The Butcher’s Block

The gourmet burgers are to die for– tried and tested a good few times. Also the grill packs in summer are great for variety and value. However, the chilli potatoes that I tried once were just darn bland. Stick to the meat and you’re golden.
They have tray upon tray of variations on a meaty theme. Chicken, lamb, beef and pig are all available in marinades, spices, stuffed, diced, whole, and any other way you can imagine. When I’m in Dundrum, the Butcher’s Block is my obligatory splurge.

It’s not often a purveyor of anything gets a star for running out their product. But in this case, when you’re dealing with meat, I find it extremely acceptable that there was not quite enough lamb available for my lamb stew the last time I purchased it here. This means they don’t just keep vast quantities frozen and ready to be defrosted whenever the bit out front runs low.
They even once took the initiative to cube up some other cut of lamb in order to make up my order, and only charged me the slightly lower stew-​meat prices (in case ya haven’t realized it, my stew takes A LOT of lamb). But on at least one occasion they just plain ran out. That’s perfectly ok, even perhaps preferred to having mealy frozen viands.
I’ve also recently become a fan of their ready-​to-​cook meals. Fer instance, they’ve got a four-​chop lamb, veg, and tatie combo that you just remove the wrapping from and pop into the oven for about 40 minutes. Or the Continental Pork Chop dinner for 2 people, which at 6 Euro was a great alternative to fast food on a busy busy night. Everything is nicely spiced and oiled and roasts up a treat!
If I could fix one thing it would be the often-​good but sometimes less-​than-​stellar attitudes of the people behind the counter. There are a couple of guys that work there that seem to be perfectly happy not being helpful at all. Maybe they are secretly in the employ of PETA…
Bottom Line: If you want my stew recipe, IM me…

I have to disagree with Aoife on her review, first of all I think that the fact you dont pay your server is brilliant, it means that the person who handled your meat is not also handling «dirty been all over the filthy world» money!
Second of all I have found the staff in here to be really nice and they really know about their meat and the different cuts and how you should cook it and how you should store it if you dont want to eat it that day/​week, you would not get that at the meat counter in Tesco!
The last reason I am giving this butchers a good review is because it is an independant butcher and it is keeping the butcher trade alive, If it were not for shops like this we would all have to buy our meat in plastic packets in our local supermarket and who knows what machine has handled that.
I have to admit now that I am not a meat eater at all really but I do buy and cook meat for others. My second admission is my strong faith in independent retailers and Irish products and my dismay at these types of shops closing down one by one across the country.
This butcher is only new so I say give this good quality local shop a go so that you can enjoy good meat and the pleasure of a friendly local service!

On first entering, I was very impressed by the array of both basic and fancy meats on offer, including ready to cook meals with attached veg in a chiller fridge. I was admiringly standing at the main counter when the sales girl asked if she could help me. I was telling her how she could when who I presume was the main butcher guy cut me off and told the girl that she should be serving another woman down at the other end, as she was next, making me feel a bit of a queue jumper.
When she came back, she asked who was next, and I really hadn’t been keeping an eye on who was coming and going from the may I say very long counter. I decided it was me and gave her my order, which she got wrong, but I didn’t want any more hassle and it wasn’t too far off, so I went with it.
Strangely you don’t hand over the cash there and then. You get your meat and a ticket and then you have to queue up again and pay. It’s a bit head wrecking. The meat was grand but the experience was not.