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I’m an indecisive person, but I haven’t waffled on my answer to the age-old dinner-party question “What would be your final meal on Earth?” in years: a medium-rare New York strip steak au poivre, cheesy potato gratin, a bright green salad, and a glass of really good red wine.
Steak is the ultimate special occasion meal to me, but I rarely cook it—or any red meat, for that matter—at home. So when I do, I want it to be good. While I can get some decent-quality meats from the butcher at my local gourmet grocery store, I can’t so easily find the kinds of specialty cuts or grades you can get from online meat delivery services. When I want giant cowboy rib-eye steaks, gorgeously marbled American Wagyu strips, or thick and juicy Kurobuta pork chops, there’s one place I now know to turn to: Snake River Farms.
The self-proclaimed “Pioneers of American Wagyu Beef,” Snake River Farms is a family owned and operated business that’s been around since the ’80s (though its parent company, Agri Beef, was founded in 1968). The brand works with family-owned ranches to source its meat and oversees the entire supply chain.
I first tried SRF while testing for a meat delivery subscription article over the summer, and it has fully converted me from a “buy a steak from the nearest grocery store the day of” kind of person to an online meat delivery evangelist.
What’s the Snake River Farms ordering experience?
You can either fill your basket à la carte by perusing the site’s categories and selecting the specific products you want, or you can build a subscription box. À la carte orders are onetime affairs, but if you opt for a subscription, you’ll be able to select between delivery frequencies, which range from every four weeks to every 12 weeks. Orders are shipped via FedEx, with no option to select a specific delivery date. Should you need to pause or cancel your subscription, you can do so from your account.
Once your box or à la carte order is finalized, you’ll head to check out. I ordered a subscription and tested two boxes of products over the course of a couple months. I shipped one box to California and the other to New York; both arrived at my delivery address in just a few business days.
Should you order a Snake River Farms subscription box?
The main benefit of the subscription box is that it can potentially save you money. Orders of six to nine items get a 5% discount, and orders of more than 10 items save 10%. On a small order, this won’t make much of a difference. But if you’re ordering hundreds of dollars worth of meat, it adds up.
The other reason you might find it worth it to subscribe? Doing so guarantees you a box of extremely high-quality meat delivered to your door every month (or two months, or three months). It’s a way of tackling some of your monthly meal planning in advance, and a great fallback if you ever have impromptu house guests or find yourself throwing together a dinner party with just a day’s notice. Plus, you’re able to change the contents of your box between shipments so you don’t have to commit to a given slate of items when placing your initial order.
What I ordered from Snake River Farms
Between the two boxes I ordered (which were gifted), I tried:
- SRF Gold-certified Wagyu New York Strip Steak, $50
- USDA Prime-certified New York Strip Steak, $39
- SRF Black-certified Wagyu Bavette, $59
- Kurobuta pork bacon, $29
- Wild Caught King Salmon, $39 for two filets
- Wild Caught Gulf Shrimp, $22
- Wild Caught Northwest Pacific Halibut, $44 for two fillets
- Wagyu beef jerky, $24
- Kurobuta pork chops, $16 per chop
- I’ve still got a USDA Prime Cowboy Steak ($85), some Wagyu hot dogs ($12), and a rack of spare ribs ($24) waiting in the freezer for their time to shine.
While Snake River Farms is primarily billed as a meat brand, I made sure to test some of its wild-caught seafood options. It was nice to be able to use SRF as a kind of one-stop shop, especially as I ordered my first box with the intention of cooking for a crowd that included a couple of pescatarians.
What I loved about Snake River Farms
My first order was for a subscription box and included beef, pork, and seafood. Before my second subscription box was sent my way, I was able to change the contents, reducing the amount of meat to four items to better fit my needs for that month. It was easy to change my subscription, and also easy to cancel—a rare quality for most meal delivery services I’ve tested, which tend to bury the cancel button.
While you can’t select a delivery day (the orders are shipped with FedEx rather than a courier), I found the delivery date estimate provided by FedEx to be accurate, and both of my deliveries arrived within a few business days of when I placed my order. They were packed into zippered cooler bags filled with dry ice and were frozen through as promised. The packaging was well-insulated enough that when I accidentally left my second order on my kitchen counter for several hours after delivery, everything was still very much frozen by the time I unpacked it. I loaded everything into my freezer and was able to choose which items I wanted to defrost and when.
As for the products themselves? I’ll cut to the chase: Nearly every item I’ve tried from SRF has seriously impressed me. The steaks have all been beautifully marbled, which makes cooking them pretty hard to screw up. I cooked both the Wagyu and USDA Prime strip steaks simply in a cast-iron pan with some butter and garlic and sliced each into pieces, which my friends and I polished off with our hands before they could hit the plate—they were that good.
The Kurobuta pork chops were a sleeper hit. I might not have thought to order them, but one of my colleagues mentioned that her family is obsessed with them. Each chop is 1.5 inches thick—far thicker than any pork chop I’ve seen at my grocery store’s butcher counter; the added heft makes it easier to get a great sear on the chops’ outside without overcooking the inside. I coated each piece of meat in a rub of brown sugar, paprika, salt, and pepper, then grilled them. I served them with a sauce of finely chopped mixed herbs, lemon juice, olive oil, and torn olives. They were juicy, tender, and so flavorful.
The seafood I tried looked and smelled incredibly fresh. I particularly liked the halibut, which came sliced into beautiful uniform fillets and was delicious when pan-seared and topped with a lemon-shallot butter.
The bacon and Wagyu jerky I got were also excellent, and they were nice additions to round out my orders. The jerky in particular has ruined me for all other beef jerky—so be forewarned the same might happen to you.
What I didn’t love about Snake River Farms
The only item I ordered that fell short for me was the salmon. The fish was a beautiful, rich color and had great flavor, but the pieces were uneven in shape and size, with some of them clearly cut from the center of the fish and some from the thinner ends. The inconsistent fillets made it hard to cook all the pieces at once because the thinner ones finished before the thicker ones.
This is ultimately a premium service with premium prices to match—though I’ll note that while SRF is on the pricier side compared to some other online meat delivery options, its pricing is on par with my local gourmet grocery store. I do wish going the subscription route afforded you more perks than the small discount.
Snake River Farms FAQs
Where does Snake River Farms source its meats?
Snake River Farms oversees its entire supply chain. They have long-standing relationships with the family-owned ranches they source from to ensure quality. All of SRF’s seafood is wild-caught in US waters, and each individual package contains information about the exact species, catch method, and catch location.
How long does the meat last?
Snake River Farms suggests that you consume any frozen meats within six months. If the products arrive thawed (and assuming it's still 40°F or cooler), they can be stored in the fridge for seven days.
How should you thaw your meat?
Snake River Farms suggests thawing products in the refrigerator, allowing six hours for every pound. I thawed my products in the fridge overnight and found they were ready to go by the time I was gearing up to prep dinner the next day.
Should you order Snake River Farms?
If you’re a Meat Person looking for a reliable way to stock up on high-quality beef, pork, and seafood, Snake River Farms is one of the best options out there. The subscription model may not be worth it for everyone, but SRF gives you flexibility with its à la carte options.