Heritage Springs Meats — Local services in Melbourne

Staff are amazing, selections are very nice - with the bonus of; if you like tackling a large slab of meat for smoking or slow cooking. Look for their center piece display - $40-$110 dollars slabs of beautiful meat - air tight packed and encourages you to barbeque, smoke or roast. Myself, I'm a steak person - and unlike most butchers, they trim a nice line of fat on your porterhouse so you are not paying excessive fees for fat. Their prices are moderate to high depending on your interest - but it is rare to have a butcher trade fat for quality. This is a rarity everyone! And something you should all be looking for with your meat selections! The beef isn't particularly marbled but we are not talking about $85 per kilo steaks, are we? Also, any energy enthusiastic protein fan would love to pay for healthy quality proteins than have to slice and dice there way through fat and hormone enriched madness. I haven't had a chance to try there crumb ranges, or their chicken (I will in time considering their quality standards) - however the presentation is right on point and the staff there are more than willing to help. More over; both a negative and a positive depending on your request: depending on availability, the staff can (and will) talk to the friendly butcher who will cut to order if not on display; however this depends on the specialist meat you are requesting, if they have it, and cost. The only detractions, I could see: their fresh lamb range (its small and not really on presentation or advertised for cost (except for crumbed) - cost for this meat is high which is understandable and it is common to preserve waste of premium meat. I asked the staff about this, they are happy to cut to order - but without display - its hard to know quality and with cutlets is all about the fat weight to the meat. Lamb being the premium meat these days - its hard not ask for a (1/2 or 1/4) a kg of lamb cutlets without viewing the quality - as said before, they have crumbed, but that's not really a viewing of the quality of meat you are paying for. There is also no online advertisement of their meat prices, catalogue, or specials that could be advertised. There is a facebook book advertiser which isn't a bad thing, but could probably move more produce if there was a direct to public update on specials on that facebook page. But the specials are few and far between (talking to staff) outside of basic chicken and beef mince special (on bulk), priced meat special are random - which tells me that unless you know the butcher - the cost will always be higher. So while the meat is specialist and upper level - it's hard for the average family not to walk past it, take note of the prices and grab lesser quality for -25% from an adjacent store. There is a fair amount of air-packed produce (mostly bulk items) - but it really depends about your feelings of presentation or gas contained freshness (which they have no gassed meat whatsoever) - I don't really care either way cause i know the tricks of both - so it didn't bother me. But vacuumed meat can look off colour to gassed meat (which is normal to a point) and you should research the difference to be informed. Overall, i have to be honest - this butcher has a higher grade quality of meat and you will not be dissatisfied with the purchase or flavour. Although it is more expensive than other options in the direct vicinity - their variety is great, the presentation is clean and approachable, the meat is worth the cost (with in reason and visual assessment) and the customer service is honest, respectful and (above all) friendly. Its hard to turn down quality and I believe you can immediately tell. This butcher (and staff), focuses its efforts on this enthusiastically. I only think they would benefit more from advertising, as I am now haunting their Facebook page....

There was once a time where products from here featured 3 or 4 times a week in my family meals, particularly some of their premade items but, for a couple of reasons, this is no longer the case. The first is related to finances, which is a concern shared by many of late, and no longer allows me shop as freely as I used to. Secondly, and of more consequence, was the diagnosis of both adults in the house as Coelaic. While there are gluten-free options available here, the items that were our regular staples were immediately ruled out. I do still treat the family to something from here on occasion, but I don't have the means or circumstances to frequent this place anywhere near as much as I would like. It is somewhat disappointing as places such as this are a dying breed and the more traditional butchers I grew up with aren't nearly as popular or prevalent as they were. I recommend this place to anyone without those restrictions as it is a cut above (pardon the pun) most here, and you simply cannot find the same taste and quality in your more mass-produced supermarket offerings and, if you do, it isn't consistent. Prices are comparatively fair and affordable and much of their pre-made convenience offerings are delicious. I was a particular fan of the family beef pie (which had braised beef) and their individual chicken portions. Hamburgers, sausages, and meatballs all went down well too (particularly with the kids) and there are a handful of marinated items you can slow cook (which are gluten free) that save so much time and energy. They often offer wood for smokers/BBQs, eggs, and sauces and marinades too. If you aren't yet converted, give them a chance, you won't be...

My wife and I called into Heritage Springs Meats this afternoon shortly after 4pm today and was served by a woman with dark hair in a ponytail wearing a cap who we found to be very rude to say the least. It's quite obvious that she doesn't want to be there and maybe she should consider a different line of employment, probably one where she has no contact with the public. Adding to the insult when we got home we found that we only had 3 sausages in our order which should have been 4. The 5 star rating given is for previous customer service and quality of the products and certainly not for this rude woman. We have started using this butcher as we have been served by other staff members, Callum and Lyn who are absolutely delightful and appreciate loyal customers and the products to date that we have purchased have been good quality. I can tell you now that the next time we shop there we will not get this rude woman...