Saba Live Poultry

We came here Friday, 15^th Jan and there was no sign saying close. We tried knocking the door and took a tour around the building, called the number listed in the board and one in Unilocal.We just wasted an hour. I really want to know whats going on or if there is secret door? I don’t mine driving 20 min again if there is actually a way to get fresh meat.

Saba Live Poultry has changed it’s freebie offer. Thursday, buy five, get one free. or Unilocal check-​in gets this offer anytime of the week. heretell they occassionally don’t honor the Unilocal check-​in.
service quick when patronage slow. in and out, 10 minutes?
highlight was when Saba van backs into shop and starts unloading sheep, 20 – 30 of them, some kept jumping back in the van. no doubt the «noisiness» of the chickens alerted them to the dangers (to them) here. big sheeps more leery than small sheep.
animals slaughtered by halal procedures, this isn’t a meat shop. u place order. animals/​fowls prepped accordigly.
located across from the former Wonder Bread thrift shop.

I checked in with Unilocal where it said one free chicken with 5 chicken and the owner doesn’t understand the Unilocal check in process and flat out denied it.
Very rude owner… needs to take down the check in offer or say it’s only valid on Thursday.

I was really excited to go here from all the reviews I had seen. Getting super fresh Halal poultry is something unheard of in most parts of the US. Unfortunately it didn’t live up to the expectations.
I went to get a fresh goose. They were either out of stock or not the season. No big deal I opted for a duck instead. I then asked about getting my free chicken. This was on a Wednesday and the guy said I need to come back tomorrow. I was like really? He said yes look at the sign. Sure enough it said free chicken on Thursday. But you have to buy 5 chickens for that deal. If you’re going to post an incentive on Unilocal honor it. Needless to say there was pretty much no customer service. They also had a flat of large eggs on a table that I inquired about. To which another guy said $ 10. I asked each? He said no for the whole thing. Mind you it was missing an egg. So I said I would like 5 only. He said no you must buy the whole thing.
This was all annoying but having lived over seas in the Middle East it felt normal. What I can’t let go is finding my duck filled with feathers once I got home (my mistake for not looking closer before leaving). It took me probably a good half an hour to clean it and I finally gave up because I hadn’t even made a dent. I just decided to remove the skin after roasting it. But if you’ve had duck before you know that the tough and gamey flesh needs some skin to balance it out. So I was left with a big bird that no one really enjoyed. Will not be going back.

Have you ever ordered your meat alive? Well if you are into the freshest meat possible, this be the place for it. No, it ain’t pretty but it does serve it’s business purpose: Freshest butchered Halal meat ever.
There are many choices, rabbit anyone? Lamb, goat? I chose a healthy looking 20lb turkey. They grabbed and took in the back, fifteen minutes later I was holding a heavy bag of cleanly butchered Turkey. It costs a little more than your average super market, but there really is nothing fresher unless you are raising and butchering yourself!

Do you want your meat fresh? Ah… wait …I just happen to know the place! It’s Saba!!! Yes .you can even get it alive ! I bought 10 quails this morning .I was assigned to a staff that took me to where the caged birds were. he asked me if I want it alive. I kinda smile and I said thank you but no… he was friendly and answered most of my questions… anyway. he picked my 10 birds and took it to staff where they are going to «slaughter» the birds. Then he gave me a piece of paper with numbers… he told me that they will call my number if my birds are ready to be picked up… I also noticed eggs on the counter… there were quail eggs, duck eggs, and chicken eggs. .I took 6 packages of those quail eggs and took it to the cashier. I also paid for my birds which was not ready yet… I paid cash because they don’t take credit cards and only take debit cards with fee .the place can be smelly but you can get used to it if you’re there for awhile lol. the price was very reasonable IMHO. .I will definitely come back… I didn’t redeem my free chicken though… maybe when I come back :)

I bought a leg of lamb and told the butcher not to cut it. You have to pay at the front of the shop, this is when they package your meat. At home I discovered, that he cut it into smallish pieces, which can go into curries, but not into the dish I was planning to cook. So, if you want your butcher to decide what’s for dinner this is your place. Otherwise go somewhere else.

