I Tried the Best Texas BBQ in Houston!! (Criminally Underrated)

TL;DR

Three criminally underrated Houston BBQ spots — Pinkerton's, Pizzitola's, and Brisket and Rice — each offer a distinct style from craft to 90-year-old pits to Vietnamese fusion.

Key Points

• 1.Pinkerton's Barbecue is a Michelin Bib Gourmand spot founded by accident. Grant Pinkerton started selling BBQ from his parents' backyard at 24, opened the restaurant in 2016, and now runs three locations cooking ~46,000 briskets per year.
• 2.Pinkerton's uses an aerodynamic 'bullet brisket' technique for even cooking. 14–17 lb briskets are trimmed and rounded, seasoned with a three-pepper salt rub, smoked 10–14 hours, then rested 8–16 hours wrapped in paper with beef tallow.
• 3.The beef rib at Pinkerton's was described as a 'meat pillow' and the meal's highlight. Massive in size with a thick peppery bark, the rib pressed like a pillow and the meat slid off the bone with zero resistance.
• 4.Pinkerton's pork ribs are triple-smoked with brown sugar and sauce for mellow sweetness. Ribs are dry-rubbed, smoked, re-smoked with sauce and brown sugar in foil, then finished — the meat slides off without any biting effort.
• 5.Pizzitola's Heritage Barbecue has operated at the same Houston location for 90 years. Open since 1935, it uses original brick pits that violate modern city codes but were legal when built, making it the only place for true pit BBQ in Houston.
• 6.Pizzitola's uses a 'direct, hot and fast' method — the opposite of low-and-slow Texas BBQ. Ribs and chicken cook just 2–3 hours over direct fire with only salt and pepper, yet smoke fully saturates the meat to the bone.
• 7.Everything at Pizzitola's — including sides and pecan pie dessert — is cooked on the same pits. There are no stoves in the kitchen; the 90 years of accumulated flavor in the brick pits is considered the secret seasoning.
• 8.Brisket and Rice is a Vietnamese-Texan fusion BBQ concept founded by brothers from Saigon. The owners fled Vietnam as toddlers, grew up in Brenham, Texas, and invented smoked brisket fried rice combining Texas BBQ, Chinese sausage (lap cheong), and wok technique.
• 9.Brisket and Rice's signature dish layers multiple smokiness sources into one bowl. Brisket smokes 18–20 hours, is wok-fried with Chinese sausage, eggs, and rice over high heat to add 'breath of the wok' smoke — featured in both the Michelin Guide and Texas Monthly's best BBQ list.**