Mystery Diner
Featured in The Katy Sun and The Memorial/Spring Branch Sun
Looking for another restaurant recently, two friends and I stumbled upon Houston
Barbecue Company and we're glad we did! HBC is a very clean, respectable , not
to mention comfortable, place to eat lunch or dinner with a lot of just good
ol' regular folks serving you. The dining room is surrounded by unfinished wood
planks and topped by wagon wheel chandeliers and ceiling fans, and the whole
place smells fabulous with a rich barbecue smoke aroma. The service is buffet
style. You get a tray and slide it along the front of the food service area,
then pay at the end of the line. They slap your meat on a stretch of freezer
paper and hand it to you sans plate. I've eaten at a few places like this and
it's a real good, down-home way to eat barbecue. Kurt and Treca Craig, owners
of Houston Barbecue Company, explain to customers that theirs is real Hill Country
barbecue, smoked for nine hours in their two large covered barbecue pits filled
with nothing but oak. All of the menu items are made from scratch daily and
almost all of them are pretty good. One of my friends had the two meat platter
with the ribs and a small bowl of chopped beef. She really liked the chopped
beef, which she said left her "mouth on fire, but it was a good fire."
The barbecue sauce is a little sweet, a little tangy and not at all like most
sauces you find at barbecue places around here. It has a mustard-vinegar base
and is quite good. You can buy bottles to go for $3.50. The ribs were meaty
and came easily off the bone. The brisket also was tender and not too dry the
way you find it at some places. The sausage links were very unusual. They're
made fresh daily and are a German recipe handed down in the Craig family. The
outer skin is crunchy, smoky and delightful while the insides are a surprising
texture of ground meats and seasonings that fall apart as you cut into it. They're
delicious. The prices are very reasonable. All in all, this was an excellent
find for a trio who set out to find an Italian place and ended up with some
really nice Texas Hill Country cuisine. - Houston Barbecue Company received
4 stars for service, 3 stars for ambience, 5 stars for cleanliness and 4 stars
for food from the Mystery Diner of the Katy Sun and The Memorial/Spring Branch
Sun. The highest rating for each category is 5 stars.