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We drove by this place ever now and then. Finally we stopped and gave this place a try. Not the best neighborhood if you are by yourself imo. Food was…
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My wife saw this place on TV and told me Id Love it. She was so right. The food is fantastic, staff are a lot of fun to interact with, and after lunch…
Michael Friesen
Save On Meats
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Opened in 1957, Save On Meats is one of those legendary institutions, a gem of a place that resides in the middle of a big city. Found on the edge of …
Erika Golem
Save On Meats
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Save On Meats is open for Casual Dining. Save On Meats serves Diner and Canadian dishes. Incorrect or missing information? Make a report, or claim the restaurant if you own it!Details
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8 Reviews on “Save On Meats”
My wife saw this place on TV and told me Id Love it. She was so right. The food is fantastic, staff are a lot of fun to interact with, and after lunch we went into the meat shop in the next room and bought some stuffed chicken breasts for dinner.
Opened in 1957, Save On Meats is one of those legendary institutions, a gem of a place that resides in the middle of a big city. Found on the edge of Gastown and not exactly on a great part of Hastings, the location turned out to be an endearing part of this diner that only caused me to like it more. I heard about this place by seeing it in enRoute magazines Dining Guide 2016. Bold consensus?: I think that we can all agree that the best burger in all of the land can be found at In-N-Out Burger and I have to say, the excellent burger at Save On Meats may actually be the next best thing. There! I said it!!!We visited on a Saturday evening and it would be amiss of me not to mention that this place is located a mere block away from where Hastings gets bad. Because of the sketchy neighbourhood, I could see that some potential customers might be scared away. Dont let this stop you. The area is more harmless than it looks and the way that SOM embraces their Downtown Eastside location and their community is actually quite beautiful. Youll know that youve found them when you see their glorious neon lights! That rotate!They started off as a butcher shop back in the heyday of Hastings when the street was Vancouvers main shopping and entertainment district (a bygone era) and then expanded to include a diner later on. The restaurant itself is actually quite large, a long and narrow space with a soaring ceiling. One side of the room features exposed brick and booth seating, along with hip and interesting art on the wall. On the other side, a very long counter dotted by chairs. It feels old and fresh at the same time, and surprisingly not all that divey. Yes, there are needle disposal units in the bathrooms, but this is just one example of how this place is embracing where they are. Again, dont let it frighten you.We were told to sit wherever we wanted, settled into a booth, and were immediately helped by the incredible staff. Why incredible? I give these guys a ton of credit for the jobs that they do. Not only are they serving amazing food, but they are also pouring free coffee for less fortunate customers and are engaging them in conversations. They know who these people are and are treating them with dignity. We can all learn a little something from this.I had heard that their milkshakes were very good and was quickly drawn to the Adult Milkshake section where I could get something called The Legendary Shake (Wild Turkey Bourbon, bacon, milk, chocolate ice cream, topped with whipped cream and more BACON! – $9.45). With a name like that, how could I not try it? Yup, the shake sounds crazy! But it looked amazing. It tasted even better! Chocolatey and delicious, I could taste the alcohol but it wasnt too much. The best part was the bacon! This bacon was extra good, so salty and crispy, smokey and flavourful. I find that you cant get bacon this good in the grocery store – its gotta come from a butcher or a farmers market. This thing is big enough to share between two people. Super fun!The food menu includes various sandwiches and even all-day breakfast… But the thing is the burger. Thats what theyre famous for. The spicy chicken sandwich was totally speaking my language, but it had to be the burger. So I went with the Save On Burger (Since 1957 Save On Meats has hand ground local beef for the best and freshest burger in town. Today, our Cache Creek burgers come straight from our butcher shop and are topped with American Cheese, crisp butter lettuce, tomato, onion and pickles on a brioche bun topped with S.O.M. sauce – $8.95) which is served with your choice of haystack fries, salad or coleslaw. The food came out lightening fast and looked great. I subbed Real