Bonetti Meats: the butcher shop on 248th that ruins supermarket meat for you

There are butcher shops you visit because you’re nearby, and there’s the one you drive to. For us, that’s Bonetti. The family has been in the Township for more than fifty years and it shows: the shop feels like a neighbourhood place that happens to draw people from all over the valley.

What’s in the case

The beef is the reason most people come. Steaks and roasts are trimmed to order, ground beef and pork are done fresh every morning, and if you’ve got a freezer to fill they’ll break down primals and wrap everything for you. These are the best cuts we’ve found in Langley, full stop.

Then there’s the smokehouse. The hams actually taste of something — smoky, a little sweet, nothing like the water-logged supermarket version — and the sausages come in more varieties than we’ve managed to work through. Hot dogs and smokies live back there too.

The lasagna

Here is the move. The Pomodoro e Basilico lasagna is made in-house, sold fresh or frozen, and it is legitimately as good as any we’ve had in a restaurant. It needs 48 hours’ notice, so phone ahead. The medium feeds a family with leftovers; the large is for a crowd and costs accordingly. There are ready-to-go bolognese and marinara sauces if you’d rather build your own, and a small Italian specialty section with cheese and pantry things.

The people

Nobody rushes you. Ask what’s good this week and you’ll get a real answer, and if you don’t know what cut you want for the thing you’re cooking, say so. The first time we went in we left with twice what we’d planned on and no regrets.

When to go

Saturday mornings get a line, especially before a long weekend. A weekday afternoon is calm. Remember they’re closed Sunday and Monday, which has caught us out more than once on the way home from Aldergrove.

Go if you cook meat and care how it tastes, or you want a dinner you don’t have to make. Skip if you’re after bargain-bin prices; this isn’t that, and it isn’t trying to be.