Houston Takes the Barbecue Crown: Leading The Pack In The New York Times’ Best Texas BBQ List

Houston is the city with the most spots on the 20 best Texas barbecue restaurants from the new generation, a list made by The New York Times. The list includes restaurants that have been open since 2011.

“These new faces of Texas barbecue tell the story of that transformation, and offer a taste of what it has wrought. All have all opened their restaurants since 2011, when Franklin Barbecue opened its doors in Austin, a turning point in American barbecue history,” wrote Brett Anderson and Priya Krishna for the Times.

The list includes 5 Houston restaurants, leading the way with the most spots on the list. Austin has 3 restaurants on the list and San Antonio only has one.

Houston spots are Blood Bros. BBQ in Bellaire, Gatlin’s BBQ, Ray’s Real Pit BBQ Shack, Truth BBQ and Brisket & Rice which opened in a gas station in 2022.

They are all great barbecue restaurants, but all of them are new and innovative. Some of them include new combinations and fusions. For example, Blood Bros in Houston which uses Thai green curry. Also, there is Austin’s Kemuri Tatsu-Ya, which combines Japanese food and Texas barbecue. This restaurant “imagines what a Japanese chef might be cooking at a Texas roadhouse 100 years ago.”

While Houston has more spots on the list, there is certainly always top tier barbecue all across Texas.