Cheddar ($0.95) on mine and now that I know how good their bacon is, I will add that as well next time. I ordered my burger with haystack fries and asked for coleslaw on the side. The server suggested that they could simply do half fries and half coleslaw, which I happily accepted. The fries were THE BEST!! I love a shoestring style fry and these ones were fried perfectly and tasted crispy and delicious. Maybe the best fries that Ive had in Vancouver, actually. I found the coleslaw less good and too chunky for my taste. It seemed like a pile of big cabbage with not very much dressing or flavour.But the burger. Lets talk about this most wonderful burger. Im not even a burger person! I rarely order hamburgers and almost always order something else, given the choice. But this burger is special. Every part of it is excellent. The beef tastes ultra fresh and its not cooked to a char. The mark of a good quality, real, housemade beef patty is one that can be served medium rare. I almost jumped with joy when I saw the hint of pink after taking a bite. The bun is also incredible. A buttery brioche that is perfectly squashy in exactly the best way. Every vegetable was crisp, bright and fresh. The pickle was delicious. And their special sauce made all the difference and tasted amazing. This burger was literally perfect in every way and every day that you let go by without trying it is unfortunate.The prices are exceedingly reasonable at SOM. Plus they have a conscious. They offer a Token Program where for $3.50 you can purchase a token that you can then give to someone in need. Or the restaurant will do it for you if you prefer. This will buy that person a sandwich. Since 2012 they have served up over 88,000 delicious meals to residents of this neighbourhood. The entire initiative is extremely heartwarming. Save On Meats is trying to make things better instead of worse. In my opinion theyre doing amazing work. But aside from that, they are serving amazing food and the best damn hamburger in Vancouver! Which is why you absolutely need to try them. erikaeatseverything.com
Cozy diner that sources their meat from their butcher shop next door. I liked that their patties were not pre-made. Their legendary burger was pretty good – my only comment is that it would be nice if the patties weren’t done to the point where they were completely dry (as the meat was pretty good). Buns could have also been toasted. Overall not a bad choice classic diner.
Used to frequent Save-On Meats for my favourite burgers in town, filled up 3 whole stamp cards. Since removing the build-your-own sheet though we’ve just stopped going entirely. We tried a burger off the menu and it wasn’t as satisfying.We’ve also been to brunch here before, I’d suggest avoiding as it never was great, there’s too many amazing breakky joints in Vancouver to bother.I don’t like their gravy flavour, but it is nice and creamy.Milkshakes are amazing.
My husband and I have a bucket list of places to eat (we made our list from such shows as triple D and you gotta eat here). We had been meaning to come here for quite some time. So we walked in around 11:30am, not overly busy. My husband ordered the bacon double cheese burger and I ordered the beef dip. The beef dip comes with onions on the sandwich, I forgot to tell the waitress to hold the onions (as I don’t care for them), but I was surprised as to how good it tasted with the caramelized onions, the au jus wasn’t overly salty. I had a bite of my husbands burger, it was well seasoned. From the time we ordered to the time we got our grub was very quick. I don’t know how they do it but was well worth the drive from Surrey. We did go to the butcher shop attached and picked up a few items. The butcher shop is a bit pricy, however in their defence if you want quality your going to pay for it. The staff at both the restaurant and butcher shop were very friendly, accommodating, and patient with us as we decided what to get. I will be back. One pit fall, they are located in an undesirable location, however they do help out those in need with in the area.
Ask anybody who was born or raised in Vancouver for a good diner and SOM will definitely come up. This place is a classic, and used to be very popular in the past for their build your own burgers and milkshakes. It is in a sketchy neighborhood, but I decided to head down there for old times sake.It definitely is not the same as I recall it being. The burgers were delicious, huge and reasonably priced, which made the whole trip worth it. Not only did we wait 10 mins to get our menus, but your staff would just not attend us. There were not that many customers in the shop which made it impossible for them not to see us.
Great service, the food I had: Bacon double cheeseburger was fantastic with a side of onion rings ( I like how it comes in pieces rather then full rings, gives an easier eating experience) will definitely come back again.