Hill Country - Review

Intro
Hill Country - Highly Recommended
30 W 26th St, New York 10010
Btwn 5th & 6th Ave
Phone: 212-255-4544

Met up Porthos and we finally decided to make the trek to Hill Country. The press has been raving about this place, so we decided to see what the fuss was all about. This restaurant is the ultimate dudes on food joint. Great atmosphere, great service (self serve), and great food. Overall, I give the restaurant a 90/100

My Menu

1) Brisket Moist ***
2) Pork Spare Rib *
3) Kreuz Sausage Jalapeno Cheese **
4) Kreuz Sausage Regular *
5) Beer Can Game Hen *
6) White Shoepeg Corn Pudding **
7) Hot German Potato Salad *

Rating System
--- What the F - in a bad way
* Good
** Great
*** What the F – in a good way

Dish Comments
1) This dish was a complete what the f moment. Brisket moist in Hill Country-speak means stupidly fatty beef brisket - like 50% fat or more. Reminded me of a great pork belly with an abundance of fat encasing the flavorful meat. The perfect amount of smoke (not overly so) and great beef flavor. I've had beef brisket in the past and it's always been very dry and not that flavorful. This was the best brisket I've ever had and the best bbq'd meat I've ever had in my life. I want one right now!
2) Tasty, but a bit of a letdown after the ridiculousness of the brisket moist. Meat was nice and fatty around the back of the rib, but the winner was the narrow part of the rib. The meat had good flavor there.
3) A very tasty sausage from a famous company in Texas. Crispy casing, juicy juicy filling, and a great porkiness. The jalapeno really complemented the fatty meat and woke up the flavors a lot - made it porkier.
4) Same comments as the jalapeno sausage minus the jalapeno. Because of the lack of jalapeno, the porkiness wasn't as pronounced to me. Still a juicy flavorful sausage.
5) Game Hen cooked with a beer which made the meat nice and moist (even the breast). The flavor of the hen was pleasantly sour which I assume is from the beer as well. Again, perfect smoke that enhances the flavor of the meat without overpowering it.
6) Awesome corn pudding. Sweet fresh corn that had a nice soufflé'd, custardy texture.
7) Warmed Potato Salad with a mustard/mayo sauce that was covered in mounds of bacon. Not great, but a good side.

Overall Restaurant Experience (90/100)

• Food 9.0/10 – I've been to KC, South Carolina, and Tulsa for some delicious bbq and this definitely tops the list.
  
• Service 9.0/10 – I like to call this place "Texas Dim Sum Buffet" There are 3 stations that you can navigate to - meats, sides, drinks/desserts. You hand each station a card, they mark it and hand it back to you like dim sum. The best part is they sell the meat by the pound. So you can start with small samples (oh let's say 5 pounds of brisket moist) and go back for more if you like. You pick your own seat and everything is already there for you - paper towels (perfect for wiping your hands and face), bbq sauce, utensils and a salt/pepper combo. This place is heaven since you don't have to wait for your food, just get it yourself.
  
• Atmosphere 9.0/10 – When you first walk in, it feels like you're entering a fun house for meats. There's an attendant handing out your meal ticket and you enter through the right hand side (the left side is for exiting). Upon entering it looks like a social club or something since it's so large and everything has a construction type feel - wood tables, concrete floors, brick walls. The other thing you'll immediately be bombarded with is the country music. Now, I'm not a country music fan, but it really gets you in the mood to eat bbq. Just a great atmosphere for dudes to be loud and feast on food. We got there at 12:30pm on a Saturday and it was half empty (place is huge though).
  
• Price 8.0/10 – About $40 a head for all the food that we had including tip, beers, and Texas sweet tea. Pricey for lunch, but after you have a piece of that brisket moist - you won't care either.
  

Closing Comments
Again, the best BBQ that I've ever had. The whole time we had a ridiculous grin on our face since everything about this place was perfect for us dudes. There's even a sink near the exit with a foot pedal that operates the faucet - you can wash your hands without touching any faucet handles...BRILLIANT! Still need to visit the other BBQ joints in the city - aka Rub, Dinosaur, and Daisy May. Been to Blue Smoke and Virgil's and they can't touch this place.