Interstellar BBQ
Bates glazes the pork belly burnt ends with peach tea, and Texas Monthly's Daniel Vaughn says the tea takes center stage while the glaze stays off sweet.2
Why go
John Bates got his cooking years at Wink and Asti, two Austin restaurants with nothing to do with smoke, and brought that to a pit in 2019.3 He cases a Frito pie into a sausage, puts pulled lamb shoulder in the slot where pulled pork usually sits, and bastes his turkey with locally brewed Live Oak HefeWeizen.42 The fundamentals underneath are plain Central Texas: salt and pepper and garlic on the brisket, low and slow over post oak. That is what MICHELIN's inspector singles out in the One Star listing.5 Bates describes his own aim as pushing the boundaries of modern Texas barbecue while tending the fire himself, and he ran the kitchen that trained the pitmasters who left to open Parish Barbecue.7
Order this / avoid
- Order: the peach tea glazed pork belly burnt ends, then the Frito pie sausage if it is on the chalkboard, then the beef short rib, which comes under a herby chimichurri that cuts the fat.2
- Sides, and take them seriously here: smoked scalloped potatoes with a browned crust, poblano creamed corn, and the tomato and zucchini salad in citrus vinaigrette if you want anything sharp on the tray.4 Texas Monthly's own tip is the pimento cheese, green onion and a hint of sriracha.2
- Sausage: the pit cases its own. Two run every day, a beef kielbasa and a jalapeno popper of beef and pork carrying a heavy load of cheese.4
- Avoid: betting the meal on the brisket. Nicolai McCrary's brisket guide is explicit:
We've had some of the best brisket of our lives at Interstellar Barbecue, but we've also had a few occasions where the flat side was a bit dry and the moist side had some prohibitively chewy fat.
9 He also calls the turkey one of the more forgettable things on the menu.4 - Finish with: the banana pudding, which the same reviewer rates the best he has had.4
What locals & experts say
- MICHELIN Guide Texas, One Star, 2024, retained 2025. One of Austin's seven one-stars in the inaugural Texas guide, announced 11 November 2024, and all seven were kept at the October 2025 ceremony.10
- Texas Monthly, Daniel Vaughn, sixth in the 2025 Top 50 and second in 2021. On the pork belly:
The glaze isn't too sweet, with the tea flavor taking center stage, and the soft texture of the meat is flawless.
2 - The Infatuation, Nicolai McCrary (on-page 23 August 2023), 8.5.4
Good to know
- The wood: Daniel Vaughn named InterStellar in 2024 among the Austin customers of Chief Firewood, a father-and-son yard in Smithville that cuts its post oak within about forty miles of the town.1
- When: Wednesday to Sunday, 11am to 4pm, or until sold out. Closed Monday and Tuesday.5
- The line: KUT counted 40 to 50 people fifteen minutes before opening on a Thursday, and the sold-out board takes items off through the day.6 The Infatuation's own range is twenty minutes to a couple of hours.4
- Where it is: a beige strip mall on Ranch Road 620 in Northwest Austin, close enough to Cedar Park that people call it that.2
- Hygiene: Austin Public Health carries this kitchen under its own record, scoring 88 on 8 January 2026 and 78 before that. Neither is a failing finding. Austin's failing threshold is below 70, scores from 70 to 79 are explicitly not a finding under the city's own ordinance, and the trajectory runs upward. Five other businesses share the 12233 FM 620 address and none of their records belongs here.8
Verdict
must-visit — A MICHELIN One Star from the inaugural 2024 Texas guide, retained in 2025, and sixth in Texas Monthly's 2025 Top 50 after second in 2021. John Bates came to the pits from Wink and Asti, and the technique shows up where you would not expect it: a Frito pie ground into a sausage casing, a turkey basted in Live Oak HefeWeizen, pork belly glazed with peach tea that stays tea rather than sugar. The sides are cooked with the same attention as the meat, which is rare, and the smoked scalloped potatoes are the argument for that. Hedge on the brisket, because The Infatuation has had it dry more than once, and order across the board rather than by the pound.