Crowd Cow Review (2023 Update) Is It Really Worth It? 

Crowd Cow is one of the few meat brands that keep an inventory of the entire cow meat, as well as the ranches and farms it comes from.

Many customers claim that they maintain a high level of professionalism, quality of service, and meat.

Ever the skeptic, my team and I decided to try out Crowd Cow for three months and investigate if their service, quality, and sourcing hold up to our professional and experiential rigor.

Here is the information we’ve gathered in this Crowd Cow review.

What Is Crowd Cow?

Crowd Cow works as a subscription-based online meat delivery service company located in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 2015 by Ethan Lowry and Joe Heitzeberg, and among its investors are Joe Montana and Ashton Kutcher.

As the brand name implies, the idea was to crowdfund a cow's purchase so that multiple people get to share in one Crowd Cow cost. They wanted to purchase an entire cow directly from a ranch without storing a year’s ground beef supply in the freezer.

Crowd Cow has expanded into an online meat store and sold a full range of pasture raised meats, specialty protein meats like Japanese Wagyu beef, plant-based options, as well as seasonal items, sides, and desserts.

Over time, Crowd Cow shifted to a membership model, offering any Crowd Cow member the convenience of a subscription with total flexibility and greater savings. Customers still have the option to place one-time orders (including gifts).

What Are The Menu Options?

Crowd Cow sells a large selection of meat from local ranchers and independent farmers. As you’ll see on their site, they offer several meat options and cuts.

Some high quality Crowd Cow options you can order in large quantities are:

• Grass-fed beef - New York strip, filet mignon, boneless Ribeye, dry-aged steak, sirloin steak, bone in ribeye steak, skirt steak, strip steak, ground beef, etc.
• Seafood - black cod, wild Maine lobster, Alaskan halibut, Atlantic sea scallops, Norwegian salmon, etc.
• Pork - Heritage pork, pork chops, thick cut bacon, sweet Italian sausage
• American Lamb
• Pasture raised beef - Ribeye, New York strip steak, tenderloin tips, tomahawk steak, chuck roast, ground beef, dry-aged steak, kobe beef
• Japanese Wagyu Beef
• Bison - ground bison, ground bison grill box, bison bratwurst
• Pasture-raised chicken - whole chicken, chicken breast, and many more

Upon seeing their menu for the first time, we were impressed with their big inventory of high quality meat and seafood products as well as curated items. No wonder Crowd Cow became our favorite out of all the meat delivery services.

How Does The Quality Compare?

Since Crowd Cow sources their pasture-raised meat from independent farmers and co-ops worldwide, they should have excellent meat.

To prove this, we conducted a taste test on their New York Strip Steak. It was still frozen when we opened the package. The cut we ordered came to be around ¾ to 1 inch in thickness, just as we had expected.

While I typically prefer fresh steak, I found this particular cut to be of great quality compared to the ones I buy from the local grocery store, especially for its price.

With good marbling and small pockets of fat, we found it easy to trim and cook. It has an ideal balance of lean and fat, and the size of the steak is just right.

According to Crowd Cow's policy, each specific cut of meat they source must first go through flavor experts to ensure consistency for a good meal experience at home.

We decided to grill the steak after rubbing it with salt, pepper, and a little bit of olive oil, and we ended up with a medium-rare steak with a slight crisp on the outside.

The meat had a strong and bold beefy flavor which we all really liked. It is moderately tender and dense, but still with a little bit of chew. Overall, we were satisfied with how it turned out and we will make it a regular in our future boxes/orders.

How Does Crowd Cow Work?

Crowd Cow works by offering both subscription-based pricing and one-off purchases on their website. Their prices depend on whether you get a subscription service for a few months or choose to pick and buy meat per pound or two.

Here are some of the bundles you can choose from:

Custom Box - This is a great way for you to try cooking your favorite types of meat that you and your family can share at home. You can get and make anything from a list that includes salmon, chicken, sweet Italian sausage made of pork, various types of beef ribs, roast, and ground beef.

Steak Lover’s Share - This is a great box for people who really love to eat meat. You can try cooking four different cuts in each package, like flat iron steaks, short ribs, ribeye, sirloin steaks, hot dogs, and New York strip steaks. And yes, they have bone-in Ribeye steak and filet mignon steak, too.

Japanese Wagyu Box - If you want more ground beef, we recommend this as a better and sure option.

This box comes with 12 oz or 14 oz of different types of Japanese Wagyu. It's a special type of beef that has a lineage traced back to Japan.

It is well-known for its great marbling that gives it a truly tender texture and deliciously juicy, buttery taste that you may love. Based on reviews, the production of Wagyu is heavily regulated to ensure quality. For the highest grade of A5 Wagyu, you can also check out our Holy Grail Steaks review.

For every meat subscription box, you'd get a 5% discount on the prices plus free shipping for orders above $99. Compared to buying individual meat cuts, this is a much better way to save money.

When using Crowd Cow, keep an eye on their official website and read email alerts for current sale products. You may also avail of special seasonal sales during holidays. Promo codes and coupon codes are also available from time to time.

Crowd Cow Shipping

Like other services, Crowd Cow delivers to all US areas, except Alaska and Hawaii, in as few as 2 days once they leave the fulfillment center. As of the moment, they don’t offer express shipping options. The restrictions on the delivery of agricultural products are also aptly followed (1).

