If you own a BBQ, then you need to frequent Pavao. Fresh and inexpensive pork, chicken and beef.
If you've never tried picanha, you're in for a treat! Pavao has excellent cuts and awesome staff. Love this place
Good service and great variety of meats and Portuguese and Brazialin delicacies. Limited parking but Green P is available on Dundas. They're now open on Sundays which is awesome!
This was my second visit to this butcher that came highly recommended to me by a very good friend. I am in the hospitality business and a very good cook who loves meat so I was looking forward to discovering a hidden gem in Toronto.
I am not able to wear a mask due to medical reasons. On my first visit as with my second I kept my motorcycle helmet with full face coverage on during my visit. I had no problems during my first visit and was very happy with the meat selection displayed. I was craving a steak but those on display were a bit thin and I enquired about the availabity of a thinker cut to the clerk behind the counter. I indicated the thickness desired and presto in less than 20 seconds the butcher at the worktable cut me exactly what I wanted. I happened to notice that one of the gentlemen who was wearing a mask looked very similar to the picture of the founder prominently displayed in the store. I discovered that he was the grandson of the founder who was born in Azores the beautiful islands in the Atlantic Ocean. I had a wonderful vacation there in 2013 and made some lifelong local friends and the gentlemen and I exchanges pleasantries. The steak was delicious and I was very happy to have made the discover of a very reasonably priced butcher in Toronto.
I have a personal butcher James Waldron based out of Hamilton who is a good friend and sources his animals directly from a selected group of farmers. His products are unbelievable and I ve yet to find any butcher that is better and believe me I ve experienced 100 s in my lifetime. Unfortunately I no longer live in Ancaster and currently 5 min from Queen s Park. I have a few favorites within walking distance as I go to Kensington and St. Lawrence market on a weekly basis for my private and corporate functions.
Pavao is clearly a proletariat butcher and I would not be able to make this my main butcher as I cater to ultra affluent clients mostly. Having said this I personally love the cheap cuts that have so much more flavour ie. Blade Steak, Flank, Sirloins etcetcetc and I was looking forward to developing a good personal/business relationship with this vendor.
Sadly based on my second visit I will no longer give them any of my business nor will I recommend it to my personal/business network.
I was ACOSTED by one of the female clerks as soon I entered and ORDERED to sanitize me hands when I was wearing my motorcycle gloves. I refused to do so as they are made of deerskin and I only clean/treat it with saddle soap. I did not intend to take my gloves off while shopping. Furthermore it has been conclusively stated by the CDC that the Covid-19 virus does not travel from surface to surface but is airborne.
As I walked in this RUDE girl practically yelled at me to wear a mask. I advised her that I could not for medical reasons. Although she had no discernible foreign accent when she spoke English she must have not understood my statement for she repeated her ORDER. I then resorted to sign language and pointed to my motorcycle helmet and told her I d be keeping it on while shopping just like I did the first visit without any issues. This clearly made her agitated and then resorted to bully tactics and tried to intimidate me. I studied psychology in while attending UofT and based on practical experience and continued reading/learning recognized exactly her behaviour and what triggered it. She has issues with Alpha males and likely has good reasons to do so. We exchanged words with the last exchange being basically a SHOUTING MATCH and ultimately another reasonable male clerk intervened resolving the situation. Basically I shopped with my motorcycle helmet on.
Although I am a bit sad that I will have to forgo this nice find in the city I am blessed to know many other similar butchers in areas that are convenient to me.
Great place to grab fresh hot table food and fresh meats!
Was excited when a location opened in Newmarket to have a fresh butcher right in my local grocery store. Bought beautiful (and expensive) looking prime ribs steaks for company for dinner. Went to use them about 40 hours later (refrigerated the entire time) and the smell was unbelievable. They had to go straight in the trash. Back to the store today with my receipt and I brought it to the managers attention. Rude, dismissive, and accused me of lying about it. Really disappointing product and even worse customer service. Such a shame.
I like this place. Great selection of meats, cheeses, deli, hard to find spices and a great hot table. The hot table in the picture I uploaded isn t ready yet because I was there first thing Sunday morning.
On top of such great products they also have great customer service. Everyone seems very friendly and they ll help you with dinner ideas too. I wasn t to sure what to make one night and the server that was helping me recommend a product from there that I wouldn t even look at twice. I tried it the way she told me to make it and now it s part of my weeknight repertoire. They have smaller shops inside some no frills. Same great quality and customer service. Give this place a try I m sure you ll become a regular customer. The reason I didn t give it a full 5 starts is because of the parking. If you pass by in the afternoon good luck trying to park close to the store. Other than the parking it s a 5/5.
John
My mother usually shops at the NoFrills at 245 Islington Ave. She buys meats from your in-store butcher. She noticed that the prices had gone up but didn't think much of it. She said she was going to buy Picanha. I got to her house and removed the meat from the wrap and noticed there were only 7 pieces. I looked at the price and noticed she had paid $38... I thought that was a lot of money for a little amount of meat. I checked the cost per kg which was $30.55, this comes out to $14 per lb. I thought that was ridiculously over priced. I decided to call the Pavao on Dundas St. W and asked what the price was for Picanha per lb. The lady told me $9.99 per lb. $4 difference???? That's a lot. Especially since it's the exact same name. Then I called other Portuguese butchers in the area and the cost per lb ranged from $7.99 (Nosso Talho) to $12.99 (Talho Paulo Ribeiro) - Who is known for price gauging. The lady at the Dundas location said that the in-store butchers have nothing to do with their store - franchise. This is price gauging and I will contacting the franchise owner and will also be contacting Doug Ford and advise him that price gauging is still happening. You should be ashamed of yourselves, having different pricing per location.
Surprisingly good, waking by this butchery thought it s just your average large scale commercial butchers with entry level meats for everyday cooking, turned out to be extremely good value for money, tried several cuts and they were all superb, would strongly recommend!
Great meat, good selection. I asked for scraps for a stock and they gave me a big bag for free!
