Sharon M., Customer
"I am beyond impressed with your standards and ethical practices."

Todd B., Customer
"I normally don't write this kind of email, but this was so extraordinary that I had to give thanks to you on this New Year's Day. We bought an organic, bone-in, smoked, uncooked ham from The Healthy Butcher. My father always cooked a ham every New Year's, so I've had quite a few over the years. But I have to tell you that in my 45 years, I have never had a ham like the one I bought from you. It was absolutely mouthwatering! This was THE most incredible ham that I have ever eaten! When we took it from the oven, we just sat there in awe of it. We cooked it with an orange marmelade/maple syrup glaze. I've attached a photo that doesn't even do it justice! As the ham was cooling, the juices were delicately streaming out from deep inside. But it didn't stop there. Every other ham that we've had is usually dry inside. This ham was juicy even as we continued to cut deeper into it. It was a visual and taste sensation unlike anything we've had before! Thank you Healthy Butcher! Please extend our thanks to your supplier and we've already given thanks to the animal for providing us this feast.
Happy New Year!
"

Abigail L., Customer
"What a pleasure to finally visit The Healthy Butcher @ Eglinton!  My husband and I enjoyed speaking with several individuals from the team yesterday afternoon. Our discussion of how fresh the ingredients continued after we left the store. He raved about the potato salad while I was still trying to find words to describe the amazing red quinoa salad. The salads are delicious! We purchased some tender turkey from the deli and also duck eggs. Everything was fabulous. On coming home, we subscribed to your newsletter and are eagerly awaiting the next time to pick up our next organic groceries!  We are still fairly new to the neighbourhood and would like to thank you for providing us with such a rewarding experience. I am intently and genuinely interested on learning more about organic food... Thank you so much!"

Elizabeth P., Customer
"Our favourite neighbourhood store."

Vivia K., Customer
"Please allow me to tell you how amazing my turducken was.
I was knocked out by your attention to making everything perfect, and could not have been more pleased.   I served fourteen very happy diners, only a few of which had experienced a turducken roll before (at my house last year) many of my guests declared "this is the best thing I have ever eaten.  ever!!" or something similar.  The birds were flavourful and succulent.  One of my diners asked "what is the secret?"  To which I replied "start with excellent birds, and a butcher you trust, and then don't rush things."  (for the record, I coated with butter and seasoning, and then slow roasted at 200 for about eight hours...no basting, no attention, no peeking.)  Thanks so very, very much for supplying and assembling the excellent birds."

Murray B., Customer
"Hope your Christmas has been going as well as ours. The kids raved about the goose and the reduced juice was divine... You guys are major contributors to all our family feasts. And even throw together fare....  Your good work makes a difference."

Susan A., Customer from Abroad
"I rarely take the time to write a testimonial; and do so only when the product, service (or both) are exceptional. I feel compelled to write one now for the Healthy Butcher in Toronto.
As an Australian who was remotely trying to organise provisions for a large-ish gathering in Kingston, ONT - where my parents live; I was struggling to source free-range, ethically farmed, organic products - and will not eat nor serve mass-produced produce.

Quite by chance I stumbled upon the Health Butcher website while googling at my desk in Sydney. Jonathan (the Operations Director and exec Chef) and I exchanged a few emails and by the time I arrived in Kingston we had arranged the supply and special delivery of a 10kg ham to my parents' home. I was so impressed that Jonathan followed through, when he could quite easily have said - "no, sorry, we don't supply outside of Toronto".

The ham arrived on the day and time as promised. I used an Australian glaze recipe (sorry folks, I didn't use maple syrup) and all I can say is that it was the best baked ham I have ever eaten in my life; tender, juicy and full of flavour. Everyone who tasted the ham (about 20 people) said how delicious it was. My thanks to your suppliers for respecting the animal and providing food how that tastes the way it should.

So, if you are reading this website and the testimonials and still hesitating, please be reassured that the products you will buy from the Healthy Butcher are of the highest quality and the service is outstanding. Now back in Australia, my challenge is to see if I can source hams of the same quality here."

