Don't be fooled about rating BBQ joints in Texas.

[Uncle Bob]

Earlier today a promo popped up on one of my feeds that confused me for a moment until I read the source name more closely.

We're accustomed to the Texas Monthly Magazine rating of BBQ joints, focusing on the Top 50. But there's another rating operation that has cleverly (deceptively?) named itself to perhaps ride some coat tails. They are an online magazine, as opposed to TM that is both printed and online, and go by the name Texas Barbeque Online Magazine. Why it caught my attention is that it rated a joint that is local to me as their Number One in the State. Wait. What? To be honest, we haven't eaten at this place for quite a few years because they just weren't that good. Well, maybe there's a lesson for us to learn as they may have upped their game since then. The article says they committed themselves to improving their performance in 2019 and perhaps they've been successful in that goal. As an aside, if you click the link below, you'll see that a Texas Meat Up favorite, The Burnt Bean, comes in #3 on their ratings. Maybe they know what they're talking about...maybe. Anyway, here is their full listing.
The 2026 Texas Barbecue Top 50 - Texas Barbecue

[Jerod Broussard]

If they not rating weekly it's just a moot point. Now let's see those 100 judges not get burnt end, I mean burnt out, with that.

[captainlee]

Go check them out, maybe they have improved, especially if they think they are better than Burnt Bean. Let us know.

[dpearce]

This only confirms that I live in the desert of BBQ restaurants. Top 100? I'd be glad with a top five within 50 miles!

[dpearce]

captainlee ain't that he case across most of the United States!

[LA Pork Butt]

I should be more thankful. I live within 50 miles of 14 of Texas Monthly’s top 100. I feel for you guys. I am quite sure that the best BBQ in your area is in your backyard. Enjoy what you enjoy cooking! If there are some pit members near you have a cook up.

[Jfrosty27]

dpearce +1 on that! We have a couple that I would rate as pretty good. And a few that are just OK. But nothing I would call great.

[jayjordan]

A Texas Top BBQ list that doesn’t include Goldee’s? Nor several other Texas Monthly Top 50?

[Uncle Bob]

I suspect they're trying to be different from TM just for the sake of being different. That, and trying to distill a consensus from a 100 different opinions that flies in the face of consistent standards/experiences.

[Panhead John]

Not only Goldee’s, but they ranked Redbird BBQ in Port Neches #50 while TM had them ranked #4……quite a bit of disparity. I’ve eaten twice at Redbird, no way they’re only #50 in Texas. Looks like they put this together by gathering Yelp reviews. 🙄

[Finster]

Like all lists of these kinds.. it's all very subjective.
One man's trash is another man's treasure

[Mosca]

Man, it’s just all so subjective.

I can’t even begin to be authoritative. I don’t live in Texas! But I got stuff to say about rankings. Over my life, I’ve come to be distrustful of rankings in general. It started with athletes… who’s the best baseball player of all time? Then guitarists, bands, songs, announcers, actors, inventions, teams, cars… and eventually you’re parsing the differences between Pope Urban II and Pope Pius IX.

And now bbq. And not ALL bbq, but just TEXAS bbq! You have food that isn’t “haute cuisine”. It depends far more on getting the basics right than it does on innovation. And even within that, there are arguments; is it better to do the basics more perfectly than anyone else, or to innovate within the traditions? Are both right? As eaters, should we expect BOTH? What if I just want brisket, should it matter that another place has the best pork belly burnt ends on the planet?

It’s hard to find bad bbq in Texas. It’s easy if you try; if you sit and think, “Where would I find brisket that sucks,” you can ask the GPS to take you to Dickey’s. But if you’re just going to walk into bbq joints and order food, you’re probably going to get good bbq. In my few days in Texas, over 3 trips, the differences to me are nuances. Yeah, there are places I liked better. There are restaurants I liked better than others where I thought the food was better. But I only had bad bbq at one place, when Sid P and I went to Black’s Original San Marcos location. But but, after that, we went to the completely unheralded San Marcos BBQ, not mentioned on any lists anywhere, and had some really good bbq! And that was a random walk-in.

BBQ lists are useful, when time and money is limited. But they aren’t the be all and end all. Seguin is small, under 30,000 people. But Seguin, home to the #1 Burnt Bean, also supports Davila’s, Schultze’s Pit Room, Johnny’s, 1117 Smokehouse, and half a dozen others. Why? Well, I haven’t eaten at any of those others, but my guess is that the bbq is pretty damn good and locals don’t want to wait in line for something that is in their eyes marginally better; in the Ty Cobb vs Babe Ruth vs Barry Bonds discussion, they pick Ken Griffey Jr, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, or whomever. Because when it comes right down to it… well, let’s eat.

[Mosca]

Naw man, s’ok! I keep forgetting the name of the guy at Bar A; not Cooper, but his Pitmaster. I think it’s Alex. He said it’s easier to find good bbq in Texas than it is to find bad bbq.

Here in NEPA it’s Italian food. You can just shut your eyes, point to a map, and find great Italian-American. Yeah, you can find bad, too, but the odds are in your favor that it will be really good. Go to enough places and you can make a list to warn people about, but the good places get talked up.

[klflowers]

Well, I can begin to tell you the best of everything. Starting with these dead horses i keep beating: beans in chili are the best, and ketchup belongs on hot dogs.

