Yearby's Barbecue & Waterice — Restaurant in Pilot Point

Today for lunch I traveled an hour and a half North to Pilot Point, Texas to try Yearby’s Barbecue & Waterice

Yearby's is a halal restaurant that serves Texas style BBQ. I arrived at 12:15 where most of the tables were full and the order line allowed me to walk to the counter and order right away. Their process is to complete the payment and then your order goes into a queue where it is processed individually one at a time. From placing the order to receiving the order was arond 25 minutes due to around 20 orders being in front of me. The staff is very friendly and focused on making sure each order is perfect, the wait time was great considering the care I saw for each order that was processed.

I ordered items I felt would best represent the experience based on my preferences.

Brisket: I ordered half lean and half moist. Both had great flavor and fat that was rendered as intended. I ate half and kept the rest for a later meal. No sauce was needed and I could eat from either side individually. 8/10

Beef dino rib: this is a three bone rack where the weight can vary from one to above two pounds, mine was 1.89lb and at $38/lb the single rib was $71.82 I have ordered these at enough places to know what to expect for the price. I ate a piece from both ends and parts of the middle, the consistency was nearly all fork tender with great flavor. I saved the majority of it for later meals. 8.5/10

Macaroni and cheese: creamy mac with al dente noodles with the addition of cheddar cheese and a flavorful mix of spices. It is uncommon for BBQ restaurants to use cheddar due to it separating with long periods of being in a warmer. This was on the early side of separating and was still very good. 7/10

BBQ beans: pinto beans in a sweet sauce with light seasoning. I had a half of a spoonful of these. I will add chunks of brisket and hot sauce later to get to a more desired consistency and flavor. 4/10

The inside dining area was not huge but there was a good size patio outside that doubled the dining space and the weather was great. I shared a table with another person inside(I do this often when eating alone).

I made a lap around the Pilot Point downtown square and stopped in a few shops. This made the trip more interesting to see some of the town before traveling through faster paced higher populated areas on the drive home.

I added another stamp to my Texas Monthly Top 50 BBQ Joints passport that Yearby's made the list of in 2025.

#yearbysbbq #yearbysbarbecue #TexasBBQ #halal #halalfood #texasbrisket #dinorib...

Sliced Brisket: 10/10; $16 per half pound Out of all the brisket I’ve had, Yearby’s brisket is the best. The seasonings and meat quality is what really set the stage for me, the meat truly melts in your mouth, and it was absolutely delicious.

Half Chicken: 8/10; $13 each The chicken was seasoned very well, usually smoked chicken tends to be bland but that wasn’t the case here. It was a little dry but adding their house-made BBQ sauce helps add moisture and extra tangy flavor.

Smoked Meatloaf: 10/10; $13 The meatloaf was the wildcard for me, I knew it would either be a hit or miss but it was definitely a homerun. Incredibly flavorful and moist, I just wished I could’ve gotten a bigger portion. I would come back just for the meatloaf.

Smokin Mac and Cheese: 8/10; $5 for 8oz The mac and cheese was tasty, I didn’t really taste an additional smokiness, but it was creamy and wasn’t heavy at all.

Brisket Mac and Cheese: 10/10; $15 This was the winner. This is the side you want. The tender brisket, plus the BBQ sauce, and the creamy mac and cheese. You will forget all your problems and will be on cloud 9. My only complaint is that the serving size was too small, I would pay extra for a larger size.

Potato Salad: 8/10; $5 for 8oz The potato salad had great flavor and the acidity was a good side to pair with the fatty and rich meat. It’s the perfect pairing for any BBQ.

Yearby’s Street Corn: 9/10; $5 for 8oz I feel like this was a good twist on the type of elote you get when visiting your local Mexican grocery store. The corn was savory and had a lot of flavors, I also loved the generous amount of cotija cheese used.

Watermelon Waterice: 10/10; $5 I’ve never had Waterice before, I assumed it was going to be a snow cone with the same texture of ice as Bahama Bucks, but I was wrong. It was like ice cream but without the dairy, I later looked up the process and it’s made just like how ice cream would be made just dairy free. It was creamy and not too sweet. It was a good treat for a hot summer day and a nice substitute for ice cream.

BBQ Sauce: 10/10; Complimentary I love BBQ sauce, I eat it with pizza, fries, and more. The house-made BBQ was sweet and tangy, it paired well with all the...

“An hour’s drive for BBQ this good feels like cheating the laws of physics.”

TL;DR: Yearby’s BBQ and Waterice is a brisket-and-elote blessing straight outta the smokehouse heavens, run by Sabrina and CJ who know their way around both a pit and a frozen treat. Friendly folks, flavor-packed plates, and a mango waterice that deserves its own holiday. Twelve out of ten, will burn more gas for this again.

An hour on the road is nothing when the horizon promises smoke and good folks. I rolled into Yearby’s at 1:30 with an appetite big enough to make a rack of ribs nervous. Turns out, I was late to the party. The earlier crowd had already cleaned house on a few menu items, but brisket and turkey were still calling my name.

I grabbed both, plus brisket elote, potato salad, and slaw. Let me tell you, that chopped brisket was tender enough to make a grown man question life choices and the turkey had a peppery kick that played nice with every bite. The elote? A messy, glorious mountain of corn, cotija, sauce, and brisket piled high. It was the kind of side dish that could run for mayor and win in a landslide. Potato salad and slaw backed it up like seasoned pros, no weak links on this plate.

The dining room was full but there were still a few open spots waiting for hungry travelers. I snagged one and boxed up half the feast so my wife, the reigning Side Dish Queen of Texas, could hold court over the flavors later. She approved, which in my household is the BBQ equivalent of earning a Michelin star.

Banana pudding wasn’t on the menu, but the mango waterice saved the day. Cool, tangy, and perfect for a man who just wrestled brisket and elote into submission. I might’ve looked like a kid on summer break eating that thing, and I didn’t care one bit.

Sabrina and CJ know how to feed a crowd and treat folks like family. Yearby’s is the kind of place that makes you start planning your next visit before you even leave the parking lot.

Stamp collected. Only 37 more to go on this Texas Monthly Top 50 trek.

If happiness had a flavor, it’d taste like Yearby’s chopped brisket with a mango...