Salt Lick is the most overrated BBQ in the Hill Country and it's not close.

I'll get into it. But first the ranking, because that's what you came for, and I've eaten at every one of these more times than my cardiologist would like.

1. City Market in Luling. 2. Cooper's in Llano. 3. Opie's in Spicewood. 4. Salt Lick in Driftwood, and only because the setting does half the work.

That's the list. Fight me at a closing.

City Market, 633 E Davis in Luling. You walk in the side door, through the smoke, and you order from the pit man directly. Brisket, pork ribs, and the hot sausage. The sausage is the whole reason you drive down there. It's peppery in a way that stays with you for about three hours and you'll be happy about it the entire time. No sides worth writing home about. No craft beer menu. A roll of paper towels on the table. That's the whole program and it's perfect.

I've taken clients from California to City Market as a first-day-in-Texas move and watched three of them go quiet mid-bite. That's the reaction you want. Not the Instagram photo. The quiet.

Cooper's in Llano. 604 W Young Street, original location, don't bother with the New Braunfels one. You walk the pit outside, point at what you want, they slap it on butcher paper and weigh it inside. Beef ribs, brisket, pork chops, cabrito if you're feeling it. The pinto beans are free and they're better than they have any right to be. The drive from Canyon Lake is about two hours each way and it's worth burning the Saturday.

The reason Cooper's drops to #2 for me and not #1 is honestly just the sausage at City Market. If you cut sausage out of the conversation it's a coin flip.

Opie's in Spicewood. 9504 TX-71. The smoked chicken thighs are the sleeper pick in the entire Hill Country. I know, I know, you came for brisket. Order the chicken anyway. Juicy in a way smoked chicken is almost never juicy. The brisket is strong, the ribs are strong, but the chicken is what makes me pull off 71 instead of just driving past. Krause Springs is five minutes down the road if you want to make a day of it.

Now. Salt Lick.

18300 FM 1826 in Driftwood. The open pit by the front door is a genuinely cool thing to look at. The family-style all-you-can-eat is a fun thing to do once. BYOB is a fun gimmick. The property is beautiful, the oaks are old, the whole thing feels like Texas in a brochure.

The meat is fine. That's it. It's fine. The brisket is softer than it should be, the sausage doesn't have the snap or the pepper, and the sauce is on everything by default when it should be a side-eye situation. You're paying for the experience and the land, not the smoke. And that's okay if you know what you're buying. Just don't tell me it's the best in Texas because it's not even the best within an hour of itself.

A few others that didn't make the four but I'd still eat at: the barbacoa trailers on 46 outside Spring Branch on Sunday mornings. Not naming them because they move. Ask around in Spring Branch and someone will point you.

Here's the money angle nobody asked for but I'll give it anyway. Rural land in the Austin-Waco-Hill Country region hit about $8,040 an acre in Q2 2026 per the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M, up 8.63% year over year. The Driftwood/Dripping Springs corridor is a big part of why. Salt Lick put Driftwood on the map 40 years ago, Hamilton Pool and the wineries kept it there, and now you've got the buyers from Austin pushing west looking for 5 to 20 acres. If you're hunting land out that way, know that you're paying a BBQ-adjacent premium. The lots within a 15 minute drive of a famous pit cost more than the same lot 20 minutes further out. That's not a joke, it's just how it works.

Meanwhile the median Hill Country home price dropped to $247K for the three months ending August 2026 per Redfin, down 6.6% year over year. So the houses got cheaper and the briskets stayed expensive. Welcome to 2026.

One thing to know if you're new here and planning your BBQ pilgrimage: most of these places sell out. Cooper's and City Market will run out of what you want by 2pm on a Saturday. Opie's closes when the meat's gone. Salt Lick will feed you at 9pm because it's a machine, which again, is part of why it's #4. Real pit joints run out. That's the tell.

Go to Luling. Order the sausage. Thank me later.

Salt Lick is overrated. That's the take. I'll say it a third time if you want.

Data sourced from Redfin (August 2026 Hill Country market report) and the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University (Q2 2026 rural land report, via Morningstar). Verify current numbers with a local agent before acting.