The Beef Palace

All Photos taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95 camera with permission from the nice folk at the Beef Palace

Thurs 07.03.08 - My Mom's cousin, Lynn, has been raving about the Beef Palace in the old school 1960s shopping center (with cantilever roof!) on the NW corner of Warner Ave and Springdale in Huntington Beach. Lynn started raving about the Beef Palace about a decade or so ago when she lived out in the high desert about 3 hours from the Beef Palace.

While Whole Foods Markets' butchers may get good reviews for being the last of the real butchers actually cutting the meat in the same supermarket in which it is sold, the Beef Palace is the last of the *great* old school independent butchers in SoCal cutting and processing the meat they sell. There are a few others, esp. your local Carniceria, but the Beef Palace is multiple cuts above the fray.

Many of the meat scares and recalls have come from meat that has been butchered and packaged up at a large factory in __insert_name_of_industrial_town_space before it is shipped, sometimes thousands of miles, to your local market. I have been consistently making a choice against listeria and e. coli for years by buying my meat at the last of the remaining local butchers who process all of their meat in house (be it the Beef Palace or Whole Foods or the great little butcher in La Mirada whose name I have forgotten) rather than purchase meat packaged in plastic & foam at the supermarket that was most likely butchered very far away and many days ago.

I love the quality of the meat at the Beef Palace and the price. Both today and in mid-June, I was able to purchase an 8" long, 4-5" in diameter, good old fashioned style boneless pork roast with lots of marbling, of which I can't find that at the supermarket or Trader Joe's, for under $15! Hello! Happy Days. The pork roasts from the Beef Palace come with a good 1/4 - 1/2" of fat on one side, making the roast very moist even when cooked to the recommended incineration for pork.

What I appreciate most about the Beef Palace, beyond the amazing selection of meat cuts that can't even be found at the big Whole Foods, beyond the crowded meat related kitsch decor, is the friendliness and helpfulness of all the staff. And then there are the free potatoes at the check out stand...

Go Beef Palace Go!

The Beef Palace
5895 Warner Ave
Huntington Beach, CA 92649
(714) 846-0044