Donn's Barbeque & Catering — Restaurant in Austin

Just visited Donn's for the first time today.

First Impression was unimpressive. First thing we noticed was the prices for the plates were about $2 to $4 higher than most BBQ places I've been to.

Being a new place and being in a hurry, we accepted this and ordered our food to-go. I got the two-meat (Jalepeno Sausage and Brisket) plate and my girlfriend got the two-meat Brisket and Pork Ribs plate, both with potato salad and charro beans. Drinks: a sweet tea and a regular tea.

Upon opening the to-go boxes, we found the brisket was mostly fat - fat on brisket is fine, it provides flavor and natural juices, but this was literally mostly fat. When we got it home, we ended up with about 2/3 of the "brisket" turning out to be pure fat (Where's the beef?). and the ramainder of the "meat" was about 50% fat too, making it rather inedible.

The Ribs were better on the quality of cut, but had little flavor.

The sausage was tolerable, but had very little heat for a Jalapeno sausage (maybe they gave me the wrong kind?)

The potato salad was thrown away after the first bite for each of us. Don't order it unless you make a habit of pouring pure salt in your mouth, because that's exactly what it tasted like - as if the recipe called for a teaspoon of salt and a cup of salt was used instead.

Because we weren't anywhere near full at this point, we ate the beans because they were okay.

The BBQ sauce (served on the side) was sweet and tangy, but average.

Finally, the tea - The sweet tea tasted like sugar water, the regular tea was fine. We had to mix the regular tea with the sweet tea to cut back on the pure sugar taste.

The pickles, onion slices and bread (regular off the grocery store shelf bread) were all as you would expect them to be - for these I have no complaints.

I also have no complaints about the service, but I wasn't "wowed" by it either.

Gave it a shot, but it just wasn't good. I won't be back, and probably won't visit the other...

Ordered food online via GrubHub. Arrived at the restaurant which had signs on the front door that said all GrubHub and to go orders are on the side of the building. Went to the to go order window where there was a sign that said in bold capitalized and underlined "DO NOT" stand in front of this window until your order has been called. So I stood back but still visible from the window also noticing bags of food sitting by the window. I was definitely seen but never acknowledged. In that time a man pulled up in a car and placed an order and was also waiting. After waiting for an additional 10 minutes I approach the order window, which took about 2 minutes for someone to come to the window and ask me what I needed, I told her I had to go order and was curious if it was ready and she said to go to the other window. So I went and actually stood in front of the "do not" stand in front of window to which it took another couple of minutes before someone came to the window and started to hand me an order that wasn't mine, it was the gentlemans who ordered food after I had already been there. I said I had a to go order and she looked down at the bags that have been sitting there for over 10 minutes now and handed me my order. I was already running late and traffic on I-35 was going to take me an extra 40 minutes to get home which is usually only a 15-minute ride. So I grabbed the food and took off. So while stuck in traffic I decided to look at the food to which then I realized they had got my order wrong. Well obviously I wasn't going to turn around in traffic on I-35 so I just decided we're stuck with what we've got. Which really didn't matter cause none of the food was any good anyway. I also asked for extra barbecue sauce in the special notes, which obviously I didn't get. Wasn't remotely worth my time or effort will definitely go somewhere else...

I have tried almost every BBQ place in Austin and San Antonio Texas. I've even made it to the famous Franklin’s BBQ.

A friend at work told me to try this place called "Donns Barbecue." I'm originally from California, so I will admit I don't know every BBQ place in Austin. Not yet.

With that said, I ordered a meal from Donn's Barbecue and had the meal delivered to my home. The delivery service was quick and the food came to the house hot and the presentation was excellent.

I ordered the 3 meat platter with sausage, moist brisket and pork ribs. I normally don't eat pork ribs too much. I like beef ribs but I wanted to give this place a try.

I was surprised at the cost. The 3 meat meal was very reasonable in price and the portions were huge. My first bite of brisket was heaven.

The brisket was moist and tender with that bark only a barbecue expert could create. I had to run some errands so I put the pork ribs and the peach cobbler I ordered aside for later.

Due to work, I couldn't finish my meal until the next morning. I put the pork ribs into the microwave and wondered if the ribs would be good after keeping them in the fridge overnight.

That first bite of the pork ribs, well, I'll just say it was impressive. Dam the meat fell off the bone. The flavor of the pork ribs was off the hook.

Somebody knows what the hell their doing in that kitchen. My friend gave me great advice. Donn's Barbecue, you have a new customer.

Thank you for a great barbecue meal that didn't break the bank. I'm going to have to try your breakfast...