakeview and all I can say is WOW!

Great selection of Wagyu, super knowledgeable, super friendly.

I had my bachelor party dinner at Rare Cuts this past weekend (11÷14÷14). My party consisted of 12 guys and I knew I wanted something different yet relaxed as I knew the weekend was going to go from 0 to 90 the moment dinner was over. Rare Cuts had the comfortable combination of a backyard bbq and elegant dinner party.
Chef Michaela Reid took care of us. Period. She helped me put together our own menu consisting of the best gumbo I have ever had, combined with rich lobster mac and cheese and butttery cuts of beef. The desserts were so good our women back home were jealous.
The theme of the weekend was in indulgence and our meal here fit right in.
If you are planning a dinner for more than 8 and you are from out of town, I’m telling you, give these guys a try!
— Sunil Maitra

We booked a private event here for about 15 people and I was a very curious as to how this was going to work… to say the least, Makaela, the owner/​chef prepared one of the best meals. I have eaten and Michelin Star restaurants all over the world and this was damn good.
The environment was great, very laid back and you could walk back into the kithen and talk to her while she was preparing.
I highly recommend this place to any for a great meal.

I do live remotely close to Rare Cuts I order meat from them every chance I get. The meat is of very high quality. (i am quite picky about my beef) and very well packed. They also do not stick you up like many places do with shipping charges.
If you call and have questions you will not be rushed off the phone you will be treated like gold. I can not say enough about rare cuts. This is my spot…

Love this great store!!! Great owners. Michaela and Andrew… Great frenchie doggie. And most of all. Great meats!

I ordered ribs and pork chops to be overnighted for this weekend. They did not arrive. Rare Cuts failed to contact me after emailing a shipping confirmation to let me know that my order wasn’t even shipped. Awful mix-​up that shot my Fourth of July plans and daughter’s birthday to hell.

Tonight was epic! I was invited to a graduation party at this venue and had no idea what to expect. I was greeted by a friendly staff and offered a yummy glass of wine and a cheese and chartreuse plate.
My friends are awesome and we love fine dining. I can’t believe we’ve never thought to do the whole «private dining» thing before. We got loud! We laughed! We got to listen to cool music (the have Pandora so it’s whatever your group is into).
Now to the food! Photos will be provided. First course: crab cakes in two amazing sauces (one a remoulade I didn’t catch the other sorry)
Second: an amazing tomato, mozzarella with balsamic reduction dressing
Third!!! Truffle Mac and cheese side (one included Lobster!!!) also a savory spinach dish. Plus the meat… I had a dry aged New York strip and my husband had a wagyu strip. Both were perfection in completely different ways. Mine was nutty and can’t say I’ve ever in my life actually tasted a piece of meat the way it was supposed to be tasted. Just go! See for yourself! My husbands steak was also standard issue steak house Perfection! Juicy, tender properly prepared and served at the perfect temperature.
Desert: white chocolate whiskey bread pudding… Yes yes yes
Coffee: inhouse brand from. Hawaii!!! So good !!!
Wine pairing: See photos
All in all a perfect evening!
I can’t imagine I’d ever plan another celebratory dinner party at a «regular restaurant». Why do that when you can have the whole place to yourself and not worry about being too celebratory to offend other dinners. Go to Rare Cuts and Party On!!!

Five other friends and I reserved the table here one night and enjoyed the meal immensely. The menu is set in advance so you must make arrangements at least a few weeks out. The owners graciously hosted and educated us on the process of aging wet and dry beef. The ambience was charming and the service impeccable. The steaks were top notch and the lamb chop app was out of this world. We topped it all off with RC’s own blend of Hawaiian grown coffee. I’m reserving a year in a advance for a graduation dinner. The meal was costly but worth the truly unique dining experience put on by talented professionals.

Overrated and over priced for what you get. Meat is good quality but if you have expectations of the best you will be disappointed. To be fair, you may have a better experience if you shop in store and see what you are buying before paying for it. I placed my order online. The product pictures on their website are far from the product I received. Again, the meat is good quality and certainly better than what you buy in the average supermarket. But almost any butcher shop or specialty market will have similar quality and selection at a much better price.

I went to Rare Cuts because I couldn’t make reservations anywhere in the city due to Valentines Day, so I decided to cook for myself and my girlfriend. I did some research and went with 2 waygu ribeye 14oz steaks and ordered them through the Rare Cuts website and went to pickup after work. The guy at the counter already had everything ready to go and was super courteous, and I was in and out in less than a minute — no exaggerating.
The steaks were expensive, and more than anything I’ve ever paid for before, but I’ve honestly never tasted anything like these ribeye steaks. My girlfriend was skeptical and a little concerned that I would be foolish enough to spend that amount of money on steaks but I assured her that I was making up for not having reservations on Valentines Day. :) The steaks had more flavor than anything I’ve ever grilled personally and were equally tender. After my girlfriend took one bite she was also convinced that this wasn’t anything like we’ve ever gotten from grocery stores. She loved the steaks and I was once again, The Man.
Make sure you know what you’re doing as well, you don’t want to overcook this piece of amazing. If you’re a beginner, start with grocery store steak and come to this place when you’ve mastered your grill. I would recommend this place to any grill master looking for the perfect cut — the outcome will not disappoint.

