Barbecue available at Briscuits, Rollin Smoke BBQ and KG BBQ in Austin.
Peter L. Scamardo II/MySA
Austin’s barbecue scene is overcrowded to say the least. Longtime staples bump shoulders with rising stars, and everyone is fighting for a Michelin star, let alone a spot on Texas Monthly’s Top 50 BBQ Joints list. That also extends to food trucks, which scatter the city with their barbecue offerings and have also received critical acclaim. But with so many options, what should you order?
MySA took on the challenge and visited three barbecue trucks in Austin to see what it would be like to eat through the city on a barbecue food truck tour. Here’s how it went.
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Briscuits at 4204 Menchaca Road, Austin, TX 78704.
Peter L. Scamardo II/MySA
Briscuits
Looking to start your day with breakfast, look no further than Briscuits, located behind Radio Coffee & Beer. The Michelin Bib Gourmand food truck offers Texas-sized biscuit sandwiches offering chopped brisket, sausage and pulled pork in addition to sides like pimento cheese grits and biscuits sticks & gravy.
The $17 brisket & jelly sandwich features a buttered, crumbly biscuit and lean brisket, which adds a hot contrast to the sweet jelly. Jelly fanatics will love it, but those who prefer brisket for breakfast may want the brisket, egg and cheddar instead.
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Brisket & jelly sandwich, hashbrowns and inside out cinnamon roll from Briscuits.
Peter L. Scamardo II/MySA
If you’re not a fan of combining jelly and smoked meat, the $8.50 inside-out cinnamon roll offers mouthfuls of sweet cinnamon pastry, paired with a smoked cream cheese frosting, for a Texas-sized sugar dose to start your day.
Be warned, the biscuits are all fist-sized. So, unless you’re a carnivore, stick with one biscuit at a time, but come back for more.
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Find it: 4204 Menchaca Road, Austin, TX 78704
Rollin Smoke BBQ at 1700 E Cesar Chavez St, Austin, TX 78702.
Peter L. Scamardo II/MySA
Rollin Smoke BBQ
Moving on to lunch, Rollin Smoke BBQ is located inside Chalmers Bar, meaning there’s plenty of outdoor tables and bar seats under covers and fans to cool off from that Texas heat.
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Staff told us the brisket was the most popular food, so we tried out the $9 brisket taco, a delicious serving of prime beef with pickles, onions and barbecue sauce in a freshly made tortilla. It tasted like the best version of a ballpark snack, perfect for a hot day.
Other notable bites include the $17 Playboy (a quarter-pound brisket, quarter-pound pulled pork with half link of jalapeño cheese kielbasa) and $13 Player’s Pie (a Frito pie topped with barbecue sauce, onions, cilantro and chipotle cream sauce, which can be subbed with Cheetos), but pace yourself knowing you have a full day of barbecue eating ahead.
Boozy Brussels from Rollin Smoke BBQ.
Peter L. Scamardo II/MySA
Turkey al pastor quesotaco, brisket taco and boozy Brussels from Rollin Smoke BBQ.
Peter L. Scamardo II/MySA
Brisket taco from Rollin Smoke BBQ in Austin.
Peter L. Scamardo II/MySA
When it comes to daily specials, we tried out a turkey al pastor quesotaco and boozy Brussels. The quesotaco had a good dose of cheese and generous meats, but was on the spicy side (again, not a negative if you like the spice), and the Brussels added a great dose of flavor that paired well with the meats. Brussels sprouts can be a tough vegetable to enjoy, so the boozy concoction was a plus.
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Find it: 1700 E Cesar Chavez St, Austin, TX 78702
KG BBQ at 3108 Manor Rd, Austin, TX 78723.
Peter L. Scamardo II/MySA
KG BBQ
We capped off the day with a visit to KG BBQ, one of the fastest-rising barbecue outfits in Texas, let alone barbecue trucks. The Michelin Bib Gourmand truck is located outside Oddwood Brewing, offering award-winning meats to pair with their drinks.
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The $15 Cowboy Mac N’ Cheese came highly recommended, offering a bowl of mac n cheese topped with sumac onions, BBQ sauce, and lamb shoulder. While the dish is heavy on the onions, the creamy mac n cheese pairs perfectly with the hot lamb meat.
Staff told us that the $9.50 lamb chops sell out the fastest, so we grabbed one, and it was delicious, coming with a scoop of chimichurri for an extra bite of flavor. You will be shocked to learn that the lamb chop came from a food truck; a fancy restaurant could’ve easily charged an arm and a leg for that quality meat.
Cowboy Mac N’ Cheese, lamb chops and Oum Ali from KG BBQ.
Peter L. Scamardo II/MySA
To end the day, we enjoyed a $12 Oum Ali, a smoked Egyptian bread pudding that came hot out of the oven and added a creaminess and sugary goodness that cut through the day’s worth of smoked meat.
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Overall, KG BBQ offers a delicious spread of options that thanks to its Egyptian flavors stands out in the crowded world of brisket, sausage and pulled pork.
Find it: 3108 Manor Road, Austin, TX 78723
Be warned, you will have a full stomach if you eat nothing but barbecue trucks while exploring Austin, but you’ll sleep well with memories of delicious foods met along the way.
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P.S. We plan on visiting Parish Barbecue in the future. They were in the process of getting a new food truck and were not open during our visit.