How to Choose the Right Meat Slicer for Your Restaurant

Unless you identify as a vegan restaurant, chances are that you offer meats and/or cheeses at your restaurant. When preparing these items, you could take the time to use a good old knife and cutting board, but that can be really inefficient, produce inconsistent results and pose a safety risk. If you slice a good amount of meats and cheeses on a regular basis, you will need a high-quality meat slicer for maximum efficiency and safety, consistent slicing results.

But where can you find one for a good price? Try Kohn-Megibow Company! Good commercial meat slicers are not cheap, but at KMC, we oftentimes have them at our bi-weekly auctions for a fraction of what they would cost new.

So, how do you select the right meat slicer for your restaurant? Here are some questions from KMC to help you decide:

1. What Are You Slicing?
Are you slicing different meats? Cheeses? Both? You need a slicer that can stand up to various uses and textures. Some meats are harder to slice than others. Also, cheese is very tough on slicers because it tends to grip the blade more often. You want a quality slicer that can handle your specific slicing needs. KMC regularly gets in slicers from the top manufacturers including Hobart, Globe, and Bizerba.

If you are only doing light slicing, such as with bread, then you can get by with specialty slicers made by Berkel and Uniworld.

2. How Much and How Often Will You Be Slicing?
Knowing how much you need to slice will determine what kind of slicer you need. For instance, if you need a lot of consistent counts, then you’ll want an automatic slicer. To operate, you simply put the meat or cheese in the cradle, turn it on and let it do the work for you. Hobart makes some great automatic slicer models that allow you to program exactly how many slices you want.

On the other hand, if you are slicing smaller quantities or doing the slicing per order, you may prefer a manual slicer that provides the exact results you want each time you need to slice.

3. What Blade Size Do You Need?
The amount and frequency of your slicing needs will also determine what blade size you need. The most popular size for restaurants to buy is a 12-inch blade. Some may only need a 10-inch blade if they are doing smaller quantities. Of course, if you need to slice a massive ham, you will need something larger to handle the job.

4. Do You Need a Specialty Slicer?
KMC oftentimes has specialty slicers available. For example, we can provide Italian restaurant owners with flywheel slicers or specialty slicers for prosciutto. These slicers are fun to look at and are often placed out front as show pieces in some restaurants and delis. Naturally, specialty slicers are very expensive new, which is why you’ll want to get a high-quality used slicer from Kohn-Megibow Company.

To learn more about the meat slicers available at KMC (we get new ones in just about every week), contact Kohn-Megibow Company today.