Slightly below if you ask me but it's good enough if you lived up in north Houston to never drive far to get BBQ
I was shocked how poor it tasted given all the good reviews it gets. What I tasted was right about Spring Creek level bbq. We were pretty annoyed to have driven out there for that.
I tried it multiple times to make sure I just didnt come on an off day and the taste was consistently not as how everyone rated it. The best thing there was the corn. I did noticed that Killens use alot of MSG in there food to enhance the taste.
this is pretty shocking. did you get the moist brisket? I haven't been in a long time, pre hard knocks episode.
We got brisket and ribs. The brisket was dry and the ribs were tough. We got there about 2pm so I dunno, maybe it had been sitting there a while when we were served.
Smitty's and Kreuz's are from the same family. The old man left the restaurant to his sons but the building to his daughter. The daughter upped the rent one day, so the brothers built the new place over by the railroad tracks and moved the restaurant. The daughter stole away one of Kreuz's pit bosses and started a new restaurant in the original building with the original pits, naming it Smitty's. Smitty's kept the original menu, so I'm pretty sure they still have clod.
^^^ FYI : The Lockhart Smokehouse locations in DFW are from the Kreuz family, too. You can buy Kreuz sausage there, as well. They also had clod the couple of times I tried them. I only tried the clod once... didn't care for it.
Corkscrew BBQ in the Woodlands off Sawdust Rd is the best. Good mix of southwest flavors, fresh tortillas, fresh pico, spicy bbq sauce, fresh smoked brisket or pork carnitas, just ****ing solid man. I've eaten BBQ from everywhere, I don't care for the Carolina stuff because its all mustard based sauce. I like memphis for their fried chicken game more than BBQ, and St. Louis is good for pork ribs but they can't do beef ribs the way we do them in Texas. The BBQ capital of the world is Texas.
Dont tell that to KC--they couldn't self aggrandize more if they tried. When you have to tout that you are the BBQ capital of the world on billboards, t-shirts and any store that remotely caters to tourists, then you are trying far too hard. I went there on a quick business trip last February and had been researching where I needed to go for my one night stop. I went with my spirit leader and choose "Oklahoma Joe's"(now Joe's KC i think) based on Anthony Bourdain's recco when he visited and ate with a food writer or two. While a great value for the amount of food, I was unimpressed. Razor thin sliced brisket to cover up the fact that it wasn't fully rendered and had some chew to it with no bark--scraped off like many BBQ joints used to do, strike 1. All about sauce, sweet and heavy--strike 2. Pits were commercial stainless steel rotisserie racks that were obviously gas fired with added wood chips for the smoke--strike 3. KC on the other hand? Great town--Austin feel and size, gas and power district was the place to be in downtown and plenty of quality trim to be seen. That said, I didn't get any burnt ends so maybe I don't have the full picture.
This was my experience as well. Killeens was not good -- I really don't get the hype. FWIW, I judge on brisket... it was meh. Best BBQ (brisket) in Houston area that I've had is easily Corkscrew BBQ. Probably my favorite in Texas so far, with the caveat that I've only had Blacks BBQ outside Houston (damn good too).