Every time you buy a meat subscription box worth at least $99, you will get free shipping. For all other boxes, the Crowd Cow costs for shipping will change based on the quantity you're ordering and your area.

Our first meat subscription box worth $139, which was shipped for free, arrived after 3 days. It was more cost-effective to buy a meat subscription box since we saved on shipping fees.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there might be changes in their policy. For added information, links are available on their site.

How Are The Items Packaged?

Our order was neatly placed in a box with biodegradable, water-soluble foam and dry ice inside to keep the meat frozen. I appreciate how each package was vacuum-sealed with soup bones and wrapped in butcher paper to preserve its freshness and quality.

Overall, the packaging with dry ice kept the meat frozen while using 100% eco-friendly and recyclable materials (2). In addition, the box included a handwritten note which details the specific sources of the meat I bought which made me feel good for supporting small and independent farms.

Spread of disease from factory farming is exacerbated when waste products, including manure and the remains of animals who have died, are used to feed livestock being raised for meat.

- Gene Baur, National Geographic

Crowd Cow Pricing

Even though reviews around will be quick to point out that Crowd Cow can get very expensive, we figure that their prices are mostly reflective of their meat quality.

Because the ranches and farmers they work with are all smaller and standard-focused, the cost of each cut of meat came to be a bit more than the prices you would normally find at most grocery stores, like choice beef, for instance.

An example is their different beef options which are all pasture-raised and for seafood, all responsibly caught. The price difference per pound is justifiable when we consider the types of meat, the way it’s sourced, the flavor of each cut, and the waived delivery fees.

You are paying for the premium taste, convenience, and transparency of the sources, which you don’t get from any other store.

Ease of Delivery

The ordering process was straightforward. Our meat was delivered to our doorstep, saving us time as we didn’t need to go to the store for the next few days to get meat.

Throughout this COVID-19 pandemic, we can just order or send an email every month or two months.

When we tried to order, we only needed to approve the email we got to confirm each product in our next box. Then our shipment order would be good to go. We appreciated how fast their customer service responded when we did a follow-through as a crowd cow member.

Crowd Cow Consistency

As we reviewed Crowd Cow, we found a couple of main benefits to using it to eat meat.

It is convenient for people who want to maintain a strict carnivore diet for years to get a consistent supply of fresh and excellent meat.

It’s similar to Snake River Farm and Fossil Farm, where each meat cut has nearly zero fat content and a little meat box of ground beef can go a long way.

They do the hard part of finding meat from sustainable farms, which often tends to be one of the most challenging aspects of the carnivore life.

From the two meat subscription boxes we ordered for the past 2 months, our ordering and shipping experience as well as the quality of meat has been remarkable on both times.

We were a bit concerned with the difference in meat quality since some of our orders came from four different independent farms. Surprisingly, we haven’t noticed any obvious difference in terms of quality, making our overall Crowd Cow experience worthwhile and enjoyable.

Additional Benefits of Crowd Cow

• Save you extra time by making fewer trips to the grocery store
• You'll see how they use dry ice to keep your order frozen
• Quality meat purchases from small family farms

Our Only Complaint

There is only one drawback we've seen so far, and that’s their pricing. However, with the way this online meat store sources its premium products,  it is natural to expect it to be a bit more expensive than your local grocery store.

After doing a taste test, we believe the variety you get to choose from and how they collaborate with family farms and small farmers balance this cost per box.

Online Meat Delivery Service Alternatives

ButcherBox

ButcherBox is a subscription-based delivery service from Boston that offers high-quality ground beef, heritage-breed pork, free-range organic chicken, and wild-caught seafood. It does not have a wide and varied selection as Crowd Cow meat options, but it certainly tastes better than most meats you find in grocery stores (plus free shipping for as long as you’re a member!).

Moink

Based in Missouri, Moink is another subscription-based delivery service that provides high-quality, ethically-raised, grass-fed beef and lamb, pork chops and chicken, and wild-caught salmon.

It only has one customizable meat box available at $159, but it's worth the money considering the quality and taste of the meat.

Omaha Steaks

Omaha Steaks is one of the oldest delivery service businesses that ships high-quality sirloin steak, pasture raised lamb, veal, ground turkey, chicken, pork, and seafood straight to your front door.

It has an excellent selection of meat and seafood, but it lacks transparency when it comes to meat quality, sourcing, and USDA grading so you won't be certain with its quality. But if you're not satisfied with your order for any reason, they offer replacements or refunds.

What Customers Are Saying

Crowd Cow generally receives good reviews in terms of the quality of all the meat and the responsiveness and fairness of their customer service. Here are some examples:

“We like to grill up the steaks we get from them, and the Wagyu we purchased was simply off the charts.”

- Kwc on Trustpilot 

“The 3.5lbs came wrapped in two individual delicious packages. Excellent quality; very good marbling.”

- Affrebrand on Reddit

FAQs

Is Crowd Cow Worth It?

Overall, we were happy with the quality of Crowd Cow subscription boxes. However, they didn’t match what ButcherBox offers.

ButcherBox sells sustainably sourced meat. You can get everything from beef to organic chicken, humanely raised pork, and wild-caught seafood. The animals are never given any additives or hormones.

ButcherBox gives flexible delivery frequency, and you can choose between five boxes, including a custom box where you handpick each cut. The delivery is always free no matter the order, and you get a free turkey. Check them out and get affordable, quality meat.