The history of Burns BBQ stretches back to 1973, when Roy Burns Sr. started selling barbecue from a roadside pickup truck. The operation gradually moved into the family’s former home on De Priest Street, but when the founder died in 2009, the well-loved restaurant closed briefly, then opened in several locations run by his family heirs. Finally, Roy’s grandsons (one a MLB player for the Boston Red Sox) brought it all back home, purchasing the original De Priest home, making the necessary repairs, and reopening in 2012 as today’s Burns Original BBQ.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Read more: Make The Best Cheeseburger With These 11 Celebrity Chef Tips<\/a><\/p>\n What’s on the menu at Burns Original BBQ in Houston Instagram\/burnsoriginalbbq<\/p>\n All these decades later, the menu at Burns BBQ remains rooted in old-school East Texas-style barbecue. The restaurant is particularly known for\u00a0smoky pork spare ribs soaked in tangy sauce,\u00a0chopped beef with smoky crisped edges, house-made\u00a0sausage links with snappy coatings, and those enormous loaded baked potatoes championed by Anthony Bourdain. Patrons can also order things like brisket, smoked chicken, burnt ends, and an array of smoked-meat sandwiches.\u00a0Accompaniments follow a similar authenticity with Southern side dishes<\/a> such as\u00a0dirty rice<\/a>, mac & cheese, green beans, southern-style BBQ baked beans, and more.\u00a0<\/p>\n Customers frequently praise those same dishes online, though reviews aren’t universally glowing. One Tripadvisor reviewer<\/a> called the homemade links “stupendously good” and enjoyed the ribs, while criticizing the brisket for being dry. Other reviewers extol the high quality, with one\u00a0calling the food consistently delicious and saying that “Celebrity Chef Anthony Bourdain\u00a0told the truth about this place! **may God rest his soul**”<\/p>\n With all that goodness under a single roof,\u00a0it’s no wonder that Burns BBQ made its way onto our list of Anthony Bourdain’s 12 favorite spots to eat and drink in the South<\/a>.\u00a0Rumor has it that, during Bourdain’s 2016 visit, there was plenty\u00a0of moonshine mingling\u00a0with the tasty food and lively conversation \u2014 which, in typical Bourdain fashion, included much more than the BBQ. The restaurant has become the perfect cultural diving board into deeper stories of the neighborhood, Houston’s music scene, diversity, and the renowned “Slab car culture.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Want more food knowledge? Sign up to our free newsletter<\/a> where we’re helping thousands of foodies, like you, become culinary masters, one email at a time. You can also add us as a preferred search source<\/a> or follow us<\/a> on Google.<\/p>\n![\"Food](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/tasting_table_543\/37ff38c2b51436143f6277a1c11f0b25.jpeg\"\/)
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