Churchrow Tejas BBQ.

Churchrow Tejas BBQ

Smoked beef sweetbreads, folded into a fresh flour tortilla with tomatillo salsa and escabeche, were the best bite Texas Monthly's barbecue editor had across four visits.1

Why go

Daniel Vaughn ate here four times before he wrote a word. Miguel Vidal smokes the mollejas in a pan to catch the fat and juices. He cools them overnight, then brings them back up in that liquid for service. Vaughn palmed a fresh tortilla over a plateful, with tomatillo salsa, fire-roasted salsa roja, rajas and a house escabeche of pickled jalapenos, carrots, onions and garlic.1 The La Valentina taco came closest to the old Valentina's. It is a thick fatty slice heavy with mesquite, under smooth lime-forward guacamole and salsa roja. Vidal came off Valentina's. Simon Madera of Taco Flats owns the room. The smokers are two thousand-gallon Cen-Tex offsets inherited from the Black Gold fitout, and the wood is mesquite.1

Order this / avoid

• Order the mollejas, then the La Valentina taco. The Sur-Tejas taco is where the habanero and Oaxaca-cheese sausage works best, better than sliced off the sampler.1
• Also: the smoky chicken skewer, four big pieces of thigh in agave barbecue sauce with pico and rajas over a habanero-mustard glaze, big enough to be a main. Then the sweet corn cake, whole kernels in the batter under whipped mascarpone, smoked-raspberry sauce and lime zest.1
• At lunch: the special is two stewed-chicken tacos, big ones, with tomato-rich shredded chicken and rice inside the house flour tortilla.2
• The empanadas and the queso, two reads and no ruling. Darcie Duttweiler had three chili-corn empanadas filled with stewed chicken under crema, fried crisp with no grease on them, and calls them one of the standout bites; they had sold out before dinner on one of her visits. Jeff ate them in September and they did not do it for him, something off on the day. She found the loaded queso buried under its toppings in a plastic cup and tells you to skip it. Jeff liked it, thicker than an Austin queso usually runs.2
• Off the sampler: the pulled pork, smoky enough that Duttweiler skipped the sauce, and the pulled chicken folded into a house tortilla. The mesquite-roasted corn in a cup is the side worth the money.2
• Avoid: the lean brisket. Vaughn tells you to ask for fatty slices or chopped, and Duttweiler's slice in August came leaner and drier than she hoped. On the pork ribs the two critics disagree: Vaughn rated them decent in May, and Duttweiler's rib pulled cleanly from the bone in August.12

What locals & experts say

• Daniel Vaughn, Texas Monthly, 20 May 2026, on the mollejas taco: It was the best bite I had during all my visits. He is equally direct that the pit room has not reached the consistency he expected from this pitmaster's previous place.1
• Darcie Duttweiler, The Austin Chronicle, August 2026, put the pulled pork ahead of the brisket and named the pulled chicken the sleeper: tender, moist, and especially good tucked into house-made tortillas. On the steak tampiquena she and Vaughn agree the steak is the weak half; she says the chicken verde enchilada underneath stole the show.2
• The Infatuation carries a page and says on it that nobody from the outlet has eaten here yet. Nothing about the cooking on this page comes from it.3

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note (16 September 2026, after lunch): "the empanadas didn't do it for me; something was off on them for me today. and i liked the queso; although its thicker than normal for austin texas."

Good to know

• Ordering: the entrance is the old side door and there is little room to queue inside, which Vaughn found rushed him through a long two-sided menu. Madera's own suggestion is to sit at the full-service bar and order from there.1
• Drinks: Caleb Chial runs the bar, and the Sombra Verde is the one for a plate of smoked meat, reposado tequila and bacanora with lime and a house verdita. The kitchen sends food the moment it is ready, so order the drink before the plate or the plate arrives first. It happened to Duttweiler on both visits.2
• Weekends bring Valentina's Real Deal Holyfield breakfast taco back, a slice of brisket on refried beans, potato and fried egg, with barbacoa beside it.2
• Open six days, closed Tuesday, from mid-morning into the evening and later at the weekend.1
• Price: chorizo bean dip US$13, guacamole US$11, loaded queso with chopped brisket US$16, empanadas of the day US$15, and meats by the half pound until sold out.4
• Hygiene: there is no published inspection for this kitchen. It is a fixed restaurant and not a trailer, so the trailer coverage gap does not explain the blank.5

Verdict

should-visit — Sit at the bar and order from there, because the door is a bad place to read a two-sided menu under pressure. Order the mollejas and the tacos, not a tray of sliced meat. Ask for fatty or chopped brisket by name. Give it a few months if you want the pit room settled, and go now if you want the sweetbreads.