M J Dalton

A Saturday stroll down Gloucester Road wouldn’t be fulfilled without a stop in MJ Dalton for some meat, cheese and pickles.
I was lucky enough to live opposite MJD for just over a year and their Saturday morning BBQ was my weekly hangover cure: big bacon and cheese burger, then back to bed!
The shop is split into 2 parts: the butchers and the deli. The butchers side is great, but a little more expensive than other butchers on the road. The deli on the other side of the shop is dangerously good. I could spend a million pounds just on cheese — then take out a mortgage for the pickles to go with it. So good!
Definitely one of my favourite shops on Gloucester Road, this!

This is is probably the best butcher in Bristol great bunch of people and the sausages are to die for.

M J Dalton Butchers has the appearance of a traditional butcher all the way down to the sawdust on the floor. It’s clean and friendly and does a sideline in condiments and conserves. But what it’s most famous for is the selection of exotic meats that are flown in from South Africa. These include crocodile, springbok, wildebeest and zebra. It’s clear that they are aiming for the speciality niche in the Bristol market, as they also offer quite a selection of eggs, with pretty speckled quail eggs in a basket on the counter. Then there’s things like chitterling and homemade faggots listed on one of the several sandwich boards outside, and don’t forget the pork and beef dripping, white and black pudding and tripe! But the best item, to my mind, is the ‘handraised pork pies’! Someone please tell me how you had rear a pork pie!
Joking aside, this butchers is great. I tend to go for the more conventional cuts of meat (and by their own admission most other people do too — they say they stock things like crocodile and zebra for the novelty value so that people can try it once). I also like a bit of black pudding every now and then, and it’s good to know that there’s a butchers with an exhaustive selection of stock in Bristol, so that I can guarantee that I will always get what I want.

My mouth watered and my pupils dilated as I read the sign outside M J Daltons Butchers, ‘Mega BBQ Pack — 48 burgers, 80 sausages, 10 Ib chicken, 10Ib pork ribs for £35.’ BARGAIN! One of their specialities is 31b minted lamb chops for only £3.99. With such prime cuts of meat and quality prices, there’s no wonder that Daltons is one of the most popular butchers on Gloucester Road. They serve some interesting, exotic meats including ostrich, camel, zebra, crocodile and wallaby. So, for those with more exotic taste buds, Daltons will not disappoint.

A family business well established for over twenty years in Bristol, Daltons is where I come for my sausages without a doubt.
The sheer selection in this old school butchers shop is second to none. Prime cuts of beef, pork and chicken are supplied to local schools, nursing homes and restaurants as well as the hungry locals. Pigeon, pheasant, partridge and venison are some of my other favourites gracing the menu board alongside veal and rabbit. They don’t just buy the stuff in and knock it back out, but they live it. They know it.
Behind the scenes are some of the cleanest most professional kitchens I have ever seen, where they make all their delights fresh and on the day — just try their 4oz lamb and mint burgers for a mere 50p! With ostrich, camel and crocodile meat as well as quail eggs being standard runners — you simply can’t walk past this well stacked, well planned shop.

A little while back I decided that it was time to get out the stewing pot that my mum had bought me a few years back and actually use it. So after I found it hiding down the back of my cupboard behind all the empty metal Chinese take-​away packets (they have many good uses, i reccomend keeping hold of them) I went online and found a receipe which told me I needed stewing beef. As a stew virgin I wasn’t entirely sure what made this any different from other beef but I knew that I’d need to consult an expert so I went out and came across M J Dalton who, after I explained what I was after, gave me ample advice on how to prepare the meat, how best to cook it and what I’d need to go witgh it. They even pointed me to where I could get the best vegetables from! The guys in here were so lovely and helpful, I feel like I may make more visits to the Butcher from now on!

I came home the other day with a bag consisting off 10 slices of smokey bacon, 3 pork chops and some stewing beef, I said to my flat mate that i’d been to Daltons (not as in Timothy Dalton, former James Bond actor… but the Butchers) and they said:“What? Another butchers?! are you on a one man minsion to keep all the butchers in Bristol in Business!?” … I think they might have a valid point!
Dalton’s was brilliant, I had just had a 7″ pizza from Domino’s and felt I needed to re-​address my good-​to-​bad food ratio so popped to Daltons and splashed out, and I feel all the better for it!