Best Mail Order Steaks For 2024

Until recently, if you wanted to buy the best quality steak, you were severely limited by where you lived. Luckily, we now have choices, with a range of specialty butcher shops delivering restaurant-quality steaks online. Even if you live in a small town, these online butchers deliver steak to your door anywhere in the continental United States. We’ve rounded up the best mail order steak companies in the country for buying steak (and a range of other meats) online.

Best Online Steak Delivery Companies

1. Best Overall – Snake River Farms

We first reviewed Snake River Farms back in 2019 and have been ordering from them ever since.

This family business specializes in American Wagyu, which comes from crossbreeding imported Wagyu cattle with American Angus. You end up with beef rated higher than USDA Prime (the best grade you’re likely to find at your local supermarket).

Selection

On the Snake River Farms website, you can choose from a huge variety of cuts, including your typical steakhouse classics like Ribeye, bone-in New York strip, and filet mignon.

What really sets Snake River Farms apart is their selection of rare Butcher’s Cuts, including hanger, skirt, Delmonico, flat iron, and ribeye cap.

With most steaks, you can choose the weight in ounces or size in inches, so you know exactly what you are going to get. Some steaks allow you to pick the grade, either Black or Gold label, with Gold having the highest marbling score.

Ordering

Snake River Farms has one of the best websites out of all the companies we tested. Product pages contain all the important information about each cut, and you know the size and weight you will receive. During checkout, you can select your preferred delivery date, and they even offer overnight shipping if you need to make a last-minute order.

There’s an option you can tick if you are sending a gift, and there’s space for to write “to”, “from” and a message.

Unboxing

Orders are shipped in a thermal bag in a recyclable box lined with insulated foam. Dry-aged products are shipped fresh, while other items are flash-frozen prior to shipment.

What we’ve cooked

We’ve tested and used a wide selection of Snake River Farms products using their steak recipes. You can check those recipes out to see the size and marbling of some different cuts.

2. Runner Up – Porter Road

These guys are more than just a mail-order steak company. Porter Road is a full online butcher, selling a wide range of beef, pork, chicken, and lamb. Their meat is sourced from small family farms in Kentucky and Tennessee before it is cut and dry-aged for a minimum of 14 days at their facilities in Kentucky. All beef is pasture-raised and hormone and antibiotic-free. Porter Road say they are more focused on how animals are raised than how it’s graded. There meat doesn’t have a specified grade, but they claim that when it’s been graded it comes back as either Prime or Choice Plus.

They are also focused on sustainability and ensure all meat is humanely raised.

Their steaks are quite affordable compared to the competition.

Their 19-oz bone-in ribeye will set you back $39, compared to $99 for a 15-oz ribeye from Snake River Farms. Now the Snake River Farms Ribeye will have a lot more marbling, so it’s your choice with respect to what your budget may be.

Selection

You can shop from over 50 different cuts of beef including all the classic cuts. One thing we love about Porter Road is the selection of interesting cuts like Flank Steak, Tri-Tip, Bavette, Denver, and beef neck roast. You can also let Porter Road do the meat shopping for you with one of their curated meat boxes.

Ordering

You don’t get as much flexibility with choosing the weight or thickness as Snake River Farms. Each product will give you an estimated weight range that’s usually accurate. You can choose from three different delivery options, although there is no way to pick an exact delivery date.

Unboxing

Most meat is shipped fresh with insulation and gel packs in a standard cardboard box. A few products like ground beef and sausage are shipped frozen. The box we ordered in our test arrived with the ice packs still frozen.

3. Best for Japanese Wagyu – Holy Grail Steak Company

Until recently, it was impossible to buy legitimate, authentic Kobe Beef in America.

This is no longer true. Holy Grail Steak Company’s mission is to give everyone access to world-class steaks that were once only available in Michelin-star restaurants.

