The County Line

Reviews 3

KC

KC in KC

DO NOT GO HERE!!! I was with a group of 5 after a business meeting nearby at a hotel. At lunch, we ate at Baribas (AWESOME mexican by the way with best salsa we ever had!!) and as we sat upstairs, we eyeballed the ppl eating bbq downstairs, so being from Kansas City, we LOVE bbq and wanted to try Texas style bbq. As we got seated at County Line Road, everything was fine. (We waited a couple minutes, but thats expected at the Riverwalk anywhere). However, after waiting 5 minutes seated, without a single word from a server to even get us water, we were wondering what was up, but not a big deal. Finally after 12 minutes (we timed it), a server said hed be right with us...... another 5 minutes went by with no service.... We were VERY thirsty at this point and at 17 minutes we asked to get some water. Another 10 minutes went by and although we all REALLY wanted to try some bbq in texas as we are from Kansas City, we were so thirsty and annoyed that we decided to leave. (27 minutes) At that point, as we walked out, we overheard someone saying, "clean their table up" and one of the businessmen with me said, "No cuz we didnt eat or drink at all so theres nothing to clean up," which then a manager came out and offered us dinner for free. We were so annoyed and we needed food right away and went to Paesanos next door. We were chatting about it and since we were going to be around for another night, and really wanted to see what Texas offered for bbq, a couple of us went back and said, "hey, wed like to enlist in your offer of dinner here, but we were SO hungry and thirsty that we ate somewhere else but would like to come back tomorrow night." The manager said the offer of free dinner was only good for that night. We then said, "Fine, just give us half off tomorrow night and well call it good..." He became a complete rude person and said he doesnt respond well to threats....... He must have either needed some nicotine or withdrawal of drugs because he practically begged us to stay just 30 minutes earlier FOR FREE DINNER THAT NIGHT AND NOW WOULDNT EVEN GIVE US HALF OFF NEXT NIGHT!! And here we were, not wanting free, but a discount because of our bad experience, but still wanted to try some Texas style bbq!! On top of that, the crazy "manager" guy said he talked to our waiter and said we had only been seated for 2 minutes..... why would he offer a free dinner if we had only been waiting two minutes?! Even more so, WHY would we have left if we hadnt been met by a waiter in 2 minutes?! All in all, if youre hungry or deserve any type of decent service, (we werent expecting fine dining, but sure as hell werent expecting to be ignored for over 20 minutes) dont go here; plus I feel really bad for the servers that have to deal with a manager like that; no wonder we werent served for over 20 minutes, they probably hate their jobs dealing with a "manager" like that... By the way, we wcouldnt rate the food cuz they stunk so bad at service

BR

Brad Seehawer

The Riverwalk is where many people whove never visited the city get their biggest impression as to what San Antonio is really about. Restaurants on the River have a bigger obligation to represent the city properly, which they tend to shirk for the sake of cheaper eats and larger turnaround. Barbecue in itself is not representative of the city - the barbecue belt doesnt go much farther south than Austin, if that - but that doesnt mean that there isnt good barbecue to be found in the city, and it also doesnt mean that visitors who are new to Texas dont expect quality meats when they visit a Texan barbecue joint. I was worried when I walked into County Line and didnt smell anything. Our party of thirteen was seated in a quick manner, given the circumstances, though five of us had to be seated separately. The sampler platter was my choice for the evening, offering up all of County Lines meats. Heres the quick rundown of each: Brisket: the fatty stuff was satisfactory for my sampler, but a fellow diner was not impressed with the lean stuff. Beef ribs: I liked the bark and flavor on the rib, but there was little meat, and what was there was hard to get off the bone. I think some more time in the oven would have made it more enjoyable. Pork ribs: the most enjoyable meat of the evening, the ribs almost pulled clean off the bone (almost). Sausage: Crisp skin, though an unremarkable meat composition Turkey: not dry, as is a common pitfall with the bird. The meat on the whole wasnt too bad, but the default serving suggestion is to drown the meat in their barbecue sauce. Not only does good barbecue not require the use of sauce, but the sauce itself wasnt particularly good, with a tomato-vinegar mixture that was heavy on tomato and not much else. The beans were bland and even unpleasantly bitter, and the fries were standard food service fare. If you visit the bathroom during your visit to County Line you will have an odd soundtrack of cowboy "comedy" in the vein of Jeff Foxworthy thats not particularly funny and is representative of what the restaurant is trying to convey - San Antonio isnt about stereotypical cattle wranglers with funny accents - its about the coexistence and celebration of one of the most diverse cities in America. People visit Texas with a certain image in their mind, and its the responsibility of the restaurants of the Riverwalk to show that these assumptions are untrue, not ham up to it. The County Line is no better than any other of the restaurants on the Riverwalk, and should be treated as such towards those visitors who are new to the Alamo city and are looking for a good place to eat.

KL

Kleve Klepper

Mediocre at best. The hostess we had on 7/4/16 approximately 2pm, was extremely rude. We stood there as a party of 9 for 10 minutes before anyone even acknowledged we were there. I actually had to flag down a waitress and have her tell the rude ass hostess we were trying to give money to this place. Although I was thoroughly pissed off, due to the poor customer service, and recently having a death in the family, I brushed this off in hopes of eating some good food. Sadly this was not the case. I ordered a 3 meat plate consisting of brisket, sausage and pork ribs. The brisket: Dry, flavorless, like salt and pepper are foreign concepts. It had a solid smoke ring, but no smoke flavor. This comes from putting an almost frozen brisket on the smoker, giving the illusion of a proper smoke. Also, it was served barely above room temperature. The pork ribs: Absolutely. Awful. Unlike the brisket, these were over-smoked and overcooked. To the point of being acrid and leaving a chemical aftertaste on your pallette (similar to lighter fluid taste). The sauce was slathered on at the end, not layered and caramelized like its supposed to be. I have an iron stomach, I can eat damn near anything without recourse. These gave me indigestion. Again, served cold. The sausage: Actually pretty damn good. Nice snap when you bite into the casing, little heat, good flavor. The service: Our waitress was a delight. Hostess needs to be fired. DO NOT EAT HERE IF YOU HAVE ANY IDEA OF WHAT DECENT BARBECUE TASTES LIKE. If you have never had barbecue before in your entire existence, then definitely start here. Because you will have a whole new appreciation for those gas station pulled pork sandwiches. And you can only go up from here.