Canales Quality Meats

This is my go-​to place for standing rib roast for Christmas. It’s always superb and prepared exactly as ordered.

Butchered a picanha (top sirloin cap roast) for me. Dare I say, no one else can do that. Excellent sausages to boot. Snr. Canales is such a pleasure to work with.

Canales is my go-​to when I don’t have the time to drive down to Springfield. The customer service, as has been pointed out elsewhere, is absolutely fantastic and I’m happy to give them my business. I find the prices on specialty items a touch high, though not necessarily for the area. The quality is great for DC; I, too, wish the beef was grass-​fed.

they have the very best customer service in Washington DC, hands down, bar none. reasonable prices, quality meat.

Sñr. Cañales is simply the best. Friendly, professional and incredibly helpful. The quality of meats is outstanding. They have real Serrano, Ibérico and Bellota. They also have prepared foods which satisfy my foodie friends when I don’t have the time to cook.

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).

The best beef and sausage in DC! If you think all steaks are created equal, think again. Theirs tasted better than what you would get at a nice steakhouse. And, according to a female friend, «their sausage is magical»…
To top it all off, they have amazing customer service and, despite the stand being busy, nobody rushed us with our order. This is going to become a regular grocery stop.

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.

These guys know their meats. Their sausage is fantastic, and I’ve always had top quality, fabulous roasts every time I go. I recommend them to everyone – it really is hard to find a better butcher in DC.

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 Café — now googling it, it looks like its made it on Food Network’s Diners, and Drive ins – who have rated their papusas.

this place is awesome. I’ve been going here for over 3 years now and I will sorely miss the Canales Family when I’m gone from the DC area. Ask for Carlos he will take care of anything you need. If you have something coming up and you need something special for it just let him know and he will do his best to get it in for you.

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 Unilocal 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’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.

We bought a Prime rib roast from Carlos at Canales Quality Meats for our Christmas dinner tonight, and it was the best we’ve ever had. This is a truly full service old fashioned meat market, where the butchers will TALK to you and advise you on what to buy and why. I compared the price of Prime grade rib roasts all over town, and at $ 12.99/lb for Black Angus corn fed, this was far and away the best deal (Wagman’s wanted $ 24.99/lb for the same cut dry aged, not exactly the same but not twice as good, either). My email to the market was answered promptly, and phone calls for advice the same. All of our guests raved over this meat – it couldn’t have been better. Also recommended: their bulk mild sausage and smoked bacon.

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!!!