Stephanie S., Customer
"I wanted to tell you how much I love the Healthy Butcher. My husband stumbled across the Queen Street location two years ago and purchased some chicken for our dinner that night. We were hooked immediately, not just because of the environmental and ethical reasons, but for the fantastic taste. Never had I eaten chicken that tasted like that. We quickly returned to try pork, beef, boar, elk, bison etc, all tasted better than their non-organic equivalent. Ever since we have purchased all of our meat (and a few other yummy items) from the Healthy Butcher. Not only are your products delicious but the staff is knowledgeable and ready to provide suggestions and advice."

Court P., Customer
"I just wanted to write a quick note of appreciation. I come from BC, my family's heritage stems from a southern Alberta homestead that has always raised cattle on pastures. On a ranch like that, you grow up with what we now think of as 'organic' meat - it tastes a certain way - the way your meat tastes - real. Moving out east proved difficult to find meat that tasted real. Your butcher store provides that - real meat the way it should be raised and eaten. I don't often write notes of appreciation, but I have a strong appreciation for what you do and I thought this was appropriate."

Kerri T., Customer
"This store is like food porn!"

David S., Customer
"I wish you and your business continued success because The Healthy Butcher is truly a benefit to our city. More citizens need to understand that when they buy meat from you they are buying more than a striploin, they are contributing to an 'environmentally sustainable' future. This city needs more honest proprietors like you."

Doreen D., Customer
"If it wasn't for this awesome organic butcher shop, I'd move to the country right away.  You make T.O. a great place to live (and eat)"

Talia M., Customer
"I have to say, after every encounter I've had with your establishment, whether it be coming into the store, speaking to someone on the phone, or even by email, I'm always left so impressed! It's so nice to see that the employees are so passionate and well informed about food issues, production and preparation. Not to mention pleasant on top of it all! I absolutely love it! It's a real pleasure to frequent your stores.
Thanks to you all!"

Theresa S., Customer
"Finding The Healthy Butcher was like finding a lost treasure."

Tina, Customer
"You guys have the best meat that I've come across, I'm convinced. I've bought from (store names deleted), and farmers markets... and you guys surpass them all. Nice work, and keep doing what you're doing!!"

Rosanna K., Customer
"Rarely do I write these notes to stores, but I just had to say how pleasant shopping has been at your Eglinton Ave. store.  I was a bit reluctant to travel 'out of the way' from the regular supermarket selection and spend the extra on organic meat but I decided to give it a try anyway.

I've only been to your store a couple of times, but each time I'm greeted with such courteous & knowledgeable staff - everyone is so helpful & friendly and eager to help. I don't mind at all travelling a little further and spending a little more - the quality and service is definitely worth it. Thanks!
Rosanna"

Catherine, Customer
"Friday is my Healthy Butcher day. I am so enamoured of this store that if the City were to declare every Friday to be Healthy Butcher Day, I would be in full support of this important civic measure. Six reasons why shopping at the Healthy Butcher is everything a neighbourhood butcher shop experience should be (in no particular order): See the Sugar and Ink Blogsite or click here.

John M., Customer
"Congratulations, it 's nice dealing with a business that offers such great products being dispensed by knowledgeable and friendly people with attention to detail. I always feel good when I leave your store."

Elliott S., Customer
"To whom it may concern,
I had made plans to see my girlfriend yesterday night after finishing work at Yonge and Eglinton. I had promised her that I would make her dinner that evening, and that it would be a surprise. I have discovered that my girlfriend, despite being a strict vegetarian, has a secret love for chicken. Her only dilemma is that she can only eat properly sourced chicken, as she refuses to support factory farming.

So, after going shopping for groceries on my lunch break, I called your Eglinton store to see that 1 lb. of ground chicken could be ready for me to pick up after work. I knew that if I finished at 6:45, I could reach your store just before closing time at 7. Unfortunately, I ended up finishing work at 7:15, and ran in the cold, grocery bags in hand, praying someone would still be there. I got to the door and looked in to find your staff busy at work cleaning and prepping for the next day. Someone saw me, opened the door, and I explained my situation. I can definitely understand anyone's desire, after everything is closed and the day is almost done, to not want to help the guy who knocks on the door looking flustered and sweaty. Nevertheless, your staff let me in and I was helped by a few people (one of them whose name I caught was Kat (Cat?)) who got me what I needed, and did so with a smile. It was only a single lb of chicken, a pittance compared to the business you must do on a daily basis, and yet I was not made to feel unwelcome or like a nuisance even though I had shown up almost 30 minutes after you had closed. Dinner was saved, and the chicken was, as I had expected, delicious.

