Salt Lick

Reviews 4

A

A Private User

Not good. I took an out-of-state guest here for dinner and was horribly embarrassed. The location was convenient since I live in RR, but the service was bad and the BBQ mediocre. Ive been to Franklin, JMueller, and Blacks & Kreuz Lockhart and this didnt even come close to measuring up. Rudys and the other Salt Lick location are better by far. The potato salad and slaw were good (I like when its not drowned in mayo), but the beans were way too salty. However, my real problem was with the service. We went at 8:20 PM figuring the dinner rush would be mostly over with, but the the servers still seemed really frazzled. When we got there (just 2 people), the host told us it would be 20 minutes. Some lady overhears and says "no, they dont have to wait if they want to sit outside." We were confused why he didnt give us the option to sit inside or out, but just said whatever and decided to sit outside. Then the problems began. Our waiter did not get a single thing right. Our table & one seat was wet from someones spilled drink (not just a couple drops, it was at least half a drinks worth) and no one noticed or wiped it down for us. We asked for napkins so we could wipe it up ourselves & he said OK, sure and then never brought any. He took our drink orders, then brought the wrong drinks. Ten minutes later, he brought someone elses drink to our table (we thought he was correcting his error) and then goes "No, this isnt for you" and snatches it back and disappears. Then he took our food orders, recommended I dont get the sides with my sandwich because "its a big sandwich" which I agreed with- then the food comes out and my sandwich has all the sides. Why bother recommending something if youre just going to screw it up? It took about an hour from when we were seated for the food to come out. All in all this wasnt the most terrible experience Ive ever had in a restaurant in my life, but bad enough that I would not go back. The server was a disaster- I dont know if he didnt have training at all or if he was on drugs or what, but an employee who messes up EVERY aspect of his job is not a good reflection of an establishment or the management. We were honestly just so disappointed that we didnt even bother to mention it to management (which was nowhere to be found, anyway). The two stars are for our food runners who were friendly and attentive, the only part of the experience that kept us from not just walking out. I have never in my life not left a tip, but was seriously tempted to this time. Salt Lick, get your act together because no one enjoys a chaotic dinner full of mistakes with food thats only OK at best. Potential patrons, youve been warned. Adjust your expectations or go elsewhere.

CH

Christopher Peterson

IF ZERO STARS WERE POSSIBLE, THAT WOULD BE THE SCORE! My girlfriend and I had a downright terrible experience at this location on the 4th of July. Mind you, there were between 6 and 10 open tables during our entire stay and it was not a RR Express game night. We were sat quickly by a bubbly hostess...Then it goes downhill. We were waited (notice I dont say "served", as we were never served by her) on by a cordial woman, but she was completely inattentive. We ordered drinks (a sweet tea and a water), they came within 8-10 minutes. As the drinks were delivered we ordered our food: A sliced beef sandwich, a brisket and ribs combo plate and a side salad that we were charged $4 for, as it could not be subbed for their lackluster side dishes. Fine. We then proceeded to wait for the next 50 minutes as she walked by us never asking if we needed anything else or updating us on the progress of the food. At that point I, myself, got up to look for her and get an update. As I could not find her, I found a man that looked "managerial". FOUND HIM! I asked what was going on to which he responded that "We got busy." Never once did he ask how he could help, how long we were waiting, no apology, no offer help in anyway. Apparently he could not be bothered with us as paying customers. OUR FOOD AND ALL OTHER FOOD PREPARATION AT THE SALT LICK REQUIRES NOTHING MORE THAN SCOOPING SIDES ON TO A PLATE AND SLICING MARGINAL AMOUNTS OF MEAT! Yet, we waited an hour in a less-than-busy restaurant. I was able to gather our meal (well, most of it) directly from the counter as it was boxed and bagged up. "Thanks", I said to the "manager", as we walked out...no response. WE WERE FORCED TO TAKE IT OUT OF THE RESTAURANT AS WE HAD NOT ANTICIPATED THE MEAL TAKING THE BETTER PARTS OF 2 HOURS BY THE TIME WE WOULD HAVE FINISHED EATING. We get to the car...no salad...I trek back, find manager and make him aware that our salad was missing...AGAIN, NO APOLOGY or anything of the sort. He simply replies "Ok.". He expedites our salad order in a reasonable 3-5 minutes. I verbally thank him..to which he replies, "Yeah". TO CAP OUR HORRIFIC EXPERIENCE OFF: BOTH MY GIRLFRIEND AND I WERE UP A LARGE PORTION OF THAT NIGHT SICK!!! APPROXIMATELY 5-6 HOURS AFTER EATING AT THIS ESTABLISHMENT. It was the only thing we ate together that day and our symptoms were identical. NOT ONCE WERE WE OFFERED AN APOLOGY!!! NEVER AGAIN WILL WE EAT AT OR RECOMMEND THIS CENTRAL TEXAS INSTITUTION!!!

JE

Jeff Turpin

Salt Lick is one of the best BBQ places Ive tried so far. With that said, there is a very wide gulf between it and at least one other legend: Franklins BBQ, also in Austin. Anyways, I ordered my usual "Trifecta" of meats: moist/fatty brisket, pork ribs, and sausage - no sauce. (My usual order ensures a consistent benchmark for comparing BBQ). First, I had the moist, fatty brisket as well as the burned end caps. Salt Lick does brisket better than most, but it still has problems. For one, the texture was still too tough and too dry. The burned end caps, at least some of the pieces, had bark that was way too dry and chewy (perfectly cooked is crunchy). Some pieces were too harshly smoked. Still, the brisket was quite enjoyable. Second, the pork ribs had a lot of flavor but the flavors were subdued, if that makes any sense. The ribs were also a little drier than I prefer, and the bark lacked the slight crunch I hoped for. However, I thought the dry rub/sauce coated ribs were all-in-all good. Third, the sausage is the best Ive eaten (save for Franklins, perhaps), and it is utterly delicious (even without the sauce they like to put on there). The sausage is full of juice and spice. Fourth, the BBQ sauce is also some of the best Ive ever eaten (surpassed perhaps by City Markets in Luling, TX). Its an oil-based sauce and kind of sweet; its delicious. In short, Salt Lick is really good BBQ, and you will never go wrong with the sausage and sauce as its some of the best around by far. Salt Lick definitely competes with The Big Three in Lockhart.

A

A Private User

Do NOT order the $18.95 "buffet" or as they call it Family Style. My husband and I went and after spending over $60 for two of us...we will never go back. We got the $18.95 "buffet" (the waitress brings out your portions). First they brought us a regular size plate with everything. The meat looked and tasted good. We asked for onions, pickles and bread (you have to request them). You get a quarter of an onion (still as a wedge)...were we just supposed to knaw off a piece if we wanted some? So, we ate our plate of meat and asked for more. The second was a salad plate with four pieces of "brisket". Two of the four pieces were the end pieces of the brisket that didnt really have edible meat on them. The other two pieces had so much fat on them they were chewy and tough. The four ribs we got ranged from 1 1/2 inches long to maybe 3" long. They tasted good but just not much to them. And we got a link of sausage (you cant really go wrong with sausage). On the third plate, we asked for just brisket and ribs. The meat that was on the plate wasnt even recognizable as brisket and/or ribs. I tried to pick as much meat off the ribs as I could, but it was mostly fat. I didnt get any refills on my tea and the waitress brought our check before we asked for it, so I didnt order dessert like I had been planning. I would have much rather ordered the $12 plate and got less quantity but better quality meat than pay $19 for lots of meat...half of which we didnt eat.