Holy smokes!

Stellar Austin spot unseats Franklin on Texas Monthly’s new list of top 50 BBQ joints

Interstellar brings the heat as the top Austin barbecue spot on the list.

Beloved state-savvy publication Texas Monthly has shaken up the barbecue world. The magazine’s newly released list of the state’s top 50 barbecue joints makes major changes to the conventional wisdom surrounding where to find the best ’cue in Texas.

Presented as a ranked top 10, with 40 additional restaurants listed alphabetically by city, and 50 honorable mentions, the list was devised by the magazine’s team of 32 staff writers and three freelancers, who compiled the rankings by visiting 411 establishments during the spring and summer. With 29 new entrants — including four of the top five — the list leans heavily toward restaurants that have opened since Texas Monthly last ranked barbecue joints in 2017.

Despite all the changes, barbecue fans shouldn’t panic. Texas Monthly’s message to readers isn’t that the old places have gotten worse in the last four years. Rather, they’ve been outshined by restaurants that cook a wider selection of meats than the classic Texas trinity of brisket, ribs, and sausage; prepare a more diverse selection of sides than potato salad, beans, and coleslaw; and show a willingness to incorporate international flavors into their preparations.

“In short, if you were hoping for an argument that innovation is getting out of hand and it’s time to retrench and return to the simpler days of barbecue, you won’t find it here,” the magazine writes. “But have no fear: If you’re an old-school stalwart who blanches at the thought of smoked cauliflower, plenty of places on our list will make you very happy.”

Here’s the top 10 in order:

Goldee’s Barbecue (Fort Worth)
Interstellar BBQ (Austin)
Truth Barbeque (Houston)
Burnt Bean Co. (Seguin)
LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue (Austin)
Cattleack Barbeque (Dallas)
Franklin Barbecue (Austin)
Evie Mae’s Pit Barbeque (Wolfforth)
Snow’s BBQ (Lexington)
Panther City BBQ (Fort Worth)

Compared to 2017’s top 10, Franklin Barbecue, which ranked No. 1 statewide in 2013 and No. 2 in 2017, now ranks third in Austin. Snow’s, which took the top spot in both 2008 and 2017 and became an international sensation after Netflix’s Chef’s Table documentary series featured pitmaster Tootsie Tomanetz, drops to ninth. Truth rises from 10th to third, while Evie Mae’s moves up one spot. Louie Mueller Barbecue, CorkScrew BBQ, and Tejas Chocolate + Barbecue move out of the top 10, while Bodacious Bar-B-Q in Longview is off the list entirely.

Interstellar took second place thanks to the fine-dining experience pitmaster John Bates acquired at restaurants like Wink and Asti. Described as “ambitious” (in a good way), Bates serves precisely prepared meats and creative sides such as tomato-and-zucchini salad and Parmesan-crusted scalloped potatoes.

Overall, the Austin area leads the way with eight restaurants in the top 50, plus six honorable mentions. In addition to InterStellar, LeRoy & Lewis, and Franklin, the top 50 includes Austin restaurants Distant Relatives, La Barbecue, Micklethwait Craft Meats, and Valentina’s Tex-Mex BBQ, along with Brotherton’s Black Iron Barbecue in Pflugerville.

J Leonardi’s Barbeque, Moreno Barbecue, Stiles Switch BBQ, Whitfield’s, Kreuz Market (Lockhart), and Creekside Cookers BBQ & Bar (Wimberley) all make the honorable-mentions list. While the Terry Black’s Austin location isn’t listed, its Dallas outpost makes the top 50.

As for the rest of the state, Dallas restaurants earn seven spots among the 50 and five honorable mentions, with Fort Worth taking four spots in the top 50 and three honorable mentions. Greater Houston has seven restaurants in the top 50 and five honorable mentions. San Antonio has three top 50 restaurants plus three honorable mentions.

In addition to the lists, the magazine’s coverage includes features on the merits of barbecue sauce, favorite barbecue dishes, standout sides, and the best desserts. See the Texas Monthlywebsite for all the delicious details.

