Franklin has sold out of brisket every day since it opened in 2009, salt and pepper on USDA Prime over post oak. Which pit is best is a live fight: Texas Monthly put Burnt Bean first in the state in 2025 and LeRoy and Lewis second, where Evan LeRoy's foil boat keeps a crunchy bark over rendered fat. la Barbecue holds a MICHELIN Star in the 2025 Texas guide for a rub that runs pepper-forward through the meat and into the sides, and Space Kat puts no brisket on its board at all.
The Central Texas pit.
The guide
Austin's barbecue pitsThe Infatuation's brisket guide puts LeRoy and Lewis first in Austin and Franklin second, and the board at the top pit runs past brisket into beef cheeks out of a tallow confit, whole hog butchered on site and a link cased that morning. So order across the tray, and run the day in the order the sell-outs allow: the full board early, a short weekday queue in the middle, and one of the few rooms still cooking in the evening.
The rooms, best first
- Franklin Barbecuevisited
Salt and pepper on brisket over post oak in an offset, and Daniel Vaughn has kept it on Texas Monthly's Top 50 in every edition since it took first place in 2013.
- LeRoy and Lewis Barbecueverified
Second in Texas Monthly's 2025 Top 50 and first in The Infatuation's Austin brisket ranking, with a foil boat method Evan LeRoy built to keep a crunchy bark over rendered fat.
- Burnt Bean Companyverified
Oak, offset and wood-fired rotisserie smokers, ranked first in Texas Monthly's 2025 Top 50 and holding a MICHELIN Bib Gourmand. Seguin is out in Guadalupe County, so plan it as a day trip and not as a lunch.
- Parish Barbecueverified
The Infatuation scored the brisket 9.2 in May 2025, calling the bark thick and peppery and the meat well seasoned.
- la Barbecueverified
The rub is pepper forward and runs through the meat and into some of the sides, Nicolai McCrary said you would be hard pressed to find a more beautiful piece of brisket, and the pit holds a MICHELIN Star across the 2024 and 2025 Texas guides.
- Interstellar BBQverified
A MICHELIN One Star for brisket rubbed with salt, pepper and garlic and smoked low and slow over post oak, ranked sixth in Texas Monthly's 2025 Top 50.
- KG BBQverified
Salt and pepper brisket slow smoked over oak on an offset smoker, from a pitmaster Texas Monthly names in its 2025 Top 50, and the pit also turns out whole racks of lamb and pomegranate glazed pork ribs.
- Barbs B Qverified
Post oak in an offset, run by three women who learned the pits at Franklin, with a Brownsville accent laid over it. On the 2025 Texas Monthly Top 50, a 2024 MICHELIN Bib Gourmand, and on The Infatuation's twenty-one-room statewide list in April 2026.
- Distant Relativesverified
Classic Central Texas brisket with a crisp bark read through the African diaspora: proprietary spice blend, smoked mustard butter and tamarind molasses where the usual sauces would be, toasted sourdough Pullman standing in for white bread.
- Micklethwait Craft Meats BBQ & Cateringverified
A rub that runs past salt and pepper into celery seed, chili, mustard and coriander, a beef short rib with a dense peppery bark, and a Bib Gourmand in the inaugural 2024 MICHELIN Guide Texas.
- Briscuitsverified
Oak through an offset smoker under pitmasters Christopher McGhee and Will Spence since 2021, on Texas Monthly's Top 50 for 2025 and holding a MICHELIN Bib Gourmand. Moist peppery brisket goes on a thick buttery biscuit with smoked strawberry jelly.
- Churchrow Tejas BBQvisited
Fatty mesquite brisket fills the La Valentina taco, cooked on two thousand gallon Cen-Tex offset smokers under pitmaster Miguel Vidal.
- Stiles Switch BBQ (North Lamar)verified
Post oak in an offset smoker under pitmasters Ewan Hardeman and Lance Kirkpatrick, on Texas Monthly's Top 50 for 2025 with Texas Monthly's Daniel Vaughn writing that the brisket proved superb over several visits and the spicy pork ribs were consistently well executed. Order past the brisket: a serrano glaze runs across both the pork ribs and the fried brussels sprouts, so the house seasoning reaches the sides as well as the meat.
- Mum Foods Smokehouse And Delicatessenverified
Two thousand-gallon Bison smokers out front run brisket and pork ribs, and Texas Monthly's barbecue editor called the Wednesday burnt ends spectacular.
- Terry Black's Barbecueverified
Salt and pepper on brisket, turkey and pork ribs, smoked on site by Terry Black's twin sons, and a beef rib that The Infatuation names one of the dishes that defines Austin.
- Space Kat BBQverified
Akaushi tri-tip, coppa and lamb chops off a Webberville Road pit that puts no brisket on the board. Post oak in a trailer-mounted offset, then every protein finished over oak coals on a grill. Rated 8.3 by The Infatuation and reviewed by Texas Monthly's barbecue editor in 2026.
- Kreuz Marketverified
Post oak, salt and pepper, and pits lit in 1999 from coals dragged up the street in a steel wash tub. Texas Monthly's barbecue editor keeps eating here and has put the room in the honorable mentions twice, in 2021 and 2025, without ever putting it on the Top 50.
- Rollin Smoke BBQverified
The reviewer calls it a classic Central Texas-style brisket, thick bark, tender, plenty of smoke penetration, cut from Goodstock prime and smoked over local post oak on a Moberg.
- Black's Barbecue Lockhartverified
The brick pits Edgar Black Jr built, still running the 1932 rub on brisket, beef rib and hand-tied link. The Infatuation put this room second of five in Lockhart and carried it onto a twenty-one-room statewide list in April 2026.
- Pieousverified
Whole untrimmed briskets go into a wet brine, take a black pepper and coriander rub with ten more ingredients, smoke about fourteen hours over live oak and finish in a steamer. Texas Monthly's barbecue editor rates the result above a few famous New York places.
- Moreno Burger Coverified
The patties are ground from the trim off the pit's own smoked briskets, and The Infatuation scored the counter 8.1 in January 2026.
- Sí Baby-Qverified
Texas Monthly's barbecue editor assessed the brisket and ribs directly: the fat cap well rendered, the bark glistening, and the whole thing an impressive version of conventional Texas barbecue, smoked with oak in a gas-fired rotisserie by a pitmaster out of Terry Black's.
- Two Gooseverified
Post oak in an Oyler rotisserie housed inside a 1956 Spartan Royal Mansion trailer, under pitmaster Justin Abercrombie, who grinds the breakfast sausage from rib, butt and belly trim and smokes it flat on sheet pans.
- Loroverified
Oak smoked brisket arrives under chili gastrique and Thai herbs, and The Infatuation puts it at about 80 percent of Franklin's wow factor.
- Moreno Barbecueverified
The Infatuation scored the pit 7.9 and ranks it tenth in its Best Brisket In Austin guide, calling the salt-and-pepper brisket a match for the best in town and the jalapeno cheddar sausage some of the snappiest it has had.
- CỦIverified
Smoked brisket goes into the pho beside Hue steamed rice cakes, which The Infatuation called classics wearing a pair of cowboy boots.
- Black's Barbecue Austinverified
The 1932 Lockhart dry rub on fatty brisket and beef ribs, scored 8.0 by The Infatuation, with the honest asterisk that the smoke happens thirty miles south.
- Smitty's Marketverified
The 1900 Kreuz building and its original brick pits, still burning, with the queue routed down a hallway a few feet from the fire. Trading as Smitty's since 1999, when the family split the business from the building.