Moreno Barbecue — Restaurant in Austin

There are many places in Austin to enjoy quality BBQ. In South Austin, at the intersection of Menchaca Rd @ Stassney Ln, is where Moreno barbecue is located. This business was once running out of a food trailer has now moved into this small building where their restaurant is open each day except Monday. You can tell Moreno is a family style operation with their own bbq cooking based from family recipes and using oak offset smokers. Hours are 11am to sold out each day, except they will open at 9am on the weekend to serve breakfast tacos and other breakfast plates.

Moreno's serves your typical menu of Texas bbq. The brisket is smoked perfect, good seasoning and texture. Pork ribs and sausage are smoked well with awesome flavor. The menu offers many different items such as tacos served with your choice of meat on freshly made tortillas. Moreno's offers also two type of burgers you can customize to your liking. Pick a thin smash burger patty or a large thick smoked 1/2lb burger patty. Add bacon, cheese, jalapenos or any other customization you want. Barbacoa served is on point, along with different sandwiches offered. Try some of their other items such as the brisket philly cheesesteak, smoked turkey club sandwich, grilled cheese, or their special chicken fried steak served during Wed- Fri evening hours.

Moreno's has plenty of seating indoors and outdoors in their small building. The service is very friendly, prompt and usually there is not a huge line wait so you can get in and out quickly. Sides are great with the typical items you would expect. I also enjoy their shortbread chocolate chip cookies that have a unique flavor to them. Moreno's is a smaller bbq restaurant but can certainly compete with all the other bbq spots in Austin. You can tell they put a lot of effort into their cooking and it shows. I enjoy the low key style of Moreno's where they put out great Texas bbq dishes with just prompt and friendly service. Its always great to visit each time and having to debate with yourself which menu item you are going to order this time. The bbq game in central Texas has some bold players, and Moreno's shows they deserve to...

It's my goal to try this entire menu before I leave Austin in a few months. So far I can really hardly believe how good everything is.

BRISKET - 10-4 buddy it's the best Brisket in the state. Like, seriously stupid good. The smoke, the cookery, the delicious brine and seasoning on the edge. Ugh. How do I come here and not get some of that 4 legged gold.

Smashburger - ha, you guessed it. The best in the state as well. It's so good that I didn't review it after I had it the first time. Since I figured it would be impossible to make again, I surely got them on a good day.

So I went in on a busy Saturday morning to test their mettle. I apologize for doubting Moreno and the crew, I was clearly unaware of their game. Not a lot of folks in Austin can play with these folks and this burger. It's. So. Damn. Good. Juicy and crispy and moist, just DELICIOUS.

Smoked Burger - I thought for sure this would be their folly. You can't make a great smash burger AND a great smoked burger right? Surely it's going to be dry and sad?

I promise my job isn't to be professionally wrong. But I was wrong here again, why am I so jaded when it comes to a good burger? Not sure. But Moreno will sluice the Jade right out of you as you savor the smokey, tender, and DELICIOUS smoked burger. I didn't even get any toppings (besides some heavenly BBQ sauce that was very nicely put on, not messy but not dry), I swear the burger would fall apart under an intense stare. Thankfully their bread keeps that heavenly meat patty safe and secured for the ride to molar town.

I got the fries the first time and they were actually bomb as hell. Reminded me of the fries they serve at concessions stands during highschool baseball games. Crispy but also light and fluffy. Very good.

On the second foray, I went with the Gouda Mac. Hmmmmm that's some good mac. Super cheesy but not cloyingly so, great flavor and seasoning (yeah you gotta salt that water baby) but they know that since they made a bomb ass Gouda Mac that I would gladly shovel into my face on any day on any planet.

Can't wait for my next...

You have to come by and try this BBQ joint at the intersection of Menchaca & Stassney. I'd been meaning to for years and finally I did it. I came right at closing time which had a downside (they were out of the sliced brisket) but also a few advantages: they had one last rack of pork ribs and they offered it to me for a deal if I bought the whole thing (for a very good price!). I also got to experience the friendliest and happiest group of people working here. I asked if I could get a picture of them, and since it was already closing time, the folks from the kitchen joined in too! Surprisingly, taking a picture of the staff is something I've never been moved to do before in my reviews. It seems appropriate though when it conveys the atmosphere of the place.

Now the food! The pork ribs were very well seasoned perfectly smoked and delicious just as it comes. Add any of their three sauces to kick up the taste! The potato salad has lots of big chunks of potato, personally I prefer them cut a little smaller to get them to absorb the flavor better. The chopped brisket was okay but felt like it needed sauce to make it truly tasty. I wish I could have tried the sliced brisket! And their sauces..... oh my heavens: the "original" has some nice spice to it, the "spicy" has an awesome kick to it, and the "mustard" was also very good.

While we were putting away our food into containers (we had so much), a staff member decided to give my son a free cookie because he was going around being friendly with everyone there.

I read that they plan to move the BBQ operations to a bigger location in Southpark Meadows and change this location to a burger joint. I wish them well. If you can build a thriving business where your employees like to be and your customers enjoy your product then you are doing a lot of things right!

By the way, the only person who chose not to be in the picture was the owner, Bo. He was actually working the hardest cleaning and scrubbing the tables and getting the trash out, etc..... way to lead by example! And he wanted the spotlight...