7 Grocery Store Chains With The Best Steaks, According To Shoppers

Beef prices are going up. Per recent reporting from Fox Business, industry leaders anticipate a top cost of $10 per pound by 2026. Yet, people's craving and appreciation for steak isn't going anywhere. Rather than heading out to a steakhouse (where business is, admittedly, also booming), many consumers are looking to their local grocery stores for steaks to prepare at home. It's easy to walk into a grocery store and find a full list of different cuts of steak, but what's less straightforward is assessing quality while shopping. Truth be told, some grocery stores are better to buy steak from than others.

When compiling this guide to steak quality by grocery chains, we identified the in-house steaks brands each grocery chain sources and sells as private label items. Beef or meat brands with larger footprints (take Tyson, for example) didn't factor in very heavily. We also took into consideration whether or not a chain has significant offerings from local or small-scale beef producers as well. Mostly, this guide centers on how shoppers feel about these private label steaks from popular grocery chains. 

Kicking off our list of best grocery store steak selections is the one and only: Kroger. Synonymous with Midwestern groceries, Kroger is the go-to store for a large portion of the American population. Luckily, it's also home to one of the highest-quality lines of steak from any grocery chain — the Kroger Simple Truth and Simple Truth Organic line.

Simple Truth, one of the store's private labels, uses beef sourced from Uruguay, which has a more favorable climate for grass-fed and finished cows to graze on year-round. With Simple Truth, the livestock has a diet that is almost exclusively grass. Kroger refrains from using beef where hormones or antibiotics have been administered, resulting in natural meat without sacrificing flavor. In Uruguay, much of the cattle are Aberdeen Angus or Hereford cows. The latter is a hardy breed, while the former is known for superior marbling. You can widely see the difference in the quality of product Kroger sells. 

Although the reviews on its in-house branded steaks are mixed depending on the store, the Private Selection is reviewed well across the board, reaching at least three and a half stars on each steak (with many rated between four and five stars). The chain offers a variety of different cuts, including choice beef shoulder steak, top round London broil beef steak, beef choice skirt steak, sirloin tip beef, choice tailless beef strip steak, T-bone steak, eye of round beef steak, and cubed beef steak. It may not be the very best steak available in grocery stores, but it's well above most others and is deserving of a try next time you find yourself in one of the many Kroger locations.

Trader Joe's, known for its eclectic inventory and cheap pricing, is also home to some of the best-quality steaks you'll find in grocery stores. Although the cuts Trader Joe's has carried have always contained a solid amount of USDA Choice graded slabs, it has updated its selection to be even better. As of 2025, its stock has been updated to include filet mignon, ribeye, and New York strip steaks (all of which are graded as the second-highest grade for meat possible: Choice). 

The store also offers selections between pure pre-packaged cuts, organic grass-fed angus, and pre-marinated cuts (including, but not limited to, craft beer sirloin, carne asada,  balsamic rosemary, and sesame teriyaki). It give the meat selection a versatility no matter what the meal you're making, with options that can fit many  styles of cooking. 

While it may not have quite as high a quality as a store like Costco (which has its own processing and packaging process), for the value and size of steaks that Trader Joe's offers, it's one of the best deals on steak in any grocery store. According to shoppers, the lean tenderness of filet mignon and craft beer sirloin are the best options, as they both have solid five-star reviews. Shoppers in the Reddit group r/traderjoes agree that the store's steak is better than most other grocers. While steak may not be the first thing you think of when hearing of Trader Joe's, it should absolutely be one of the first things you put in your cart on your next visit.  

Publix grocery store (found primarily in the southeast) makes a comittment to supporting local farmers, and regularly procures meat from regional ranches. Sources are found from beef purveyors like Prestage Farm of North Carolina, and White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Georgia. Nationally, it receives beef from Verde Farms, a regenerative farming-focused operation, which emphasizes environmental preservation and humane treatment of livestock. The store's meat counters are regularly stocked with a multitude of USDA Choice-graded cuts. 

The quality comes through in the house brand, GreenWise private label, and the line of meat sold under it. The animals raised for the GreenWise program are fed exclusively vegetarian diets, with no added hormones or antibiotics, resulting in more succulent meats packed with flavor. This, in large part, is due to its local sourcing, as 

Although the brand sells a variety of meats, including different kinds and variations of chicken, turkey, pork, and lamb, the steak is the clear standout, as its flavor is consistently second-to-none. While the store's website doesn't offer customer reviews for its particular products, the Reddit group r/publix concurs that the steak is of better quality than similar stores, and the store itself largely receives high ratings on Yelp.  

