Salt Lick Cellars — Restaurant in Austin

If you want to experience Texas BBQ this place is it. Franklin's is overrated in my opinion. Unless you're SUCH a foodie that the teeniest tiniest of nuances are noticed by your palate, Franklin's BBQ is a 8-10 hour wait for ... BBQ. That's not really what BBQ is suppose to be about. It's about sitting down, enjoying a good meal. Franklin's has no good scenery, long lines, and good food.

In comparison, Salt Lick is a scenic drive away, beautiful (especially if it's just rained out there) and green, with a vineyard and patios and all sorts of cool nooks to sit in. I've been back twice now for their food. I highly recommend going for Brunch or Lunch (they open at 11) because there is no line at that time and parking is comfortable and you get your choice of where to sit. It's comfortable, got interesting things to see (like their giant BBQ pit inside which feels SO good when it's cold out), good merchandise for tourists (the Texas flag made of colored animal motifs is super soft and pretty awesome), and they have a winery right there too.

A tip even though I've already mentioned it: Highly recommend going at lunch. I cannot stress this enough. The food is the same, and just as good, lunch or dinner, there's no price difference. The lines are all at 2pm and on into the evening when it's dinner time. Skip the lines and enjoy lunch there, or brunch when it first opens. Every time I'm done eating and leave I see people just pouring into the place, but I always get my food fast and get my choice of where I want to sit when I arrive early.

The food is phenomenal. I ordered the triple chop sandwich (I highly recommend it for people that aren't enormously hungry but want quality BBQ flavor) plate, some pickled jalapenos, and my buddy got the Truman's Choice (three different meats and sides with bread). The pickled carrots and jalapenos they brought were great--not overwhelmingly spicy but hot enough to get the job done. They do NOT serve those crappy flimsy hamburger chips you usually get from BBQ places. They have nice, crisp, cold spears and they bring you a generous portion of them with your sandwich. Raw onions, cole slaw, and au gratin potatoes were all great. The coleslaw was not soaked in mayo but was a very mild oil-and-vinegar style coleslaw. The bread was super soft, and warm. They give you small syrup-at-IHOP-style-pouring spouts of BBQ sauce. And we ordered a chocolate pecan pie for dessert. There was just a hint of chocolate that didn't overpower the pecan pie taste, which I found really refreshing.

Second time there, both times the experience has been SUPER pleasant first thing in the morning/right at noon when lunch starts. Friendly staff although you could tell some of them were a little new to waitressing.

Bottom line too long didn't read: For the price, time, effort, and atmosphere this place beats out Franklin's BBQ in my experience. Enjoy good BBQ without wasting half your vacation time. If you live in Austin, sure, make a day for Franklin's and check it out.. if you're visiting, this is the place to go that gives you high quality without sucking a whole day out of your trip. This is also, in my opinion, a far more beautiful place and has far more character and cool 'stuff' to see and take pictures of (the whole vineyard, the BBQ pit, the patio area, etc.) for people trying to get a Texas experience from other countries or states.

Don't miss visiting the Hindu Temple on the way back from this place towards Austin. They have wild peacocks running around and it's a beautiful...

The barbecue is OK. Nothing special really. Still, it is probably the best option in this airport. We were told that this is the fourth highest rated airport restaurant in the country. I find that very hard to believe. I travel “a LOT..” Before Covid, I averaged more than 180 days a year and I’ve been on the road since 1996. There are many airports that have more than four restaurants on any given concourse that are better than this.

The person at the register was polite. But I’ll admit I was really put off by how sloppy the food service area was. It’s right next to the register so you can see the various heat table trays. It doesn’t look like they care about slopping food from one bin into the other. The area around the pulled pork was so sloppy all you could see was dribbled pulled pork in every direction.

The food itself was average. I’d rate the mustard barbecue sauce and the coleslaw as the most interesting. I hate communal seating areas and that is all they had to offer. I think it seats about 12 people, nose to nose. I grabbed our food and went back upstairs to the American Airlines club where I didn’t have to eat with other people breathing on me. If you’re hungry, this might suffice. But grab your food and find someplace else to eat unless it’s very slow and you don’t have to eat elbow to elbow, nose to nose with somebody you’ve never met before and will...

Honestly, quite middling.

I ordered the three meat platter: sausage, brisket (sliced), and the pulled pork. Meat was kept in those bins that they keep the food warm in at like a Chipotle, so it wasn't quite exactly fresh but hey it's airport food, they're working with what they got.

The brisket was rather dry. For something being advertised as their star dish I felt that it was probably the toughest meat and the fact that it was mildly warm at best meant that it didn't melt in your mouth, more like sat down as a lump in your mouth. The pulled pork was solid, but they insisted on putting their sauce on it prior so it was just sugary and cold. The sausage wasn't fully sliced so it just sort of accordionned as I tried to eat it but, besides the sweetness of the sauce, fairly boilerplate sausage. The potatoes were placed on top of the coleslaw, leading to both being cold lumps that were unbearably sweet that took some work to get through.

The surprise contender: beans. I usually hate barbecue spots' baked beans because they're sugared as hell but these were salty, savory, and full of flavor that was missing from the rest of the meal.

I hit this place up to get my barbecue fix while traveling and I had a decent layover. But man, I don't know if they were off today or this place is usually like this but I wouldn't hit...