Manns Smokehouse BBQ - Austin

I believe there are always expectations, which often cannot be met, when something is included in a 'best of' list. Before you ever even get to a place, or buy a record, or watch a movie, you're already thinking you're in for one of the great experiences of your life. Such was the case with my recent visit to Mann's Smokehouse BBQ.

I learned of the restaurant in a recent edition of Texas Monthly which claimed to list the top 50 BBQ joints in the state. Manns was one of two places in Austin-proper which made the list, thus I had to check it out. The place was not that easy to find and this made me think that maybe I was on to something. It's located in the shadow of the 183 on a frontage road which means if you miss it going one way, you have to drive about 5 miles to get back to it. As you can imagine, I missed it, but I did eventually make my way to it's smoky door.

The place looked fantastic. It's located in a former Kentucky Fried Chicken but you can't really tell that anymore. There's tons of crap on the shelves and walls and they have an old-school video game you can play for free. Also, they had a sign up advertising free home-made ice cream on Friday nights! Unfortunately for the Kid, I was there on a Tuesday. After taking in the decor I made my way to the counter and ordered the night's special - a pork plate, plus a couple sides and a sweet tea.

After a bit of a wait the food eventually found its way to my table, delivered by a friendly guy who knew where California's Imperial Valley was. I like people who know this as the Kid spent a good part of his Texas-exile roaming this strip of desert just north of the Mexican border. After a bit of small talk I dived into my meal, hoping to satisfy my sophisticated BBQ pallette with some of the state's best 'cue.

It only took one bite for me to be disappointed. It's not that the pork was bad, it just wasn't that bad. The macaroni and cheese casserole also was okay and my other side, black eyed peas, well, they tasted just like black eyed peas so I have nothing to say about them one way or the other. Getting back to the meat, it was not as moist as you'd like it to be. It was served pulled which gave me great hope for it prior to my first bite. However, it was a little dry and the sauce they gave me was nothing special and in the end I quickly ate my meal and left, not even taking the time to play the free video game.

It's at this point in my discourse on bbq that I think I might need to develop a rating system because I'm at a loss for how to close this. Mann's is okay. I find it hard to believe it's one of the state's top 50 places, but I'm also almost positive the people at Texas Monthly did not eat at even 10 percent of the BBQ places in this state. If I did have a rating system (and I don't) I'd give it 2 and 1/2 sauce bottles (that's out of a possible 5). Try this place if you like. Just realize, there are far better places right in Austin where one can satisfy their 'cue craving.