Selection

You can choose from an impressive selection of Japanese A5 Wagyu and Kobe beef. You’ve also got domestic producers including Upper Prime Black Angus beef. They even stock a small selection of Australian Wagyu, which in our opinion strikes a perfect balance of exceptional marbling, while still being a steak you would actually want to grill up any night of the week. If you want to treat yourself or a friend, the selection of curated steak flights& gifts offers a range of different experiences.

Steaks regularly sell out and the selection is updated often.

Ordering

The Holy Grail Steak Co website is well organized, with options to browse cut, collection (E.g. Japanese Wagyu, American Wagyu) or even drill down to specific Wagyu Programs. On each product page you’ll find information about the producer, the weight to expect and for some cuts, you can choose from different sizes or marbling scale. There’s an option to add a gift note during checkout and you can also select your delivery date up to 8 weeks in advance.

Unboxing

All steaks are aged, cut and then vacuum sealed and blast frozen to -30°F. Orders are shipped frozen with dry ice. The exterior of the box is recyclable, and the interior insulation is made from corn starch which can be dissolved in your sink.

The meat in the box we ordered was still nice and cold we when cracked it open, despite sitting outside in the heat for most of the day.

4. Best Small-Scale Farm – Vermont Wagyu

Unlike the other companies in this list, Vermont Wagyu is the name of an actual farm in the hills of Vermont overlooking the Connecticut River. They started off with 20 100% DNA Parent-Verified Full-Blood Wagyu calves back in 2008. They believe in raising cattle naturally without antibiotics or hormones and with one-two acre of pasture per cow-calf pair.

The ribeye steak I tried was one of the most richly marbled, best-tasting steaks I’ve ever had. I also found the Rump Cap Coulotte (Picanha) equally delicious. You can shop farm favorites, including Ribeye, Strip, and Tomahawk, or pick up something a little more rare, like a Chuck eye steak, Hanger, or Bavette.

I’ve found the service has always been superb, so if you are looking to support a small producer, you can’t go wrong with Vermont Wagyu.

5. Crowd Cow – Best for Grass-Fed Beef

Have you ever wandered the meat section of your local grocery store, and wondering where the meat comes from and why it costs so much? That’s what gave co-founder Ethan the idea for Crowd Cow. Crowd Cow acts as a marketplace to buy high-quality meat from farms and ranches around the world.

The folks at Crowd Cow meet with farm and ranch owners and then work with a select few. You can shop by the cut of meat, and then select which farm you want to buy that cut from. You can read more about each farm and its philosophy of raising meat.

For example, if you want to order the Bone-in Ribeye steak you can choose pasture-raised, grain-finished black Angus beef from Washington State or 100% grass fed from Birney Montana (among several overs). Crowd Cow sells a range of grass-fed beef, but it’s also worth learning more about the different methods of raising animals. I learned that grass-fed and then grain-finished can be an excellent approach.

The price varies quite a lot from farm to farm, so make sure you shop around. Your meat order is frozen at peak freshness, vacuum-sealed, and shipped in biodegradable, recyclable packaging.

There’s a lot more than just beef available. You can also grab wild Alaskan Salmon, lamb, chicken, and pork. You can also order authentic Wagyu steak from Kagoshima Farms in Japan.

6. Chicago Steak Company

Like Omaha Steaks, the Chicago Steak Company has been around for generations and also offers a lot more than the name suggests. You can order seafood, chicken, pork, burgers, roasts, and of course steak.

The main focus is dry aged USDA Prime steak, which represents the top 2% of all beef consumed. All steaks are sourced from Mid-West raised heritage cattle, and then aged for four to six weeks. You can order both wet-aged and dry-aged steak, depending on your preferences.

Dry-aging beef is a time-honored process where animal carcasses or primal cuts are hung up and exposed to the air at a cold temperature. This process can last for weeks or even months.

Wet-aging, on the other hand, is when beef is packed, vacuum-sealed, and refrigerated soon after slaughter. This aging process usually occurs in transit, from where the meat is packed to its delivery to your supermarket shelf.

