Hill Country Opens Saturday At 5pm

I went to the premier last night and it was amazing. Perfect decor, great genuine Texas BBQ served just like they do in Texas – dry rubbed (no sauce), cooked over wood (imported from TX), served on a tray in butcher paper, paper towels on the tables. And just like in Texas you get a meal card that they mark with each order then you pay in the end (that’s how they do it in Texas so it’s nice to see they’re keeping it authentic). They also have live music, a great staff, and good happy hour drink specials. At first glance the food is a little pricey but trust me it’s very filling – so you’ll need less than you think, you can order any size of meat (so it’s priced by the pound but you can order 1/4 lb if you want, except the chicken and hen which are sold whole), and it’s delicious and authentic with a great ambiance so well worth it (although I will say they are using their same NYC prices so they could come down 10% to 15% to keep in line with the general price differences between DC and NYC). If you go ask or Crystal as your waitress and George as your bartender – they were great!

we picked up a menu last night and a card with their March live music schedule which runs Tuesdays through Saturdays every week. best of all…no cover!

As of 6:30pm tonight (Saturday, 12 March), they’ve stopped letting people in until 9pm. They said they had 250 reservations plus 250-300 people showed up at opening and they didn’t want to overwhelm the system on their first night.

though i wasnt a fan of the NYC Hill Country, things worked out and we went tonight. nicely done interior. other than the usual opening kinks…everything was good about the place, except the BBQ. : (

The ribs were chewy and lacked too many dry/moist/smoky parts. the meat had too much unflavored chewy mess and way too much waste when paying by the pound. The link had a nice texture & amazing Texan look (with the string), but was too strongly flavored. The brisket was inedible. The fat simply wasnt rendered properly. Perhaps the brisket can improve as they get the operation going, but i have no hope for the ribs & link. sides were quite good. we had beans & corn.

Went last night and definitely enjoyed the food and ambiance….

Here is what I didn’t enjoy: On the back of the menu card are dine-in specials. From the NYC website, this is how the two that we had were described:

“NEW!! Longhorn Brisket Chomp $12 1/3 lb Lean Brisket, Any Good Eatin’ Side (8oz), Cornbread Add $1 each for Mac & Cheese, Chili, Campfire Beans, Collard Greens”

“NEW!! Chicken & Rib Special (aka The Pitmistress) $14 Quarter All Natural Chicken (white or dark meat), One Texas-Sized Pork Spare Rib, Any Good Eatin’ Side (8oz), Cornbread Add $1 each for Mac & Cheese, Chili, Campfire Beans, Collard Greens”

Both my dining partner and I thought the “Add $1 each” meant you could order a SECOND side for only $1 more. But instead we were informed at check out that the $1 was an additional charge for the first side if you ordered Mac&Cheese, Chili, etc. We certainly didn’t need to order a second side due to the portion size, but thought we would give it a try since it was a new restaurant. The check-out hostess wasn’t too sympathetic or accomodating…not sure if I’ll be back soon.

Guess this goes to show you there’s always a critic in the bunch. I went the night of the premier and again last night, between the two nights there were 10 different people in my party. We all thought the food was great. Can always improve like any new restaurant, but it was great. Sausage was too strongly flavored? Um this is Texas sausage – actually made in and imported from Texas – it is in fact the exact same sausage served in most Texas BBQ places Kreuz Sausage – so perhaps it is too strongly flavored for some but it is exactly as it should be for Texas BBQ (be like complaining that an Indian Vindaloo was bad because it was spicy – it’s supposed to be). The ribs our party had – and we probably had like 10 lbs of them – were smoked perfect, tender but not falling off the bone (it is not supposed to be in TX BBQ). Brisket was absolutely delicious – spiced just right and nice and tender (we got the “moist” version). The sides were also amazing (especially the sweet potatoe mash, mac n cheese, and bread stuffing). So it gets four stars from the 10 in my party – plus the table next to us last night (table of 5) who were actually from Texas were in heaven. So you can’t please all the people all the time, but as for my two large parties, it was an A+ and I’ll be going back again and again (live music 6 days a week, no cover, great happy hour deals, and great BBQ – yeap, that’s my kind of place).

Anonymous,
My Texan credentials are just fine. You saying ribs dont fall off the bone in Texan bbq is eye-poppingly off. And the only thing you need to know about their link is that they dont call it link. the rest doesnt matter. I still have my house in Texas. You’re welcome to come-with next time and I’ll show you exactly how ribs fall off the bone in TX (no, they dont fall off the bone like a braised rib would…it’s our own little way).

Bottomline: You do your review and Ill do mine.

Visited Hill Country on opening night and was not impressed. Most of the meat we ordered was left on our plates. The ribs were thick and fatty. We had to use a knife to TRY to get the meat off the bone. The sausage was mealy. The brisket had an odd grainy/fatty texture and was the worst of what we tried. The deviled eggs were bland and tasted like refrigerator. Tried a few of the sides and they were quite good as was the banana pudding but not enough to warrant a return trip.
Luckily, there are so many other restaurants to choose from in this great neighborhood!

we stopped by Saturday night to catch some music and tonight for an initial meal. we will return for two reasons: a) it’s impossible to gauge the long run quality of a restaurant from one meal on one night (good or bad) and b) we like ribs (and beans and cornbread and live music and something unique and…). overall, we liked the experience and food, and will give it another go ordering something different next time to make our way around the menu.

drivingrain – darling you’re the one who used the term link – I was just borrowing your language so pehaps you need to recheck those credentials. or you’re probably just from Dallas And as for falling off the bone you know very well what I meant – they are supposed to be tender but have some stick to the bone to them – and you can come to my folks house in Texas if you want some real BBQ

bottomline: Hill Country is great and I’ll comment on any review I like

The web site is not up. A click on the link above goes to a page which forwards to the NY site. If you use that looking for the address or the music schedule you are going to be way wrong. And the links provided for FB and the March music schedule don’t work either.

soo we went on Tuesday night..the ordering process is a wee cumbersome (i didnt know how to order meat by the pound…how much is a 1/3 lb of brisket is that a “lady” or “lumberjack” portion??) and they give you a lil “meal ticket” which was weird but worked out ok ..cause the bartender was able to check me out so i didnt have to wait in line ..but once you figure all that out..the food was great and the service was good..they had run out of shiner bock that was a bit disappointing… but i will def go back..and i have family with children in town next week i think it would be good place to take them…
xoxo

@A Different Anonymous – we noted in our post above the links that Hill Country’s Washington DC site is only a splash page at this point. we imagine the full site will be up at some point.

you do point out that the Facebook links are incorrect which is true. we will be correcting those links this evening. we verified that they do have an operational Washington DC specific Facebook site.

@A Different Anonymous – the Facebook links are correct now.

I am a BBQ aficionado. I am from Central Texas. My first job was working in a BBQ place (shout-out to Clem Mikeska’s). I LOVE BBQ. I ordered a pound of everything for take out tonight. THIS is good stuff. The lean brisket is VERY good. The sausage is legit. I have been a fan of Capital Que – mostly because of the sausage (also imported from TX) but the Hill Co brisket was the best I have had since TX – and would qualify as very good there. I am a fan.