Mum Foods Smokehouse And Delicatessen
The pastrami brines for ten days, and Ellis splits the brisket lean from fatty before it goes in.1
Why go
Geoff Ellis spent more than a decade hauling smoked brisket and pastrami to Austin farmers markets before this room opened.1 He rubs the cure with black pepper and coriander and smokes it until it is tender. He never steams it the way a New York deli would.1 Two thousand-gallon Bison smokers sit out front under pitmaster Travis Crawford, who came off LeRoy and Lewis and Valentina's.1 He buys his briskets from Goodstock and his turkey breasts unbrined from Green Pastures Farm.1 The Infatuation rates the place 8.1.2
Order this / avoid
- The OG pastrami sandwich. Half a pound between two slices of house-baked sourdough rye, under mustard ground from grain in house.1
- The Rachel if you want it hot: the same pastrami on griddled rye with slaw, Swiss and Russian dressing, which Rod Machen calls a revelation of a sandwich.3
- The jalapeno cheese sausage. Crawford grinds his links finer than the Lockhart ones they salute. This one carries big chunks of barely melted cheddar.1
- Brisket burnt ends, Wednesdays only. Ellis trims the fatty end off raw briskets through the week and smokes the pile on Wednesday morning.1
- Matzo ball soup, a full-flavored broth with a firm ball and bits of smoked chicken through it.3
- Avoid: taking the OG all fatty. Daniel Vaughn's advice is half lean and half fatty, and half a pound of marbled pastrami in one direction is a lot of pastrami.1
What locals & experts say
- Texas Monthly's Daniel Vaughn put it on the 2025 Top 50 Texas BBQ Joints:
Its foundation is pastrami (hence the deli theme), but the smoked brisket is a worthy costar that's sumptuously tender and sheathed in a deeply peppered bark.
That is a place on the list rather than a number, because only the top ten of the fifty are ranked and the other forty run alphabetically by city.6 - Nicolai McCrary, The Infatuation, 8.1:
We've had some excellent pieces of brisket here that could go toe-to-toe with the best in town
.2 - Rod Machen in the Austin Chronicle:
The brisket is firm and flavorful, and the ribs have a sweetness that takes them out of the more traditional zone but places them squarely in tasty territory.
3 - Geoff Ellis on his own seasoning:
I think good food should be balanced, but there may also be some level of tension between flavors.
1 - James Beard Foundation, 2024: Geoff Ellis was a Best Chef: Texas semifinalist. That award belongs to the cook, and he did not advance to finalist.7
- The MICHELIN Guide Texas carries it under Barbecue and Deli, with no star and no Bib.4
Good to know
- Hygiene: one failing score inside the last 36 months. It belongs beside the recommendation. Austin Public Health scored this kitchen, listed as
Mum Foods Smokehouse and Delicatessen
at 5811 Manor Rd, 68 on 2 January 2025, below the city's failing line of 70. The scored ten-day follow-up on 15 January 2025 came back 81. The routine scores since read 88 on 22 May 2025, 76 on 11 December 2025 and 70 on 7 May 2026. So the line is heading the wrong way even though 70 is a pass.5
Verdict
should-visit — Nothing here takes a booking, and it is a lunch counter shut on Monday and Tuesday, so the week is short. Buy meat by the pound if you would rather eat it at home, because the same pastrami goes over the counter.