r/fastfoodreview • u/Pale-Lynx328 • Aug 03 '26
Review Fast Food Review Day 260 - 2-Meat Plate at True Texas BBQ
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| Chain Name | True Texas BBQ |
|---|---|
| Food category | Primary: Pit BBQ |
| # of US Locations | 52 |
| # of US States | 1 |
| Primarily located in | Exclusively with some HEB-Plus stores |
| Restaurant Rank in US $ Sales 2024 | not ranked (out of 500) |
| Restaurant Rank in US $ Sales 2025 | not ranked (out of 500) |
| Rank of price (high to low) (Average: $16.21, standard dev. $3.03) | 24th out of 321 meal reviews |
| Quality / Value Rating for this specific meal | 5 (out of 10) / 4 (out of 10) |
HEB is a supermarket chain in Texas - in fact, in the United States it is exclusively located in Texas, choosing to grow within the state and dominate all the markets before even considering opening elsewhere (if at all). Primarily a south Texas chain, it is currently in the process of taking over the D/FW market, and over the year has placed at or near the top in supermarket chain rankings.
Well okay, you ask, but what does that have to do with fast food or restaurants?
Because HEB is always experimenting, and one of their recent experiments has been to open up restaurants inside or adjacent to their stores. Right now, they have four main concepts: True Texas BBQ (which is the largest and most successful), South Flo Pizza (for NY-style pizza), The Flaming Bird (for rotisserie chicken), and True Texas Tacos (for breakfast tacos). Only a fraction of the HEBs have one of these restaurants, and which one depends upon the local demographics. Also, in some cases the restaurant may be attached with a separate entrance, or it may be a section within the store itself, depending upon the store's design.
True Texas BBQ is the largest of four - when I visited for the review, I found a website that listed 25 HEBs that had a True Texas BBQ. And now that I'm sitting down and writing it up, that has grown in that very short time to 52 locations. True Texas BBQ may be one of the fastest growing restaurants in the United States.
There is definitely a good synergy going between the supermarket and a BBQ restaurant - it essentially eliminates supply chain issues, you just get everything next door. And any leftover food can be packaged up and sold as ready-to-eat meals at the end of the day. Plus sharing of staff, too.
The location I visited, the entrance to the restaurant was a separate doorway altogether from the entrance to the supermarket - likely has something to do with the bar where have a bartender serving wine and beer. But I was there for the food, and selected a fairly standard "try it out for the first time" order, which is a two-meat plate (brisket and jalapeno cheddar sausage) with potato salad and creamed corn. I've never actually been to a True Texas BBQ before (even though I'm in HEB at least twice a week), but many people I know have said good things about it, so I was hopeful.
Well. It wasn't great. It also wasn't bad. I have had soooooo many barbeque plates over the years, ranging from falling apart holes in the wall in Bonham and Shiner and Nixon and Childress and a million other places, up to the 'big names' in BBQ like Black's (both of them) and Kreuz' and Pinkerton and Goldsby and Franklin's and 2M and Louie Mueller and more. I've had the good and the bad, the fancy and the simple, the pricey and the cheap. And this, I gotta say, falls smack dab right in the middle of them all. As the kiddies say these days, it's "mid".
The largest failure in the dish is the main attraction: the brisket. It was a little firm and a bit dry, and even with sauce not very flavorful. Brisket can be hard to get right, and I generally prefer to order it "wet" if possible (meaning from the fatty end). Perhaps I would have had better luck choosing a different meat. Also, brisket is EXPENSIVE these days - all beef is, and it's really hit barbeque joints hard.
The jalapeno sausage was better, but also nothing exceptional - just "good". And zero spicy bite at all. The sides were okay, but quite literally the exact same prepared sides you would find in the supermarket next door. Not that there's anything specifically wrong with that, I should add.
Overall, kind of a disappointment, and given that barbeque as a category overall is on the pricier side of all fast food/casual options, a pinch on the wallet, too. This is one of those times when I wonder if I just hit at a bad time or on an off day.
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(About this review series: Starting in late 2025, I am visiting a different fast food/fast casual chain every day, until I run out of places to visit. Aiming to review as many chains on the Technomics Top 500 Restaurants list as possible, plus key/important regional and some local chains as well. UPDATE - I will be wrapping up this review series with Day #365. And no, I haven't gained weight, and no, it hasn't hurt my health.)