Cuts like the premium Angus filet mignon have been aged for 4-6 weeks and are graded top one-third USDA Choice or higher. They also sell a range of American Wagyu.

You can find Chicago Steak Company steaks at some of the top steak houses around the USA.

7. Omaha Steaks

Starting all the way back in 1929 Omaha Steaks is the oldest company to grace our list of steak delivery services. If you thought meat delivery was a modern invention that required any fancy technology, you would be incorrect.

Omaha Steaks started delivering mail order steaks all the way back in 1953 so it’s fair to say they know what they are doing. Only in more recent years have we started to see more Omaha steak alternatives pop up. Despite having steak in the name, you can buy a huge range of meat, seafood, appetizers, desserts and even wine off their website. Their gift baskets have also gained a reputation.

All meat is flash frozen, vacuum packed and shipped with dry ice in a Styrofoam cooler. You can also get a phone and email alert to let you know when your meat has been delivered.

The catalog is huge, but the 30-day dry aged bone-in ribeye and New York strip are great options for steak lovers, as is the 21-day aged filet mignon. If you really want to treat yourself upgrade to the private reserve Wagyu.

8. Kansas City Steaks

Kansas City knows a thing or two about quality meats, and Kansas City Steaks is a rich part of its history. It began as a small, family-owned butcher shop in 1932 and today has molded into a top distributor of quality meats. This sampler includes filet mignon, Kansas City strip steaks, and ribeye’s.

Product packaging: Each steak is individually wrapped in Cryovac packaging. Most items ship in the company’s gift-grade boxes, including a reusable insulated cooler with dry ice.

Nowadays you can order a full range of beef, ham, turkey, lamb, pork, seafood, and even sides. The main event, of course, is the steak, which is wet aged. You can shop by steak but (they have all the usual options), or by beef type including classic, USDA Prime, Grass Fed or American Style Kobe Beef.

You can’t go wrong with the USDA Prime Ribeye steak which has been wet aged for 28 days and ships with a free seasoning packet.

9. Allen Brothers

Allen Brothers‘s legacy is in sourcing only the finest in USDA Prime Beef from the stockyards of Chicago for more than 125 years has forged a reputation for the kind of ultra-high quality product that you can’t find at your local grocer. The purveyor ages its grain-fed and pasture-raised products for 60 days as part of a patented process in which the beef is dry- or wet-aged prior to cutting. Since 1893 Allen Brothers has been serving the exacting standards of top chefs and restaurants nationally. They have earned their reputation based upon one guiding principle — never compromise.

As a premier purveyor of the finest prime meat, award-winning steaks and Wagyu, they also offer the best heritage breed lamb, veal and pork, as well as premium seafood, poultry, game and more. They also offer gift & bundle packages and prepared foods.

If you want to feel like you are eating out at an old-school steakhouse, order a dry-aged steak. You won’t regret it. It will look fantastic, taste amazing, and is perfect for the beef purists.

Product packaging: Allen Brothers meats are individually shrink-wrapped, flash frozen, and packed in a gift box with a recyclable liner and dry ice.

10. Debragga

Many of the top steak houses and restaurants in New York city order their steaks from Debragga. While they are most famous in New York, they ship anywhere in the continental U.S.

The butcher shop, which was founded in the early 1920s, has specialized in top-quality meats for close to a century, including everything from perfectly dry aged beef for a rich meaty flavor to silky Wagyu (available in American, Australian, and Japanese varieties) as well as pork from prized Ibérico pigs and apple-raised lamb chops, plus game meat, poultry, and cured selections.

If Wagyu isn’t your thing, you can also buy all the usual steak cuts and choose if you want dry aged, prime, naturally raised or grass fed.

What’s the difference between naturally raised and grass fed you ask? Grass fed beef is exclusively grass-raised and grass finished, while the naturally raised beef is grain finished.