Filet Mignon: Fresh Market vs Whole Foods?

Neither. Where I live we have some ‘dedicated’ butcher shops, where they have excellent meats, and they’ll custom cut for you.

I would seek out a local butcher, rather than either of those stores (neither of which specializes in meat). Both WF and FM are broad based grocery stores, and meats are just sort of sideline.

You need to look at the marbling to get a feel for the quality of the cut. Wider or narrower doesn’t mean much. Or as e said, find a good local butcher.

Meat at Whole Foods or Fresh Market seems kind of overpriced. When I’m shopping for steak, I usually just go to a regular old grocery store, but it has to be a big and well-trafficked one. If lots of people are buying stuff, the fresh foods sell out more quickly instead of sitting on the shelf. Then, just look for good color (it should be bright and vibrant) and marbling.

There’s an episode of Good Eats called “Tender is the Loin.” Alton Brown recommends that you buy a whole tenderloin at a big discount club like Costco or Whole Foods, and trim it yourself. The episode used to be free on youtube, but now it’s $1.99, bleh. But anyway, it shows you how to cut up a whole tenderloin properly, with recipes for the different cuts of meat. Unless you have a big family, it might not make sense to buy in bulk like that, but it was a pretty comprehensive episode.

I would go to a butcher or if one is not available as a alternative you can buy USDA prime grade from Costco. prime beef is very good, dry aged prime beef is the best that you can buy.