Houston Barbecue Company - Houston, TX Review

Barbecue is a food to get wild about.  It implies party, good times, but also tasty seasoned food.  It's simple, there's not a lot of clutter around barbecue and that holds consistently across the country. There are so many styles and variations and up 'til now I've loved them all! Give me a simple cut of meat cooked to perfection with a tasty sauce and a side of slaw or ranch beans and you'll discover a happy customer.  How hard can that be?

I've planned workshops close to favorite barbecue restaurants. I once traveled from Casper, Wyoming, to Gillette, Wyoming, in the winter for some fine ribs and ended getting stranded for several days by a blizzard.  Chicago has its style, as does Memphis, Kansas City, North Carolina, Kentucky, Maryland, Indiana, and Texas.  There's a stand in the food court at Atlanta's airport that always gets me. I'm learning Texas has several styles but there are consistencies between each that seems to hold from region to region. A "highly acclaimed" barbecue restaurant in Houston recently disappointed me big time.  The Houston Barbecue Company at 1127 Eldridge Parkway on Houston's west side (near the energy corridor) left me dissatisfied and craving barbecue.

Consistencies expected for me are always: fun atmosphere that includes staff, generous servings, and a variety of sauces with lots of pickles, peppers, and onions as well as good music.  I went to the Houston Barbecue Company on a Saturday and it was nearly empty, the staff was grumbling. They were not friendly and definitely did not respond to my playful greetings.  OK, so perhaps that's just me and something unpleasant had just happened prior to our arrival.  

The bar was closed or at least appeared to be.  If I had wanted a beer there was none to be seen.  When asked about what we wanted to drink I asked about beer and they said they had soft drinks and iced tea. I had diet Dr. Pepper as opposed to RC Cola - but really was in a bottle of beer mood.  Oh well.  Pickles, peppers, and onions were sides at 60 cents for a small bowl rather than just a small scoop next to the meat.

The menu was relatively typical, although expensive.

The Houston Barbecue Company serves brisket, ham, pork ribs, and turkey at 12.75 per pound. They were available in 1/3, ½ and 1 pound servings.  Slaw, pinto beans, and potato salad cost 1.75 per individual serving or a half pint was $2.10.  A half chicken is $6.25 and they serve homemade beef or jalapeño links at $3.90 each. They also have daily specials and one of my typical favorites, pulled pork, was a Friday special.

Their list of sandwiches includes brisket, ham, sliced turkey, and sausage links. They tempt with chocolate chip brownies and a slice of southern pecan pie.  

They claim this is an oak pit barbecue.  My brisket was tender but lacked taste.  The accompanying sauce, a sort of orange vinegar mustard based sauce left me completely disappointed and that was all they offered.  I ended up eating my brisket naked rather than contaminated by their sauce. They claim this is Central Texas style barbecue - I don't think so! I lived there and never found anything like this. The half-pound serving was surprisingly small; the slaw lacked taste. My husband had the jalapeño sausage that turned out to be tiny, also lacking in flavor with the texture of bologna.

Inside looked hopeful at first and appropriately rustic with an open dining room.  The food is served cafeteria style, but I quickly had doubts when seeing the small bowls of pickles for 60 cents each.  What is that about?  Regarding music - there wasn't any!

So there aren't many barbecue, barbeque or BBQ places on this side of Houston.  The location is a very upscale neighborhood, perhaps not where one goes when looking for barbecue, but reviews had been good. I have my hair done close by and the smell had me salivating more than once - the restaurant had been calling my name so on this particular Saturday I persuaded my husband to join me for BBQ?  We won't be back! My guess is their audience consists of people from the surrounding businesses, perhaps not overly familiar with barbecue.  They call this a barbecue restaurant, it certainly smells like one, it might look like one, but the quality of a true barbecue restaurant just won't be found. There are other places in town that are farther away.  If they disappoint I'm headed west to Austin to feast at County Line on the Hill.  Unless you're on an expense account and tight for time and this is close to your office, avoid it, and don't introduce out-of-state, out-of-country guests to barbecue with The Houston Barbecue Company.