The Salt Lick - Round Rock — Restaurant in Round Rock

We had a family dinner at The Salt Lick in Round Rock on Saturday evening, around 6:30 pm. The parking lot as you pull in from the street was crowded and it took us a few minutes to find a spot. After we parked and went inside, we realized that there’s also parking on the far side of the building that was mostly empty. Definitely go around to the far side parking lot! There was a waiting list, and we were offered a table outside on the patio with no waiting, but we elected to wait for a table inside. We waited about 15 minutes. The inside is a large open room with a variety of large and small picnic style tables.

Our server, Emma, was awesome. Very friendly and attentive throughout our meal. Three of us ordered the Family Style meal ($32.95 per person) which includes all you can eat of brisket, sausage, pork ribs, potato salad, cole slaw, and beans. My wife got the brisket and pork rib plate, and our adult daughter got the salad with brisket. Our grandkids are both under 3, so they were able to eat for free with the Family Style meal. I had high hopes based on some of the 5-star reviews, but, sadly, we were disappointed.

Starting with the meats; the moist brisket was very good. Tender and flavorful with a nice smoke ring, everyone liked the moist brisket. The lean brisket was dry, and we only got moist brisket after the first family style plate. The pork ribs were okay. They had good flavor, but they were just not very meaty. Maybe it was just the batch that we were served, but we got several rounds of ribs with our family style meals, and they were all about the same. The sausage was unremarkable and disappointing. We weren’t given an option and didn’t specifically ask, but if they have jalapeno sausage, I suggest giving that a try if you really want sausage. The moist brisket was the winner for everyone at the table.

The sides fell flat with everyone at the table. I’m not sure what kind of potato salad it was, maybe some type of German potato salad, but nobody liked it. Maybe if it was served warm, it might be better but served cold it tasted like leftover potato salad that you got out of a refrigerator because nobody ate it the day before! And the cole slaw? Maybe an Asian twist on cole slaw, I’m not sure. Definitely not traditional cole slaw. Nobody at the table liked the cole slaw or the beans either. It’s crazy because there are great reviews out there, so maybe it is just my family, but we didn’t ask for seconds on any of the sides for our family style meal. I saw some folks get macaroni and cheese, which looked good, but we didn’t try it. There were also some awesome looking desserts, but again, based on our food, we elected to skip dessert.

Bottom line, in my book The Salt Lick is not worth all the hype. But, hey, this is just my opinion based on one family meal that we had there. Unfortunately, there are so many other options for great BBQ out there, that we will not be going back. Please give it a try for yourself if you are up for it, but I can’t...

When I saw the pics from other reviews I was excited about going to this restaurant. Upon entering the place I noticed that it was very spacious and had a nice welcoming ambience. The pit where they smoked and grilled looked marvelous. Our waitress was nice and helpful.

The food: I had brisket with beans, potato salad, coleslaw and macaroni. I also ordered some bison ribs. I was amazed when I saw that on the menu so I had to try them. For dessert I had the peach cobbler.

The brisket was good tender and juicy. The beans were decent and I was glad they didnt put meat in the beans because lots of places usually put pork in them and I dont eat pork so I appreciated that. The potato salad was potato salad, nothing special and the coleslaw had too much vinegar and didnt have the hint of sweetness that I prefer. The macaroni wasnt anything special either, it looked good but wasnt cheesy like other places. The bison was amazing. I loved it.

The peach cobbler: oh boy...the peach cobbler. This was the worst I mean literally the worst peach cobbler that Ive ever tasted in the history of peach cobbler. It was terrible. Nothing but crust with very few peaches. The cobbler wasnt even sweet. The ice cream was mediocre as well. If you are diabetic and want to live sugar free and taste free then that peach cobbler is perfect for you. It was horrible for me. The presentation was emaculent but it fell way short in taste.

Overall all the food looked good. They get an A+ for presentation but considering the price for everything, this place is not worth it. Ive tasted much better everything that I had other than the bison at other places for way less money and bigger portions. I barely had any beans on my plate. I swear I had about 10-12 beans in a thin layer of sauce and the coleslaw and potato salad shared the same section on my plate. I wish I had remembered to take the picture before I started eating😞. Definitely not worth the money.

Another thing I want to point out. On 3 occasion a waitress or waiter handed someone at my table a drink or plate by reaching over the table. We didnt understand that. One member in my party specifically asked that the food be brought around to him but it was handed to him from the complete other side of the table. Who does that? It wasnt the same person either. Three different servers did that. That's rude and unprofessional and unsanitary. Reaching over other people to serve something? The guy was sitting on the end of the table. Thats unacceptable.

The bison was great. The food was decent but not worth the price. The peach cobbler was terrible. We all walked out saying to each other that we wont be back. I know I won't be back....

If the owner of this restaurant cares to know. I came in with my family around 3pm and there were many open tables so we thought we would be seated quickly. The hostess said they were short on servers so the open tables weren’t being seated at the time and the wait time for a table would be over 30 minutes. Because we were driving back home to Dallas, we decided to order to go verses wait the 30+ minutes. When we got the food, we asked the hostess if we could sit and eat quickly at one of the many open tables, understanding there would be no server. The hostess said she had to check with the manager, and she seemed flustered that we even asked. She came back and said we could not sit and eat. We then asked her to speak with the manager because we thought surely they would let us eat quickly since we bought their food and they had so many open tables. The manager came out and told us we could not eat there that those tables were reserved for when people came to eat in person and they didn’t want to have to go on a wait. I let him know they were already on a 30+ minute wait and that we wanted to eat in the restaurant but didn’t have the ability to wait that long. We asked that since those tables aren’t currently being seated, since they don’t have enough servers, if we can eat quickly so we don’t have to eat messy barbecue in the car or outside on a 104 degree day. He again said no so he could keep the tables open for guests who want to dine inside. The manager obviously was unaware the restaurant was already on a wait and did not use common sense to see there were at least 8 open tables and no line at the door of people waiting to get in. The food was great, as always but I won’t be back. As a business owner, I know customer service can make or break...