Amazing place and delicious food. My friends and I had a private dinner here and Chef Will’s food was so good! Everything was well cooked and delicious. Definitely will be back here again.

butcher shop waayyy smaller than i expected and all prepackaged wet-​aged meats. NOT a butcher shop at all.
friendly, high-​quality, prices were as expected, but def not a butcher

I’ll preface this by saying this is another time that I would give 3 and a half stars if I could. Since I can’t, I’ve got to go with 3. :(
Groupon in hand, me and four friends headed to Rare Cuts for a private dinner. Although Rare Cuts is an Uptown high-​end butcher shop, they also hold private dinners in a room next to the shop. These dinners are an opportunity to showcase their amazing, high quality meat selection and also the talents of their in house chef, Gason Nelson, a two-​time James Beard scholar, and private chef for NFL star Reggie Bush and Dwayne «The Rock» Johnson.
A little explanation of how the private dinners work:
You are provided with a menu ahead of time. You can build your menu to include as many courses as you’d like. The prices provided are per person, but sides are served family style (like at most steakhouses). For your steak, you can either have each person select their own, or you can choose to have your steak family style… allowing you to try many different cuts. This is the option we went with. You are to bring your own wine, alcohol and mixers. I really liked this option. Too many times I spend $ 50 – 70 on a bottle of wine in a restaurant and I end up not liking it.
We arrived at 8:30 to find a beautiful table set up with white tablecloth, fresh orchids, a candle, and big, leather chairs. There was some Frank Sinatra type tunes playing, which was a nice touch. We met the chef and manager, both of whom encouraged us to come into the kitchen to chat and see the action. Being that I’m an avid cook and somewhat chef, I liked this touch.
Now onto the food…
For our bread, we had some pretzel type bread with an applewood bacon and blue cheese butter. It was amazing. I seriously could’ve eaten 4 or 5 of those rolls with that butter. But I disciplined myself and only had 1 and a half knowing the best was yet to come.
For our first course we had Strawberry Spinach Salad with Feta, Toasted Pecans & Raspberry Vinaigrette. While I really enjoyed this salad, it wasn’t anything special and no different than what I make for myself at home. It was small, which was fine with me because I didn’t want to fill up. But I did find the $ 9 price tag to be too much for what it was.
For our appetizer, we had the Petite Crab cakes with a Spicy Roasted Bell Pepper Aioli. During my kitchen snooping earlier, the chef let me know that he added lobster to our crab cakes! The crab cakes were really good, BUT… and this is a big BUT, they were TINY even by «petite» standards. It was more like the size of what you’d expect for an amuse bouche. Charging $ 11 for what we got is just wrong on every level. I’m not sure what else to say about it. They seriously need to rethink this one. It would be better to just combine the two bites, make it double the size and just serve one crab cake.
Now onto the steaks…
We did the Family Style Wet Aged Filet, Ribeye & NY Strip. The steaks were absolutely AMAZING! They brought out two big platters of the different cuts. It was so much steak, we couldn’t finish it all. It was seasoned perfectly. It was cooked perfectly. And it was probably the best quality steak I’ve ever eaten. At $ 35 per person this was A STEAL! My favorites in order: spinalis, ribeye, filet, strip. The manager told me that the spinalis is 20% off right now. It melts in your mouth. It’s like buttah! Run, do not walk, to Rare Cuts and buy some spinalis. NOTE: It’s not cheap, so if you don’t know how to cook a steak, let someone who does take care of that for you.
For our sides we had grilled broccoli. It was very good. Good grilled taste and not overdone. It was priced fine at $ 4. We also had the Scalloped potatoes with Shiitake Mushrooms & Brie. These potatoes were very good, but I couldn’t see or taste a mushroom in it, and I don’t think the cheese was brie… though I could be wrong. At $ 6 a person, this was on the high side.
For dessert we had Fried Oreos over Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream Drizzled with Chocolate Sauce. This was very tasty. I’m not a big sweets eater and I ate it all. I think it was slightly overpriced, but not outrageous.
To sum it all up… this was a unique experience to enjoy with friends. I like the concept of it and the intimacy of the evening. And again, I can’t say enough about how amazing the steaks were. The price per person (including the cost of the Groupon) was $ 70 per person. Considering how amazing the steak was, and the fact that we could bring our own wine, I can’t complain about the price too much. But other than the steak and the bacon and blue cheese butter, I wasn’t really «wowed.»
Final word: If you’ve got a Groupon, go for it and have a great time. If you don’t have a Groupon, I’d pass on the private dinner. But I do highly recommend Rare Cuts for buying meat. They are knowledgeable and their meat is high quality and worth every penny.

OMG!!! Chef Will’s food is soooooo amazing!!! His creations are truly delictable.

This is a great shop for a special occasion. If you are a carnivore, or there is a special carnivore in your life, this is the place to pick out a birthday steak. They have a great selection of cuts, and also offer local sausage, duck, veal, chicken, you name it. It is expensive, as you are purchasing organic, high end cuts of meat.
The service is super personal and you can stop in six days week. There is also an opportunity to reserve a private dinner with the entrée of your choice for a group of anywhere between 2 – 20; the other option is a seven course tasting. Maybe one day I’ll get to do that.
The quality of the meat is so good, it melts in your mouth and taste wonderful without seasoning. Crazy, huh? It’s that good. This is special occasion place for me, but if you’re a baller, by all means, buy all your meat here.
I love that this place looks like a super small grocery store. I expected it to look like a small butcher shop, but the simplicity of it really works and allows the employees to focus on taking care of customers.
I stopped in to pick up part of my order that was unavailable on my original visit. I was able to pick up the sausage and chicken and added a couple of steaks to my order. When I arrived home, I realized I was given two chicken breasts instead of a whole chicken. That’s the only reason why I didn’t give it five stars… but, hey, we all make mistakes.

What a treat! Great food, great service. Fun!

The steaks are great, and the staff is really knowledgable and friendly. Yes it’s pricey, but worth it!