While Costco is generally known as a place to get bulk items for much cheaper prices, it has some departments that stand out for consistently having quality items (such as whiskies) that some customers go specifically to find. Its meat selection, particularly its steaks, fits perfectly in this category, as customers are always treated to a wide selection of high-quality cuts. USDA Prime (the highest quality beef can achieve) cuts are abundant and are defined by more marbling, tenderness, and flavor than USDA Choice or Select. 

While Costco sources its veal from Atlantic Veal and Lamb of New York (a source from more than 100 American farms), its beef primarily comes from California farmers in the San Joaquin Valley. It also sources from Iowa Premium and Snake River Farms, the former of which sources from over 1,200 local farmers, and the latter provides quality wagyu beef. Costco does not stock organic beef that's been fed hormones and/or antibiotics, but this isn't the biggest driver of their meat. The store uses a blade tenderizer when working its steaks, which (aside from a more thorough tenderization) severs the muscle and tissue more cleanly than other processes. This creates cleaner and better quality cuts, which leads to better quality steaks (even if they source their beef from similar places as their competitors) that are consistently rated four stars or more by their customers.

One of the more common grocery stores in America, Meijer offers a high-quality steak selection to a wide customer base. The chain sources its meats from Certified Angus Beef, Purely Meat, Grass Run Farms, Niman Ranch, Pre Brands, and other regional-based distributors, which has led to consistently well-reviewed cuts by their customers. When visiting the website, almost every cut of steak has a rating of four stars or higher (out of five).

Both Certified Angus Beef and Purely Meat are major factors in the higher quality of Meijer's steaks, as the latter helped not only to keep operations moving during COVID-19 (when many other suppliers were shut down), but to raise the overall quality of the meat the store carries. As of today, the store carries some of the most consistently highly rated steaks of any grocer. With there being Meijer locations across the country, you can't go wrong stopping in for some sincerely splendid slabs of steak.

Known for its cheap prices compared to its competitors, Aldi doesn't let this keep it from stocking its shelves with quality products. Aldi steak, for example, comes in multiple delicious cuts that can be found for noticeably cheaper than similar cuts at other stores. This isn't because its beef is of worse quality, but that Aldi has carved out a way to obtain and package meat that goes around the issues their competitors face. 

For example, per Daily Meal rather than sourcing all its meat for stores from one or a small few places, Aldi opts to obtain meat from local farms and distributors. Doing so helps to avoid the costs that go along with shipping, as well as to avoid any added preservatives. 

The store also stocks private-label products for a large portion of its meat selection, which means it orders meat from a third-party source and sells it under its own name. This helps to reduce costs for things such as marketing, paying an in-house butcher, and (again) shipping and the maintenance associated with it, as well as allowing more specificity when placing orders. Although Aldi's lower meat prices can cause skepticism over the quality of its products, its steak is not to be missed. Despite the store not providing direct customer feedback for individual items on its site, its steak is regularly considered to be high quality by shoppers (despite its lower price tag). Some on Reddit have even called the marbling of Aldi steak "supreme."

Sprouts is the banner holder of a more uniquely granola-type of grocery store, and that brings in many shoppers, who choose it religiously. Although all its food is high quality, the steak selection is the best of any grocery store in America. It sources its steak from Grass Run Farms, which provides grass-fed Angus steaks that are more marbled and succulent than your typical grocer's in-house steaks. Sprouts offers a selection of grass-fed, pasture-raised, and pre-prepared/ready-to-cook varieties, while emphasizing fresh, not frozen, meat, and a butcher counter that can assist with any questions or requests that you may have. 

Sprouts ranked as Tasting Table's top grocery store for meat for a reason, as the care to both source the best meat and provide the best cuts to its customers has resulted in the best overall selection of any grocery store. We've even recommended that Sprouts be your go-to for all meats, not just steak, which lends to the overall quality of the store. Its selections include a variety of cuts for whatever you may be making, including from the chuck/brisket/shank, the ribs/plate, the loin/flank, and the round/top round. While there is a bit more effort required to acquire a cut of steak from Sprouts (due to the higher pricing and lack of store presence outside the Southern states), it's well worth it, as these are some of the best cuts available in grocery stores today and have an overwhelming majority of five-star reviews on most of their in-house steaks. 

Each selection on this list has to be the store's own brand or label, and not products that can specifically be found in other stores. So while stores may source from the same suppliers, each store has its own processing/packaging processes that contribute to the varying qualities between different stores.

They also had to be generally well reviewed by customers, so if a store has one or two cuts of steaks that are highly rated, but most are rated three stars or less, then it would not be included. Conversely, if a store has certain cuts that have been occasionally rated negatively, but that are widely well reviewed by customers, it isn't entirely discounted from being included.

 As mentioned, each store has its own processes for steak procurement and processing, which will lead to the inevitable missteps from time to time. The stores included in this list were ranked based on where and how they source meats, overall customer reviews, and (when necessary) value provided to the customer compared to competitors.