[jayjordan]

klflowers - I watched a YT Meat Church video yesterday where Pittman made chicken fried venison with singer/songwriter Richard Earl Keen. The subject of chili came up and Pittman seemed to be taken aback when Keen said he likes beans in chili.

[LA Pork Butt]

Not all lists are created equal. Before the Texas Monthly List I tried to check places on Southern Living’s list. Most were at least okay or pretty good, but honestly there was one that was terrible. When traveling we would pass by a place on the list but never at lunch or dinner time. Then came the day we could stop. It ranks as the worst BBQ I ever had. It was worst than my BBQ before I knew what I was doing.

[Panhead John]

Nothing wrong with someone wanting to put together a Top 50 BBQ in Texas list, more power to em. But, after reading the article I agree with Uncle Bob ….it’s almost like he did this list trying to distance themselves from Texas Monthly as much as possible. Not to say some of the places weren’t worthy, but damn, so many of them were places I’ve never heard of, in far flung locations. I’m sure that a lot of these places serve great BBQ, but if you’re going to do a list you’ve got to include more of the tried and true locations that have garnered universal praise…..rather than just trying to be different. Case in point….. Truth BBQ here in Houston was recently number 9 on the Texas Monthly list, I’ve also eaten there myself and can attest that they’re worthy of that ranking. They’re also consistently praised as being one of the best places in Texas by many others. They aren’t even mentioned on this list!…..not even one of their honorable mentions. Another example is Corkscrew BBQ in Spring. They’re a long time Top 50 from TM and they recently won a Michelin Star last year. In this list they’re relegated to an Honorable Mention.

While there’s a few here in Houston that they mentioned and I might visit to check em out, think I’ll stick with Texas Monthly for my BBQ guide. They’ve now done 7 Top 50 lists, the first was in 1997…..pretty sure they’ve got this list thing down by now…..

[Mosca]

I agree wholeheartedly, and ask: why stop at 50? Is there that great a difference between #49 and #51 that you would list one and not the other? For that matter, how big of a difference could there be among any of them? And carrying that argument to rankings in general: because Hank Aaron was great, Frank Robinson was an also-ran? Because Stevie Ray Vaughan was amazing, Richard Thompson is radio filler? Naw man. Let’s eat!

[LA Pork Butt]

I took some time to review the list, an it may be a case of beauty is in the eye of the beholder or taste is in the palate of the eater. I’ve eaten at a few on his list and am wondering if his top ten can really be that much better than the ones I’ve tasted which are almost at the end of his list.

[jayjordan]

Probably not. His reviewers were volunteers, most likely spread across the state and not given good guidance on how to review bbq.

[cruiseplanner1]

I like reading about all of your options in Texas. I was down there once to a National convention in San Antonio and stopped at Franklins in Austin. It was the hot spot in the media some years back so we got there and had a large meal. It was good overall and I did get to meet and talk with Aaron Franklin whom was a nice young man. Would like to have done a few more places but the time/agenda did not allow it. Did quite a few in Memphis over a few years. They were all pretty good with each one having a dish that stood out above others. I guess that is probably how all BBQ joints would be.

[jayjordan]

We do have opinions....and most of the time you don't even have to ask for them!

[Donw]

My firm belief is that every time you drive to a spot mentioned on a top 10, top 50, or top 100 list you probably passed a spot or two, that while never mentioned on a list, would be just as good, or even better than where you were originally headed. Doesn’t matter if the list is about BBQ, Italian, or any other cuisine, the passed by place will probably leave you happy you came because of the food, the lack of long lines, and a fairer price. Yep, you will visit a dud or two, but that’s life and overall what matters is your opinion and not someone else’s.

[Jerod Broussard]

I'm waiting for rankings that rank the folks that are ranking the BBQ spots.

[Finster]

those folks are pretty rank

[jayjordan]

Donw - agreed.

A long time ago when I worked in East Texas my boss and I were driving from Longview to Tyler around lunch time. Out in the middle of nowhere he suddenly asks if I want to eat. He then whipped into a tin roof building that had seen better days. We went inside and I had the best bbq I’d ever eaten up to that point in my life. It was remarkably better than the usual BBQ restaurants I’d been to.

[LA Pork Butt]

Yep! I checked a place out just out of curiosity and the BBQ wasn’t very far form some of the best places we have sampled at Meat Ups. Of course the volume he was producing was minuscule compared to many of the places we sampled.

[Oak Smoke]

IMHO there seems to be a couple of schools of thought in Texas bbq right now. The first is those who want to embrace traditional Texas bbq and strive to take it to perfection. The second wants to gain a market share by doing something different, changing things up some. Depending on what camp you’re in would greatly affect how you rate bbq places. I don’t mind trying something new on occasion but when I lay down the bucks it takes to get good bbq now I want traditional Texas stuff done right. Opinions are easy to come by, opinions that try to generate income are even easier to come by. If you need a good example of opinions in action just look at the NCAA top 20 rated football teams on September 1st then check it again on New Year’s Day. I know we all had Indiana at the top of our list from day one last year. We’re not even going to go into the area where you can use part of your advertising budget to get a favorable write up.

[Lynn Dollar]

Went to see my dentist this week. He'd recently traveled to Austin and ate at Interstellar and Franklin. He said Interstellar was cheffy ( that's my term, not his, but he agreed with it ) and Franklin was barbecue.