I was put on to Saba from a friend of mine in passing, and was happy to see that the location wasn’t this packed warehouse that was confusing and hard to understand. They have a menu that you can see right when you go inside that had costs and descriptions written neatly, and you were allowed to pick and choose which birds you wanted, as well as exchange them if you decided you didn’t like the ones you got. The man who manned the station of birds was friendly, fast and very helpful.
The downside was the smell, but I can understand the difficulty in keeping the smell of bird poop out considering that the cages were full and stacked on top of each other. But it was clean and the floors seemed like it was regularly washed.
I went there to get 12 live quails, although not for the purpose of eating (which is usually why people go there for) I went there to get live quail so that I can have quail eggs available to me for when they begin to lay.
Paying was easy, they accept cash and debit, luckily I had both– but had I not had both, it would have been an inconvenience to not be able to use my credit card. Maybe they’ve had issues with people and credit card use. So if you plan on getting birds for whatever reason– don’t use your credit card. They don’t accept it.
I would go back to Saba for more live birds if need be, I do believe they offer to kill and defeather the poultry for you, so that’s good for anyone who needs that to be done before cooking their meal. I don’t think the animals were kept in an inhumane way, they weren’t overly crowded in their cages and there was food and water for them.
Overall the experience did not deter me from wanting to go back.

Nice people, clean place, reasonable price and good location. The place might smell little bad but it’s not the smell of some bad thing it’s of caged birds there. They make the order ready in a minute! Always recommend and always come back here!

Went here with my dad, boyfriend, and daughter to check out chickens (not to eat, but to raise for eggs). The place is fairly clean except for the feathers that sometimes float around or the smell of the poultry that is there. The employees that work here are friendly and the service is fast. I wished that they had like a cardboard box to keep them in instead of plastic bags when we got them, but since this is a slaughterhouse, there is no point to keep boxes. We will definitely come back the next time we purchase live chickens!

Jazzed about finding this place. Fresh chicken and other meats at reasonable prices. As I understand it, halal meat should not have hormones or antibiotics. Can’t confirm for this place, the chicken farm they source their chicken from is ib Fresno. But if it’s true, big plus. If not, still very good meats here. Their chicken are not the plumped and gooey kind you get at super markets, so it may be true that they’re hormone/​antibiotic free. The place smells and some people may be allergic to the chicken feathers floating around, but it’s worth the trip to get such fresh meat. The animals are caged and probably miserable, still better than the industrial farm environment. They don’t seem OVERLY abused or deformed or even overly fearful of humans. I think all these qualities make this place worth patronizing.
Just to be clear, this is not super market chicken. The meat is tougher but very juicy and flavorful. Don’t ever BBQ it, learn to steam it, watch some youtube. Enjoy!

The check in for a free chicken deal does NOT work. It either doesn’t work or the workers do not understand what I was trying to say, even though he also read the deal out loud. Other than that, everything went well.

I didn’t find a second place to buy live poultry in the bay area. As a Chinese, I like fresh killed poultry such as chicken, ducks, etc. The poultry in the ranch 99 supermarket is not that good. (You can tell from the soup of chicken stew. If the soup has a yellow oil layer about it, it’s good.) I ordered a hen and the staff executed the chicken for me (excuse me that I used the word execute: D). Wait time is less than 15 minutes. The staff is very friendly. Will definitely come again.
Another two place that I’ve bought good chicken is Campbell farmers market and Olivera Egg Ranch at San Jose. The chicken is not *freshly killed*(may be killed several hours ago) but still pretty good.

Went here for the first time a few days ago — to purchase live birds for eggs — I was looking for a couple of extra bantam hens and we saw the «Live Poultry» sign from the bridge near Saba Live Poultry and stopped in — we bought one hen — only one worker spoke very good English and indicated he could sex the birds — and went back a day later for another hen — which was picked out by the same person. I guess you could say this was a «mission of mercy» since these hens were destined for slaughter. I would also recommend their «red» hens for anyone interested in «point of lay» laying hens — these birds are young, close to mature and ready to lay. Right now our two new bantams are in quarantine to make sure they are disease free before going in with the rest of our flock of juvenile laying hens.
Would give them five stars if I could contact the source of the birds to find out if they were vaccinated for Mareks Disease prior to sale (most birds from hatcheries are). Might go back sometime for a roaster or a duck. Bantams either sex were $ 12 each which is reasonable for Point of Lay prices. Large red hens and roosters are $ 12 and $ 14, and can be purchased live for your coop or dressed and ready to bake — same price. I was really happy to be able to find mature live poultry for sale in Oakland!
If the management reads this and can give me contact info for the source of the birds, I’d appreciate it.

What a great place! I get all of my poultry from here. Love the red hen and the pigeons. Must try place.

