Wild Fork — Local services in Manhattan Beach

They just opened up this location in MdR, so I checked it out. Great stuff, plenty of more healthy cuts, like grass-fed skirt steak. You have to pay for a good fat profile, the grass-fed cuts are twice the cost of the feedlot beef, but staying alive is probably worth it. Chicken is a little more difficult, I wanted skinless, boneless chicken thighs, and they're supposed to have an "organic" version (whatever that means). Twice I've checked, and all they had was a definitely non-organic bag with 15% added water. No thanks, I prefer buying chicken, water I can get from a tap.

If you're a barbecue expert (aren't we all?) you'll love the brisket selection, primes at five bucks, that'll work. Tri-tip of course, and plenty of other beef and pork options, all the ribs at good prices. I suppose a lot of people come here for the steaks, and I'm sure they're fine, it's just I don't eat meat that way, I'm looking for small amounts to package up in the freezer for cooking, like noodles and Mexican. I fold the grass-fed skirt steaks up and cook them like a brisket, which goes fast and results in yards of tender beefy strips.

The other reason to visit is the shellfish, they have two types of large shrimp with no chemicals, but stick with the Gulf shrimp, the Key West version were a bit mushy. The price was great, as were warm water spiny lobster tails, around $25, nice. I like to buy California spinies in season, but they cost a fortune of course. I happened to have one in the freezer, so I compared it to the WF tail, couldn't taste any difference. I know where to get lobster from now on. They also have fish, but mostly lower quality stuff, like catfish and tilapia, pass. They're supposed to have other filets, like cod and mahi, one time they had a good selection, not much the other day I was there. Salmon of course, the dog food of the sea (sorry).

Like the chicken I wanted, or the fish, availability of certain items can be spotty. I wanted a smaller boneless pork roast, but had to settle for the whole deal. By the way, when you can buy a hunk of pork as big as your head for less than thirty bucks, how can anyone really go hungry in this land?

Everything is frozen, this isn't a butcher shop, it's more like a very meat heavy Trader Joe's. But for meat and shellfish, this is definitely a go-to. Access is easier than it looks, you can turn right off Lincoln into the alley in front of the Panda Express store, which takes you to the parking lot. Getting out is tougher, it can be very difficult to get into the far lanes on Washington going west, and east or south, forget it. It's best to take the alley back to Lincoln, take a left on Grant, and turn around to head back south on Lincoln. No biggie. Or you can continue on Grant to get back to Washington and...

I really enjoyed shopping for quality meat and fish at this store. It's a great location. They have an amazing selection. My favorite meats were the ground bison and the ground elk. It was a pleasure to speak with Shanti and her boss. We had a great conversation about the quality of the meat and how to prepare it. The customer service was excellent. Particularly with Shanti. There were several seasonings she recommended, but Firecracker seasoning was the best. I was expecting higher prices, but the prices aren't as high as I thought. Moreover, you can choose from a wide variety of specialty meats. My high recommendation goes out to this company. Shanti is wonderful and you should definitely see her. What an awesome person she is. Thank you so much for making my experience...

Wildfork is a specialty seafood grocery but also carries other items. This is a more expensive type of store located in expensive Manhattan Beach(avg. home price $3.5 million and full of empty houses). So one should not expect deals and bargains here. However, the quality is very good with hard to find items. I had an excellent frozen lasagna and potato/broccoli/cheese patties from Italy and Belgium which were delicious and worth the extra price, in my opinion.

Service and communication needs some improvement but not bad.

The location is good at the corner of Manhattan Beach Blvd and Sepulveda(aka PCH). HOWEVER, BE VERY CAREFUL DRIVING AND WATCH FOR PEDESTRIANS, BICYCLISTS.

There have been several fatal accidents on this stretch of road...