I would like to thank you all very much for helping me come through on dinner last night, even when nobody had to. It meant a lot to me, and I will definitely be coming back.
Sincerely,
Elliott"

Customer posting on Greenpeople.org
“The Healthy Butcher has ruined me for life - I will never buy non-organic meat again. From chicken to bacon to elk steak, it's the best meat I've ever tasted. Plus, they have the BEST sausages in Toronto!”

Customer posting on Greenpeople.org
“The Healthy Butcher has ruined me for life - I will never buy non-organic meat again. From chicken to bacon to elk steak, it's the best meat I've ever tasted. Plus, they have the BEST sausages in Toronto!”

Marina C, Customer
"We tried your chicken for the first time ... my dad commented that he hadn't tasted such fresh, delicious chicken since he was a kid
(back in the 40s)!"

Catherine & Guy, Customers
“Dear Mario, Ryan, Jonathon, and the rest of The Healthy Butcher Team, Thank you so much for the beautiful meats that graced our wedding table.  23 people feasted for 5 days on eggs, sausages, peameal bacon, meatballs, and neapolitan ragu, and the highlight, roast loin of pork with crackling prepared with care and artistry by you, served Tuscan style.  We look forward to enjoying the Healthy Butcher's service, expertise, and love of good food again and again."

Vivienne S., Customer
“To all the good folks at The Healthy Butcher, Best. Turkey. Ever. Your brining mixture rocks, the turkey was the best I've ever eaten”

Sal R., Customer
“Hello Mario, The sausages were FABULOUS and my dinner was a serious success because of them. No one could decide which they preferred between the Vermouth and the Thai sausages - a testament to the success of both I think. So I was singing your praises and talking about how wonderful you had been in negotiating getting them here etc. Then lo and behold, one of my guests phoned this morning to say your store was in the paper yesterday. Good for you. It seems you are winning praise all over the place and rightly so.  Thank you once again.”

Penny F., Customer
“Hi Mario. I just wanted to take the opportunity to let you know that I was finally able to have my dinner party for my Dad and that he was thrilled with the elk roast. He even took the rest home so he could make sandwiches to take fishing!
Anyway, I just wanted to tell you how impressed we all were with the quality and taste of the roast. I have recommended you to my family and posted one of your brochures in my staff room.
Thank you again for you wonderful service and for helping to make my Dad's birthday dinner special. I look forward to the next time I can drop by your shop and/or have the occasion to order something extra special for my family and friends.”

Kristin F., Customer
“It was my roommate's birthday and I came in to The Healthy Butcher for some steak. She was raised on a beef farm, so I wanted to impress her! The butcher recommended a couple of lovely rib eye steaks and if he had been around Queen and Bathurst later that evening, he would surely have heard me yell praise from my rooftop patio! This was truly the best steak I have ever had and I will never go back to grocery-store meat! Thank you for making my gastronomic experience that much better."

Deborah D., Customer
“I just wanted to say thank you. For the first time in my life (I am 50) I cooked a roast beef that everyone loved and enjoyed and wanted more - but there wasn't any!”

Adele G., Customer

"Dear Healthy Butcher, Thank you for opening your store. I was in this morning for the first time, and had great experience. Ezra was fantastic. He was very knowledgeable, and provided a personal experience. I am very excited that I now have a place to go to that cares about meat the way I do. It’s great that I can find out where the meat comes from, and that all of the meat I will buy in your store is hormone and antibiotic free, they way meat should be! I loved that everything was clean and that my meat was handled with care. Your prepared foods were fantastic too! I am certain that I will be a long-term customer, and I will be sure to recommend you to my numerous friends who too, have been waiting for a butcher that carries great clean organic meat, and provides personal service."