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Whoops

Michelin goofs on a few restaurants honored in first Texas guide

Kau Ba/Facebook

Houston's Kau Ba has been removed from the Michelin Guide.

Texans' reactions to the first Michelin Guide in the state have ranged from glowing to unimpressed, but a few notable mix-ups are more concrete than differences in taste. The November 11 ceremony honored more than 100 restaurants across the state, but at least two were in error. In Dallas the guide confused two restaurants with each other, and in Houston one of them had closed.

Starting in Dallas: The Guide's release announcing the list of restaurants who'd won awards included The Charles, an award-winning Italian restaurant in Dallas' Design District, as one of 57 restaurants that earned a "Recommended" rating.

The Charles is a surely deserving restaurant that opened in 2018, the first concept from acclaimed food & beverage group Duro Hospitality, which has since gone on to open other restaurants such as El Carlos Elegante, Sister, and Cafe Duro.

But the Guide got the wrong Charles: The real recipient was Mister Charles, a sibling Duro Hospitality restaurant that opened at 3219 Knox St. in early 2024.

The Charles specializes in Italian and Texas-inspired dishes.

Mister Charles features French and Italian-influenced dishes.

It wasn't just an incorrect name; it listed the accompanying (incorrect) address.

A spokesperson for Michelin Guide verified that Mister Charles was the winner and said that the listing of The Charles was a mistake.

“This was an internal error caused by our geolocation process. The problem will be corrected in the most expeditious manner,” the spokesperson said. The Guide website has since updated the list and replaced The Charles with Mister Charles.

Having a difference of opinion about a critic's choices is one thing — but having an error of this magnitude is something else entirely.

And blaming "geolocation" as the source of the error is a curious excuse. Geolocation refers to the ability to track the whereabouts of an electronic device using GPS, cell phone towers, WiFi access points or a combination of these.

The Houston mix-up was also disappointing, but only involved one restaurant: In a press release issued Thursday, November 14, the Guide announced that it had removed Montrose Vietnamese restaurant Kau Ba from the list of Bib Gourmand recipients.

The reason: "Upon further investigation, our team has discovered the restaurant has been permanently closed since our Inspection team's visits occurred," the statement reads.

As has been widely noted in local media, Kau Ba closed earlier this month. The restaurant’s Instagram account now belongs to Alora, which is described as “a fresh Peruvian-Vietnamese fusion concept inspired by travels to Saigon.” It is expected to open soon.

Open since 2018, Kau Ba served an innovative take on Vietnamese fare created by Nikki Tran. The restaurant built on the notoriety Tran had achieved after being featured in two Netflix series: Somebody Feed Phil and Ugly Delicious. It earned considerable acclaim, including a spot in the Houston Chronicle’s top 100 restaurants as recently as 2023 and a nomination for Best Neighborhood Restaurant in the 2021 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards.

The restaurant went through a number of iterations during its tenure. For three-and-a-half years, Tran partnered with Aya Sushi owners Minette Corpuz and Bruce Kish to oversee operations, but they parted ways in February 2023.

In an email sent to Houston Public Media, Tran expressed regret over Michelin's decision.

“But we understand and respect Michelin’s decision to remove Kau Ba from its selection,” Tran said to HPM. “Exercising an abundance of caution from a legal position, I am not able currently to share further details of our situation but I do hope to follow up soon with more information.”

“Until then, on behalf of the entire Kau Ba team, we want to thank the entire culinary community for the recognition and support,” Tran added. “Kau Ba is proud of the dishes we created and look forward to sharing very soon what’s next.”

Thankfully in Austin, things seem to be going okay. The capital city swept the competition with seven stars (one more than Houston now that the change has been made), and two green stars for sustainability — in fact, the only green stars in the state.

Austin also had four of the first-ever barbecue restaurants to be awarded stars. Houston also had one.

Austin's winning restaurants were Barley Swine, Craft Omakase, Hestia, Olamaie, InterStellar BBQ, John Bates, La Barbecue, Alison Clem, and LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue.

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