Stockyard Bar BQ — Restaurant in Houston

I was in Houston on a business trip, and being from Kansas City, I was interested in seeing how Texas barbecue stacked up to the KC barbecue I'm used to. I ordered the two meat and two side dish platter, choosing the brisket and the sausage, paired with the mac and cheese and green beans. The service was basically cafeteria style, which is not atypical of great barbecue, and the people serving us were great. The lady behind the counter even suggested we double our beer order, as we were coming at the end of happy hour. I was impressed with the appearance of the brisket. It appears that they kept the point of the brisket with the flat (I could be wrong, because the brisket they were slicing my dinner from was pretty well sliced up). It had a great smoke ring, and the meat was juicy. The flavor of the brisket was good, but not outstanding. While the smoke ring indicated someone knew what they were doing, the meat itself lacked a smoky flavor. The exception was the burnt edge, which was awesome, especially the portion that looked like it came from the point. The sausage was amazing. Just enough spice to give it flavor, but not so much to hide the flavor of the meat. It certainly had retained much more smoke flavor than the brisket. The sauce nicely enhanced both meats, and I used a bit more on the brisket than I would normally do just to make up for the lack of the smoke flavor. The mac and cheese was very good...not to creamy and not too dry. The green beans were nicely seasoned and a good compliment to the protein overload.

The price was very good for a solid Texas-size portion. The atmosphere was simple and rustic, which I think goes hand-in-hand with a good barbecue place. It didn't convert me away from being a KC barbecue lover, but it was a great meal at a great price. Overall, a...

I got the 3 Meat plate (brisket, sausage, and pork belly) with mac and cheese and Heart Attack potatoes delivered.

The brisket was tender and juicy with an excellent rub. It stood alone well without sauce, which is definitely worth mention after many of the BBQ joints I've visited in the past.

The sausage was excellent; smoky, with a good spice mix. It was a tad dry, but that can be expected with delivery. Maybe if it's not sliced before boxing might help? Not sure. However, it was still great!!

The standout for me, though, was the pork belly. I'm used to cubed pork belly with some sort of glaze on it, but this was prepared brisket-style: dry-rubbed, smoked, and sliced. The fat and lean both absorbed the rich smokiness to absolute perfection. The dry rub worked well with the meat and smoke. It was absolutely exquisite.

The mac and cheese had a great combination of spices that I can't quite place, but made it delicious. This was obviously not the mushy canned mac and cheese you tend to get at other places.

The Heart Attack potatoes were maybe my least-favorite item in the order, and that only because it was heavier on the sour cream than I prefer. But, to put that into context: I still finished them! I can't say I'd get them again, but I definitely wasn't going to throw them away.

Overall, I had a very good experience with Stockyard Bar BQ. One day, I'd like to visit and get the food hot from the kitchen. I imagine it would be even better than what I...

This place reminds me of Pappas BBQ, but a little less organized with spicier bbq sauce options. We walked in and thankfully there were not many customers because the service was pretty slow. Given that you order at the counter, basically this was just an awkward interaction of standing there waiting to be acknowledged and then the guy constantly having to go back to the oven keeping the meat warm for each thing we wanted. On the upside, the meat stays warm. I went with 2 meats and 2 sides, I wanted to try both the sweet and wet and the dry and spicy ribs. I also opted for the mac & cheese and the heartache potatoes. For the price, about $15, it was a good amount of food and I left full without even finishing my food. Both ribs were good, but neither were amazing. The sweet and saucy were not really that sweet or that saucy, but they had a good flavor. Addition additional sauce to them was just weird as the flavor of the sauce didn't match and somewhat overpowered the initial taste. The dry rub ribs were even better, a good smoky flavor, that once again the sauce didn't really complement, so I would opt to not have it (you can add it yourself at the table). The mac & cheese was excellent and the potatoes good, but both could have been warmer... while not cold, both were just about room temperature. Overall, this place scratched my itch for some ribs and was a good meal at...