Dining at Meat District Co. in Pasadena

A few blocks north of Colorado Blvd on Raymond Avenue is a wonderful gem of a restaurant that is aptly named Meat District Co. The restaurant opened in late August. I remember reading about the grand opening online & thinking that the concept sounded very interesting. A couple of weeks ago, I attended a luncheon with a handful of bloggers.

Before I sat down to order, I peeked inside their meat locker. I learned that Meat District Co. sources organic, grass-fed meat from Niman Ranch. Not only that, but all of their meat is dry aged at a minimum of 21 days. The machine you see in the lower right-hand corner can crank out 1200 patties in an hour. That’s right, their grass-fed meat is ground in-house to make their hamburgers. Pretty cool!

We kicked off our luncheon with a variety of appetizers. My favorites were the grilled seasonal melon with goat cheese & also the tuna tataki. Both were very flavorful & light.

My fellow diner ordered the Meat Hook entrée. This consisted of chunks of New York, rib eye & petite fillet with a creamy pepper sauce. Check out the presentation!

Now I know why they call this dish the Meat Hook! The idea is that you slide the meat down the skewer & onto the salad dish. Note: You can order fries instead of a side salad. Personally I would prefer some veggies with my meat.

I opted for the Chicken Hook, which consisted of 10 ounces of free-range chicken, peppers, onion & corn. The chicken is prepared with a peri peri sauce that makes it SO tasty!

For my vegetarian friends, Meat District Co. has a veggie burger that is made with oats, root vegetables, almonds, sunflower & pumpkin seeds. It also has mushrooms in it, which you can see below, under the burger bun.

Having sampled a bite of it, I can tell that this veggie burger is a hearty meal. One thing to note is that the veggie patty is cooked on a separate grill from the meat. However it does contain egg whites, so it is not a vegan entree.

I can’t wait to come back to Pasadena to sample some of the other dishes at Meat District Co. I know my hubby would like to try their ribs or perhaps the Meat Hook dish. There’s also a crispy quinoa salad that sounds delish!

Visit their website if you’d like more info on Meat District Co. Also don’t forget to follow them on Facebook to get the latest updates!

Disclosure: No monetary compensation was received for this post. I was invited to a media tasting at Meat District Co. which helped facilitate this review. All images & opinions are 100% my own.