The Herbivorous Butcher — Restaurant in Minneapolis

Too many options to claim I've been through them all, which is one of the huge pros of this place. Also, the staff is incredibly friendly and very helpful. That's something I've experienced whether it's in the store or at a pop-up.

I love that their products are also all small-batch. This ends up meaning that they largely rely on wheat gluten for their meats, though tofu does make it in to some dishes, and soy sauce is pretty prevalent. This is def a drawback for gluten-free folks, but they do have a small selection of gluten-free grain and jackfruit based meat selections.

On the other hand, all of their cheeses are gluten-free, but are nearly all soy-based. Their feta is based on almonds, and I think there may be one or two other non-soy options.

One of the cons of relying on one protein source for your meats is that I'm starting to detect a bit more similarity between dishes than I'd like to. For me, exploring beyond my faves started to have me notice the common wheaty base a bit more, so if that's starting to happen to you, I recommend identifying a handful of very differently spiced & textured meats and sticking with those.

And then that's where their spice blends come in, which are overall pretty great. I personally am a much bigger fan of the meats that have the spices Incorporated within them--the sausages, the deli slices, and actually most of their dishes--than the spice rubbed on the outside, which is the case with their jerky. (Maybe that's just a long-winded way of saying I don't like their jerky.) I'm a bigger fan of their actively spiced stuff than their more basic ingredients (like, the plain chicken). Though the basic stuff can be more versatile, I find that they don't pick up the spices of the dishes I use them in that well, so I prefer some pre-spiced stuff and match the spices to the dish I'm cooking.

I have no complaints about their cheeses, which is saying a lot because I'm not even vegan. I'm a very much dairy-cheese consuming from-Wisconsin vegetarian. And I still love their cheeses. Though it mostly shares the same soymilk base, they've really succeeded in making each cheese have its own unique flavor that parallels the original dairy versions quite well. The texture is more like a semi-soft cheese than say a hard cheddar block, and most of the cheeses slice or spread equally well. The biggest question: DOES IT MELT? Yes, it does! Not quite as melty as Daiya, say, and not the same kind of stretchy melt as dairy cheese, but it's way better than other soy-based...

I'm leaving a review specifically for their "Vegan Starter Kit", since I unfortunately live too far away to get to peruse this incredible shop! :) I have been transitioning to a plant-based diet since the beginning of March 2016, recently I thought it would be interesting to give some meat-free meat a try. After some searching on Google, I came across The Herbivorous Butcher's website.

For starters, I absolutely LOVE the Energy that Aubry, Kale, and their crew project. They 'feel' like such lovely people, which in turn brought me to conclude that they probably make lovely foods. I looked around the website for a while, and eventually came across the vegan starter kit. Currently, it's priced at $135.00. For some of you, this price might immediately be a deal breaker. I can say that in all honesty, I do not tend to drop this kind of cash on random foods that I don't have access to at least sampling first hand.

However, these beautiful people are in Minneapolis, and I'm in Columbus. Seeing as there (unfortunately) wouldn't be much of a chance that I would be in Minnesota any time soon, I debated with myself for a couple of hours as to what I wanted to do. At the end of the deliberating of it though, I did click that "order button". I'm writing this review because my wallet hasn't made a peep of regrets since then ^_^

I ended up getting my wonderful package a little over a week ago. How I managed to show constraint this whole time to not just shove every single food item in my mouth within the first hour of the package's arrival is seriously beyond me. I LOVE the teriyaki jerky -- it is all the super delicious :D Last night I made the maple breakfast sausages with matcha soba noodles and veggie spring rolls for dinner with a meat-eating friend of mine. Her taste buds offered two thumbs up for the sausages, which pleased me greatly :D

Ever since I moved to the Midwest from southern New England four years ago, I've been consistently surprised with how magical the people out here are with their foods. I am even more curious now about getting to visit Minnesota & Wisconsin someday soon. Here's hoping I'll make that opportunity for myself; I know exactly where my first pit stop will be if I get to Minneapolis.

All in all, if you're a debater like me when it comes to whether or not you want to spend a fair amount of money on things that you aren't able to sample first, I am here to offer you a bright and shining recommendation and encouragement to give their stuff a...

hi there! what are you looking for today?

today my friends and i (one vegetarian among us) went to check out a place we had been meaning to go to for a while now: the herbivorous butcher. as someone who has now worked at a real butcher shop for six weeks, i was very curious about what it would be like!tucked away in a quiet corner of the city, the herbivorous butcher is a shop that sells meat free meat, cheese free cheese, honey free honey, and other vegan versions of normal food.

there were a few similarities to clancey’s: sausages, jerky, chicken, cheeses, deli meat, and many other products prepared in the kitchen were available for sale, as well as shelf stable items from other companies such as condiments and chips. soups and sandwiches were another thing in common. after eating my chipotle chowder and sampling my friends’ lunches (turkey and dill havarti and muffaleta) i was full but my taste buds were underwhelmed.

the thing about the herbivorous butcher that displeased me the most, however, was their employees. there was no greeting when we walked in the door, no hubbub in the back of house, and the first staff/customer interaction i witnessed was a man who was being told he couldn’t buy a single strip of jerky, he had to get at least two or three. that seemed wrong… after ordering my lunch i attempted to strike up a conversation with the employees and ask some questions about their products and customers, but it was hard to get a straight answer from any of the three hip young folks on duty.

i’ve definitely learned at clancey’s about the importance of customer service and knowing all there is to know about what’s in the case in the instance that someone has a question. where does this come from? how do you serve it? when was this made? what’s the most popular? what are the ingredients in this? how does it compare to this? i can tell you all of the answers.

thanks for coming by! have a nice afternoon!

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