Leon Springs BBQ - "The Original Rudy's" — Restaurant in San Antonio

Sometimes as a blogger, you do things you would not normally do. I ate at a barbecue chain restaurant. We were in San Antonio with a friend's family for the day. Rudy's Country Store And Bar-B-Q was one of the first barbecue joints I have eaten at. I remember the food being awesome, but I also had nothing better to compare to it as well. My wife and I eat there ever so often. We like to order their smoked turkey during the holidays. When we lived in Lubbock, we loved getting the Coke fountain drink. It was the perfect combination of sweetness and carbonation. Too bad we do not drink any sodas anymore.

When we got to the original location, there was a line of about ten people. We were not sure why there was a line. We assumed it is because it is a touristy destination. At this location, they charge for pickles and onions. What?! Every time we eat at Rudy's, it ends up being pricey. I guess at this location, they do not want to throw you a bone. We ended up ordering some moist brisket, one pork rib, a link of sausage, a half pound of chopped beef, and a half chicken. We also got a side of creamed corn and potato salad. The meal itself ended up being pretty disappointing. The brisket was underdone and chewy. They probably cut smaller slices to hide the quality of the brisket. Shame on them for trying to fool me. The pork rib had decent smoke and was tender, but it lacked any flavor. The sausage was okay for a commercial sausage. They cut it the link lengthwise which did not help. The casing was good, but that is about it. The chopped beef was good, but who can really mess up chopped beef? The smoked chicken was the winner. Their chicken is smoked to perfection. It was very juicy, tender, and flavorful. The creamed corn was excellent as usual. The potato salad was pretty good. I do not know if this location is a good indicator of all of the Rudy's. I have had better meals at other ones, but you would think the original would be the best.

This might be one of the harder posts for me to write. It is very difficult to find good things about a bad experience. I would not recommend going out of your way for this location. Rudy's does have good breakfast tacos though. Eggs and tortillas can mask the imperfection of...

I am surprised by the high rating of this location. I live closer to the Rudy's on 151 but we decided to drive to the original location simply for the hell of it. We're usually really busy but had some time off and headed out to Leon Springs.

First off, the older lady who took our order was not friendly and that's something I've never been able to understand about these businesses. I never saw her crack a smile once; not when she took our order or when she took anyone else's order. If that is the first interaction the public has with the facility, I'd think they tell you to be a bit more kind. I hate being rushed to order, especially when there was only 2 people behind us so I know it wasn't because they were in a rush. There was another young lady who had originally started helping us and she was so kind. I believe she was new because they were showing her how to pack to-go orders. I wish I had gotten her name because she was pleasant.

About the food though, the creamed corn and potato salad, CHEF'S KISS, perfect! We got lean and marbled brisket, 3 pork ribs, half chicken, turkey, and a sausage link. I'll tell you, the only thing I enjoyed was turkey. It was cooked just right and it was hot. The rest of the meat was either barely warm or like the chicken, COLD. The pork ribs were dry and cold. The moist brisket was chewy.

We work in the remodeling business so I understand that upkeep is expensive but halfway through our meal and after swatting flies away from our food, I happened to look up and see the horrid ceiling. Make time and effort to take care of your establishment! We finished up what we could of our food and took off.

I was and still am extremely disappointed in our meal and overall dining experience. Gone are the days where you can expect a friendly hello when you walk in and clean restaurant to eat at.

We won't return to this location, nor will be probably ever visit Rudy's establishments after seeing the way this restaurant is maintained. I'll take this $102 loss as a lesson learned.

Thank you to the young man working the register inside who apologized repeatedly for the food being cold. I wish I had...

Went for dinner on 12/11/2020 around 7pm. This had to be the day the stars aligned because this was probably the worst visit I have had at this location. As we enter the counter area, a couple is walking out telling us there’s no brisket, “what bbq place in Texas is out of brisket on a Friday night”. So we continue to see what’s the story. So not one person greets us as we are waiting inline, something I have never experienced at Rudy’s. We continue to stand inline as employees walk by us and then a gentleman walks behind the counter and notifies us they’re “out of brisket but will be ready in 15-20 minutes” which coincides with what we were told earlier. I know brisket needs to rest after coming out of the pit which is usually a couple of hours which threw me for a loop but we decided to wait but will order other meat until the brisket is done. We order cream corn, beans, and potatoes salad. The cream corn was watered down, never had that before. The rest of the items were fine. We ordered two links of sausage and turkey. The links were served whole which are usually served cut up. I asked if they could cut them up for us which they did. We asked for 3/4 lb of turkey. They cut up some turkey and weight it, it’s a whole lb. Again, never had that happen where they cut up that much. I’ve always been impressed on how accurate they usually are with eyeing it. The turkey was amazing!! Props on the turkey, moist, seasoned perfectly. The sausage was good as well. We were satisfied with turkey where we passed on the brisket. I don’t know if this was a one time fluke where it seemed that the service was off but I will try them again hopefully with better customer service...