Donald Russell Reviews 

Donald Russell provides Quality products with excellent value Steaks.
As a family Donald Russell is our go to supplier.

Consistently high quality food, particularly the ribeye steaks and sausage rolls.

No bother at all. I love all I have from here on my eyes it takes some beating. I am so proud to buy from here and will continue to buy from here. I only eat Chicken and will continue to.The delivery is excellent and the prices are very competitive.

The original Donald Russell used to be great but since they have been taken over not any more. They seem to mostly try to get rid of old stock and the packaging is now well below par. They use cardboard boxes which are wet when the goods arrive and one of the meat packs was torn open. I contacted them and sent pictures of that mess but they have never replied. A great shame.

Great quality Produce and service let down by wanting to order more but a huge amount listed is out of stock

When ordering was concerned that so many items out of stock or not even on site. Order has now arrived, woefully packaging, wet cardboard box, ice packs empty etc. Wrote and complained, there answer this is not our normal standard. Untrue look at the latest reviews before mine. Look elsewhere and warn any other customers you know.

Ordered our "favourite" Lasagne which I received an email telling me was back.

Not so since the takeover as it is now a barely edible shadow of its former self since the real DR went bust and the name was bought.

Looks and smells like the cheapest supermarket sludge and the ingredient list tells the story, pumped full of preservatives and additives, something the "real" lasagne from DR never was. So disgusting it was thrown in the food bin after a few mouthfuls.

Half of it arrived semi defrosted as well in a soaking wet cardboard box.

Won't be back.

I have been a loyal customer of Donald Russel for many years. They veered away from their focus on quality meats, mainly Aberdeen Angus Beef , and expanded into poorly related product areas..which is possibly a part cause of their demise. Very sad to see, as I loved their Beef products and their customer service, and quality was excellent.2025 saw a downturn in product quality, and delivery packaging. Right up to the end customers were kept in the dark, until there website became non responsive. the new owners are attempting business as usual, with the same branding, but different address, but crucially have not advised old Donald Russell customers of changes. I have emailed them three times to request a simple clarification. “Is their beef product which uses exactly the same look and description, though higher prices, delivering Scottish Aberdeen Angus Beef sourced as before?” No reply from Customer Service, the last of three being to the new Managing Director of the takeover business.All customers of Donald Russell and their personal details have been transferred without certainly my permission. i believe this may be in breach of budiness best practice..and if beef products are not Aberdeen Angus as before, it could constitute misselling.. Answers needed from the new owner, who continues to send out the self same sales emails as before..but all is not as before. Buyer beware….

I've been buying Donald Russell items for many years and can think of only 1 historic issue that I was forced to report. Today however is a very different. I feel a sense of 2026 budgeting has been forced upon their clients, and a more digital and impersonal approach when calling or making contact. The traditional polystyrene packaging that guaranteed both product protection and minimal risk of defrosting whilst in transit, that also included a handing packing list for ease of checking upon de-boxing, is gone and has been replaced with a cardboard box that arrives soggy and falling apart. My last 2 orders have NOT been pretty with very poor external packaging, plus de-sealed meat packs internally, some with frost bight. My last order was thrown away due to all items being open and thawed and was forced to be replaced.
A clear case of money saving at its worst im afraid.
Unfortunately after more than 12years as a customer, I will not be ordering any further items from Donald Russell.

★☆☆☆☆

The bar was already fairly low following the issues around Christmas and the company's closure, but when Donald Russell was bought out, I decided to give them another chance because I genuinely believed they deserved one.

Unfortunately, I was genuinely surprised to find that the quality appears to have declined even further. The product quality was disappointing, the packaging was poor, and the customer service experience was worse than before.

The parcel arrived defrosted. I was unable to speak to anyone directly, and my emails went unanswered. Thankfully, I had documented the condition of the delivery and was able to provide the evidence to my bank, which allowed me to successfully raise a chargeback on my card.

Based on my experience, I would strongly advise others to avoid using this company.

As a loyal and high spending customer for years I was pleased to see the company survive…. but ….they no longer deliver to my address. Their FAQ states they deliver to mainland UK addresses which is untrue and when you seek out the list of postcodes they discriminate against, my postcode is not listed but they will not deliver.
I suspect Donald Russell has truly ceased to exist .

Buyer beware. June 2026
I know thw company has been going through charges but i wont be using them until they get sorted .
Summary. Take £120. Delivery a week later than expected. 50%. Missing.
10 days to chase . Another 10 days to refund. But my feeling is nothing will change.
I still belive under the sale of goods act its illegal to take money for goods offered online if they are not in stock.
So waiting any days would break this.

Such a shame to see the company that used to be great now being absolutely awful to (try to) do business with.

Customer service is appalling now. I had been a loyal customer for a good number of years and loved their service. Now it won’t let me order - saying my address cannot be delivered to, despite my postcode not being listed on addresses they don’t cover.

Phoned them up thinking it may be a small bug - but was told that they no longer deliver to me, and that there was nothing they could do but I could check back as they ‘may consider adding this area onto their run’. How lovely of them that my custom is such a non-event that they think it’s fine to dismiss me like this.

Used to be fab. Will never order again from them (even if miraculously they deign to see north of Scotland as worthy of their service again).

Terrible - avoid!!!!!

Been DR customer for years and always had good service from previous company however had delivery this week and appalled at condition of packaging and contents. Cardboard box arrived falling to bits meat within a white plastic wrapping all ice packs were melted and dripping water meat barely still frozen and some required to be cooked right away otherwise disposed of certainly not high standard of before. Messaged DR direct and no reply to date will not be ordering from this company again.

So, I decided to buy some pork products from Donald Russell and what a waste of time that was. Out of 13 items only 2 were available, all the rest were sold out.

May be Donald Russell should have remained closed if you can carry 2 out of 13 advertised stock items.

Having been told by email from them that Donald Russell the firm had been taken over by someone else down south, I went on to the website to look and see what they were selling and decided to place an order as some of the items were reasonably priced. Because of the hassle with their '"club" rewards discount, I didn't fill in the date I wanted delivery. On confirmation of the order, was told delivery would be 9th June when I wanted delivery 28th May. I immediately emailed them asking for the date to be changed. No reply from d Russell. I conated them again by email and also phoned them, held on for 40 minutes while I was told continually that the operatives were busy with other calls and they would get to me. I gave up, no word from them for 3 contacts so as I had paid by Pay Pal, set up a query through them. Pay a were excellent, they in turn raised the problem with 'D Russell who were given till 1st Jne to reply. I heard nothing from them and was going to contact pay pal yesterday when I got an email from them saying I was getting full refund for m order. Eventually later that afternoon I also received an email from D Russell telling me the items had been refunded. If this is the way the new firm of Donald Russell is going to operate, I cant see me ordering from them in the future. Very poor customer relations

SCAM company. They bought Farmison at the end of 2025 and refused to accept gift vouchers that had been purchased just prior to the sale. I lost £200 and I’m aware that many other customers were affected in the same way.
I believe a further ‘business acquisition’ has taken place since then.
Disgraceful company - AVOID!!!

Purchased Lamb Rack, Hardly any meat, disappointed. Also purchase Chateaubriand, quality was unbelievably poor. Sent pictures of the meat, no response customer services as poor as the meat. Cannot recommend.

So very happy Donald Russell is back! The quality of the meat is first class. Will be ordering lots of fillet steaks.

On behalf of Onward Homes, Lee Russell Ltd came had Good Telephone communication, Punctual & Came in said he needs to do xyz & I'll be an hour & clean job. Thanks