Restaurant Review: Packhouse Meats, Newport KY

I'm always on the lookout for new restaurants - my good friend Jenny mentioned something about Packhouse Meats - which sounded more like a butcher chop - but I dug for a little more info. When I went to their website - I saw everything talking about "Packs" - which I had no idea what that meant. Finally - I looked them up on Urbanspoon and found out - it's meatballs! Okay - now I'm in. :-) 

Packhouse Meats is in Newport on the south end of Monmouth Street. It's got a really great look inside - the exposed brick, the chalkboard menus, etc - loved it.

I love the chairs when you walk in - they're covered in name patches like you'd find on a mechanic's shirt. Then you can try and find your name! I found mine...

The menus are pretty cool - you just mark what you want and give it to the server. They will help you through it if you're not sure. It's sort of a Chipotle-type of process:

1. Pick your meat (beef, spicy pork, chicken, quinoa & vegetable, red-white & bleu, daily special)
2. Pick a gravy (marinara, parmesan cream, marsala, buffalo, hunter, daily special)
3. Pick your application (bowls, salads, sandwiches)

They also have delicious sounding sides to add to your bowl like boursin mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts and sauteed sweet peppers. 

They also have dessert - ice cream floats and sandwiches - that you can pick and combine yourself - like a Brown Sugar Root Beer Float or a Smores Chocolate Chip Sandwich! Might have to go back to check those out. 

They also have a nice selection of drinks and craft beers - there's a huge chalkboard (above the chairs) that lists out all of their craft beer choices.

Matt #1 got a pipe - which is 3 packs on a baguette. He went for red, white & bleu packs with marinara and topped with mozzarella cheese. He liked it - but didn't love it. All in all - not bad. The bread quickly get soggy - so if you get this - eat it quickly.

Matt #2 went for a bowl - I think with the daily special of Jalapeno Cheddar cream sauce and breadsticks. He also liked it but wasn't raving. I can't remember what packs he got.

I ordered a side of the linguini with the jalapeno cheddar sauce. It was fine - there was a mild amount of spice - good for me - but I'm a spice-wuss. I didn't love the sauce and wouldn't order it again. The size of their sides is good though - you get a good amount of food for sure.

Tim and I went for sliders - we each ordered 3 sliders with a variety of meats and sauces. These from left to right are: chicken with parmesan cream, beef with hunter and red white bleu with buffalo. (They were out of pork.)

The chicken was awful - Tim and I both agreed. It was so hard you could barely cut it with a knife - let alone if you tried to take a bite out of it. I couldn't even really tell you much about the sauce - we both took a bite or two and just left it.

The buffalo (yes skipping to the right) was fine. It was far better than the chicken - and the sauce was a little spicy. I'd say if you like medium buffalo you're good - it was definitely hotter than mild.

But the star of the show was by far - the beef with the hunter gravy. The hunter was described to us as beef stew put in a blender - and that's a fair comparison. It was delicious!!! Tim and both agreed - this was by far the star. 

We also realized after we all finished and discussed that we figured out the PERFECT order for Packhouse Meats: beef packs with hunter gravy in a bowl on top of the boursin mashed potatoes. So there you go - the perfect order for Packhouse!!! 

Why Should You Go? If you get the perfect order noted above - you're good to go. It's also a manly place with great beer selections. All in all - we did not love the food and I probably liked my meal at Meatball Kitchen better - but if I ever went back - I know what I'd get.