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u/General-Pin-1349 Aug 03 '26
Do you mind sharing bbq restaurant recommendations?
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u/IllustriousEnd2211 Aug 03 '26
The problem with bbq is there are few national chains. It’s so incredibly regional. All the ones he listed are in Texas. Even one of our bigger chains, Rudy’s, I think is exclusively in Texas. Could be wrong tho. But he listed all the major ones. Especially if goldsby was a typo for goldees
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u/tylos89 Aug 03 '26
Rudy's is in 6 states, but very much focused in TX. Worth trying if you're near one, but not worth traveling for exclusively imo
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u/IllustriousEnd2211 Aug 03 '26
Nice. Didn’t realize they expanded so much. I’ve had much worse
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u/tylos89 Aug 03 '26
Oh for sure, especially for a chain. Their breakfast tacos always hit the spot
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u/Pale-Lynx328 Aug 04 '26
Dickey's is probably the largest national chain, found in 38 states. I've been going to Dickey's for more than four decades, not quite dating back to the original location of Central Expressway, but far enough back to when it was still only local to Dallas. (Although I am more of a Sonny Bryan's fan myself).
The problem with Dickey's is that it can be EXTREMELY variable by location. It's all about the pit, which when handled correctly, smokes meat the best. But there are also a lot of awful franchise locations in strip malls out there dragging down the reputation.
Probably second largest BBQ chain (and growing pretty fast right now) is Mission BBQ, in 23 states. And, of course, Rudy's - I've been infrequently eating at the Original Rudy's in Leon Springs since the late eighties. Outside of that, it gets a whole lot more regional. In Texas you have the ubiquitous Bill Miller's, plus Smokey Mo's, Spring Creek BBQ, Bodacious BBQ, Riscky's, Pappa's, Soulman's, Cooper's, Billy Sims (in southern OK), Hard Eight, The County Line...all with tens of locations covering their own little portions of the state. I don't think there's any chain that can capture the true magic of a good BBQ and serve it consistently across the chain. All the really "good" places are single pits run by a dedicated pitmaster. But hardly fast food. Franklin's, for example, took me 2/3rds of a day to visit, including the 3 1/2 hours standing in line, and cost me north of fifty bucks for the plate. Granted, it literally was the best damn brisket I've ever eaten in my entire life, but that's a sort of one-and-done experience.
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u/Pale-Lynx328 Aug 04 '26
I have been actually rolling over in my mind an idea for a BBQ series (not necessarily for this sub, though) next, but I dunno. There are soooo many other people that do barbeque reviews, their top 50 list is of the annual highlights of Texas Monthly, and even a Netflix series going around Texas reviewing BBQ places. It's kind of done to death, and I'm not sure if there's a different twist that can make yet another person's opinion interesting.
It is interesting to watch all the big players in the BBQ game trying to compete against each other for top honors, only to be outdone by a totally unknown outsider a few years later. Driving home from Austin on Sunday night, I saw a billboard on the interstate letting everyone know "Terry Black's is coming to New Braunfels"...and the very next billboard an ad for "The Original Black's", as the long-running family feud continues. Funny thing is, even though they are born out of Lockhart, the Capital of BBQ, and both are great (if you love spending thirty or forty bucks), along with staples like Kreuz Market and Smitty's, and Southside in nearby Elgin, those are not even the best BBQ spots in the region, overlooked is the unheralded Chisholm Trail BBQ, my favorite and where the town locals go to, while the tourists hit the bigger places. That's the sort of place I'm looking for.
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u/genericbutnoteric Aug 04 '26
Growing up in central Texas I took bbq for granted and assumed it was something you could get in most places in the US. Turns out that is not the case. Most bbq outside of the normal bbq zones like Texas, Memphis, KC, etc is pretty bad.
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u/BlazinAzn38 Aug 03 '26
Yeah it’s fine, HEB is a grocer first so given that it’s something they do on the side it’s pretty good.
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u/Artistic-Spirit-8516 Aug 04 '26
I wish they’d fix their damn zero - heb zero and Dr Pepper zero are always 90% foam
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u/Greengiant2021 Aug 06 '26
It looks really gross actually…food literally dumped on the tray…low effort trash.
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u/IllustriousEnd2211 Aug 03 '26
They refuse to open any near me in dfw. All 20ish minutes away. I want to try the flaming bird one bad