City Bites
“This is as pure an organic shrine as it gets, but not in some hippy-dippy save-the-world kind of way: this is a gastro emporia first and foremost, pushing the organic mantra as much for the enviro and health benefits as for the superior flavours. In that way, the place is both backward and forward thinking at the same time, harkening to an age before growth hormones, pesticides and overcrowded stock pens.”

Jesse Mendes, Radio Host - CIUT Radio

"I always used to think it was normal to feel lethargic or mildly nauseous after eating a burger or a good steak. It was the oil, I told myself; or maybe I just ate too much. Meat is supposed to be heavy. Even when the media started talking about hormones and antibiotics and other stuff in meat, I thought very little of it; I assumed it was all over-blown.

I’ll never forget the first time I tried an organic lamb chop. The taste was unbelievably succulent, even better than chocolate! I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. But what really blew me away was that I felt energized from eating it. As if I’d just given my body nourishment. It was a new feeling for me.

A trip into the Healthy Butcher is not only a feast for the senses, it’s an education for any a young carnivore. I’ve learned more about meat in the past six months than I have in my entire lifetime – and I have the people there to thank for it. The staff are top notch. Alert, friendly, patient – and genuinely committed to what they do, each and every one of them. No recycled sales pitches, no attitude, no vacant small talk. It’s always a pleasure to visit, in that neighborhood-feeling sort of way.

People who don’t buy organic have no idea what they’re missing, especially when it comes to meat. Where flavor is concerned, there’s no comparison. Try one of the chef's recipes and you’ll want to take him home with you. Mario and Tara deal directly with local, ethical farmers, which makes me feel good about spending my money there. A former lawyer and investment banker? Who would’ve thunk. They’re totally in to what they do, and they’re two of the most genial, down-to-earth people I know."

SteakGuys.com, Worldwide Steakhouse Rating Site

On our most recent visit, SteakGuys.com rated The Healthy Butcher the highest rating possible - Magnificent .
To quote our reviewer, "Toronto's Finest Organic Butcher. Try one (or more) of Mario's pre-cooked, vacuum packed New Yorks after warming up at home. You won't be disappointed, and it is especially unforgettable with the right wine!"

Toronto Life
“If you’ve got a beef with the meat industry, shop at The Healthy Butcher.” “Eating organic used to be an ethical choice; now it’s as much about good taste as it is about being good. A new Queen West butcher shop satisfies on all fronts. Certified organic chickens perch next to grass-fed steaks. Breakfast sausages, sweetened with maple syrup and cranberries, could almost sub for dessert.”

Gina D, Customer

"Hello, we have been customers for 6 months, there isn't one single thing we have purchased from there, that isnt simply fantastic.  The slow cooked roast in vacuum packs is our favourite, it is the best comfort food after a long cold day, but the hamburgers as well, are just great. Thank you
and congratulations on a wonderful old fashioned high quality and yet innovative fresh new butcher shop."

Jacob Richler, National Post
“... a new organic emporium opened downtown ... they have done it in the sort of professional way that enthusiastic newcomers to a business very rarely display. Their wood-floored shop is bright and airy and handsom, its layout intelligent. All prices are very fair. They have hired agreeable and highly capable people... The lamb and chickens are of irreproachable quality.”

D. Grant Black, Globe and Mail
“The local butcher is dying out. But an updated gourmet breed is saving the species from extinction... At their shop in the trendy Queen Street West neighbourhood, the pedigree of every cut of their 100 per cent certified organic meat can be traced. Sides of beef, pork and lamb are sourced from Ontario organic producers, then carved by in-house butcher[s]. Whole chickens, turkeys and ducks are brought in fresh: Nothing is frozen before it’s put on display.”

Jennifer Bain, Toronto Star
“Meat that is outstanding in its field.” “The opening of a new butcher shop on Queen St. W. is cause for celebration.”

Tralee Pearce, Globe and Mail
“Prepared dishes like the veggies take up half the space, but organic meat is the star of the joint. Whole carcasses are sourced directly from Ontario farms and shipped to the shop, where... [they are turned] into fresh cuts.”

Yuko M, Customer

Hi Mario!  Thank you for putting together a great evening.  The sausage making class was very interesting. It was
also nice to get to talk to you as well as the rest of
your staff. It really makes it feel like a neighbourhood store where you know the local butcher by their first name!