OK this is funny cuz I didn’t think they would have a Unilocal to. But the only live place I’ve seen great selection goat chicken goose qwell and other things I’ve never seen cooked it one night it was fresh and awesome great place can be a bit pricey but it’s not in the fridge for 100 days it’s fresh cut at the spot halal

Update 8÷21÷2014
Still a four star rating.
I cooked the chicken after a 24 hour dry chill in the fridge, and 24 hours in a brine.
It’s a good chicken. But things to factor in.
A. This chicken is much bigger than a standard supermarket chicken, and they don’t give you a precise weight when you buy it. So you need to weigh it yourself and adjust your recipes accordingly.
B. A saltwater brine will add a lot of saltiness to this chicken, so any additional spices you use should hold the salt.
C. Some commentators elsewhere commented that the meat (particularly the breast) didn’t seem as dense. This is despite the fact the chicken is heavier and bigger. I don’t know what is causing that. But it is not really a bad thing. My chicken was a tad overlooked, but was still juicy, and didn’t have that dense cardboard feel you get from an overlooked chicken.
D. The chicken is not as fatty as many supermarket chickens. Some people like that, others do not. I am of the fatty chicken school, so expected a more luxurious and decadent chicken.
All that being said, I would still go back. You can’t beat the selection. Also, the more I read about the industrial chicken processing system, this type of small batch butcher seems more hygenic.
— — — — — — — -
For now, four stars.
Got a white roaster hen off them today for ten bucks. Pretty good deal when you compare the numbers and factor in that halal butchering is a lot cleaner then the industrial chickens you get from Tyson farms and Purdue.
I personally found the experience of buying from these guys to be interesting. Their price list is in Chinese and English. They have a few different types of chicken, ducks, geese, quail, rabbits. They also have very reasonably priced lamb and veal.
The fun part of it, the guy who took my order spoke little English. When I told him I wanted a white roaster hen, he kept verifying with me that I wanted the white hen and not the black hens. We figured out that he was used to chinese people coming there to get the black chickens, and assumed I wanted the same.
You gotta love the fact a middle eastern halal butcher is doing so much business with Chinese people that knows their particular taste in chickens… only in Oakland!
Note…these fresh killed chickens are not plug and play. You can’t just take it and throw it on the grill. The chicken needs 24 to 48 hours either in the fridge or in a salt water brine to let the rigor mortus leave the dead muscles, thus loosening up and tenderizing the meat. The brine will add more moisture to the meat.
Me…I am going to let the chicken sit in the fridge for 24 hours, then brine for another 24 hours. I’ll post my updated review after I have actually eaten their product.

A great place to get live, organic and fresh all type of birds, chickens, ducks, beef, lamb etc. and its Halal

Great people
Fantastic service
Waited only 15 mins for 2 Ducks and one Rooster. roasted, cleaned and cubed
I was amazed with their business model
Lots of variety to choose
sales pressure. Would go back. Few of my friends have already tried them and are very happy

I’ve been twice. I was hoping to get a goose for Thanksgiving dinner, but was unable to find one at my normal meat spots so I was in a bind. Some thorough internetting yielded a review of this place from someone saying they saw geese in the cages. I went in to check them out a couple weeks ahead so I would know what I was getting into.
My first experience there was a bit surreal or the suburban-​raised white boy I am. That said, it’s obvious that there is a high turnover of animals. They are open every time I drive past, and a couple of days between my two visits the stock of animals was totally different.
So anyhoo, I went with my roommate to get a chicken to try out. It was a «sex link» chicken, with copper feathers which were soon removed. I opted to keep all the bits since I had never been given that choice before.
So, you have to wait a few days before you cook a chicken from here, or it will be tough. This is a fact of life, the chickens you see in the shrink wrap were killed some time ago. Also, they were pre-​brined, usually without being washed ’cause that takes time and fresh water (as evidenced by the poultry industry’s expensive fight against proposed regulations over the matter), so supermarket chickens are literally marinated in feces. Feces and salt.
So anyway, wait a few days, brine, cook, rest, eat. It was good. Real intense chicken flavor, definitely more connective tissue than a Safeway bird, which tells me they had more than 2 feet to move while living their life before the abattoir. The give and take of conscious eating.
For thanks-​g we came back for what I had also thought was a goose at first glance. The fellow who helped us that day called it a «Canadian Duck, the best we have.» Cool, bought, waited, brined, roasted, crisped the skin, rested, ate. Delicious with pineapple and lemongrass.
For the ornithologists out there, obviously there is no such thing as a «Canadian Duck,» this was a Moulard (or Mullard), a cross between anas platyrhynchos (the mallard, from which the Pekin and others are derived) and cairina moschata (the Muscovy duck from South America). It was leaner and larger than your standard Pekin duck. This one was at least 10lbs and had maybe ¹⁄₃ inch of subcutaneous fat.
Go there, unless you’re a vegetarian.