Hill Country BBQ

Hill Country Barbeque - D.C.

Overall

Filling, good barbeque with an excellent mac & cheese and a fun ambiance. This may not be the best BBQ I have ever had (definitely) but the chicken was moist and juicy, the BBQ sauce was tangy and good, and the service was awesome.

So I've been to Hill Country a few times, but normally it's for a trivia night, where in typical D.C. fashion I play political trivia and drink pitchers of beer. Don't judge. I'm a policy and energy nerd. I EMBRACE IT.

Ahem. 

Anyway, so I hadn't had dinner here until recently. And now, I'm not sure why I never stuck around after trivia to load up on BBQ.

This place, as evidenced below, loves its Shiner Bock. It's all they have on draft. If you don't like Shiner Bock and you want a large selected of draft beers, this probably isn't your place. But hey, it's just a drink to wash down that sweet sweet BBQ, so what's the difference, right? Sure, we'll go with that. 

However, if you're so inclined, there was a pretty nice looking cocktail list. Drinks range from $8-11, which at this point is (sadly) pretty typical for any specialty cocktails in D.C. The drinks looked interesting. The next one I'll try for sure when I return was the Lady Bird Lemonade.

So the way that Hill Country works is that you order your meal ticket when you walk in, and then you proceed back to the ordering area to fill your order. There are several options. You can order for a single, double or four-person order. Or you can order by the pound. Meatz everywhere.

We opted to do the Two-Step (for 2) which came with 1/2 lb. moist brisket (you can get moist for an upcharge of like $4 versus the standard lean brisket), two pork spare ribs, two beef ribs, half chicken, and two 16 oz. sides. We opted for the baked beans, which had some sort of pork in it, and mac and cheese. And oh my god. So much food. SO MUCH FOOD. We had so much food that we have leftovers. And we can eat, especially when it comes to BBQ.

The chicken was moist and divine. Cooked really well. The skin wasn't really crispy, but it was sweet. I kind of would have liked it to have a crispy outside (not fried, just crisped), but I honestly can't complain because the chicken was just so juicy and tender. The beef ribs, however, were a bit tough. Now this I kind of blame in part on the cut of the ribs. They were big, but just a bit chewy. Same goes for the pork spare ribs, but they were still good. I just like my ribs to be a bit more fall off the bone, you know what I mean? Extra BBQ all over ribs definitely helped out. The brisket was, indeed, as moist as it was supposed to be. I'm not the biggest hugest fan of brisket (why? I don't know, I think I'm just not the biggest beef fan in the world), but it was pretty good.

For me, the highlight of the meal was actually the sides. The beans still had a nice bite to them. They weren't mush. Which is, in my opinion, highly commendable. So many baked beans just dissolve into mushness awfulness. It also had a shredded meat in it (because sure, why not have meat sides for your....meat). The flavor was really good though and I would order these again in a heartbeat.

The mac and cheese? Y'all (as my Texas friends would say) this was amazing. Just....look below. See that? Mac and cheese is one of my favorite foods, but it is amazing how much people can mess it up. This was a perfect mac and cheese for this meal. I had to move the container across the table and out of my reach because I think that, stomach fullness be damned, I would have eaten the entire 16 oz container myself.

So my recommendations - chicken and mac and cheese. Without a doubt the best meat and the best side. And I should say, I'm not even a huge BBQ chicken fan. But this was a good one. 

I would happily go again to Hill Country. And bonus, there was SO MUCH FOOD that now there's enough for lunch tomorrow!!