Stiles Switch BBQ & Brew

When in Texas, one must eat BBQ. Came to Austin in mid December with my wife and brother. While picking up our rental car, my brother asked the gentleman behind the counter and for some suggestions. I’m assuming he gets asked a this a lot because he proceed to hand my brother a print out of about 10 local BBQ places. We ended up choosing
Stiles Switch BBQ & Brew because of its location and other Unilocal reviews.
We ordered the beef ribs, smoked turkey, brisket, pork loin, mac & cheese, and corn casserole. We were not disappointing. The brisket sandwich, smoked turkey, and corn casserole were my favorites. Cant wait to go back to Texas and try some more bbq.

Pork ribs were absolutely some of the best in Austin.
I need to get the beef ribs because they looked incredible, and I’ve only heard great things about them.
Brisket tasted like my mom’s slow cooker brisket, not BBQ brisket.
The colelaw and Mac n cheese were both sub par.

The food here here is good but I always feel like I’m in a Seinfeld episode when I go here, which has the effect of ruining the experience of eating Austin style BBQ.
Case in point: I call them around 7:30pm to see if they’re out of any meats. A women checks, and indicates they are not. I walk in 5 minutes later; «Oh, we’re out of brisket.» Really? You just sold an entire brisket in the span of 5 minutes after the dinner rush had ended? Heads nod in unison. I left in disgust.
Another example: their menu on the wall lists their meats priced by the half pound. Ok, so another time I order a half a pound of sausage and get charged more than I should have. «Oh the sausage price is per link.» Funny how the menu on the wall doesn’t say that…
Anyway, this place gets points because of the location. You can get good meat here without driving downtown. Just be prepared to spend more than you anticipate and be ready to be transported into a Seinfeld episode where everyone is friendly enough, but mentally deficient otherwise.

Wow
Incredible bbq in north Austin.
The smoked turkey is incredible and my wife had the beef and likes it better than salt lick.
The sides are incredible and the atmosphere is wonderful

Had another great meal here tonight. Everything was awesome including the pork ribs. Strange as it may seem, one major upgrade was the music they played. Well done! Having Buckethead on draft is also a huge plus. We need to come here more often. I highly recommend Stiles Switch!

I like this place. .. but I can’t love the food. We were there about a week ago and I just left so unsatisfied. I like to have the meat sweats after good BBQ, you know where you just ate so much that you’re disgusted with yourself. I didn’t finish what I got and ended up tossing the leftovers b/​c I forgot I brought them home.
The meat texture was alright, a bit on the dry side and just didn’t hit the seasoning spot for me. The potato salad, I just didn’t like — I don’t know why. I got the macaroni again, which is dumb I haven’t liked it before and alas, it’s still just kind of blah to me.
The oreo banana pudding was really good though!

Great BBQ! They have the usual setup of getting in line, ordering what you want, and finding a table. I tried the smoked turkey and brisket and both were very tender and moist. The potato salad and macaroni and cheese were also very good. My only complaint is the BBQ sauce: it’s vinegar based and while it was tasty it was too watery for my taste. The flavors were good, I just didn’t care for how thin it was. Regardless, the food was all delicious and I recommend this place to any BBQ fans.
Random note: if you have a jacket or clothing that requires dry cleaning, don’t wear it in here. My jacket smells like delicious smoked meat and I now need to have it dry cleaned or risk getting hungry every time I put it on.

First time in Texas and of course we had to try the BBQ. Not too long of a line especially since we got there around 8pm. Definitely a younger college crowd and a few tables celebrating their birthdays.
Unfortunately they ran out of beef ribs, pork loin and pork ribs by the time we were ready to order. I chose the brisket plate with a cucumber salad + macaroni and cheese for the side dishes. The sides tasted good. The brisket on the other hand was a bit dry on some parts of the meat. The brisket needed to be dipped in the BBQ sauce to moisten and give the meat more flavor.
My husband picked the pulled pork and brisket plate. His beef brisket was really dry and stringy. The pulled pork was good with the white slice bread.
I am a little disappointed in this place. It was partially are fault for getting there late which is why we ended up getting dry brisket. So I would definitely recommend everyone to come early for dinner.

Worth the wait! The lines on the brisket are perfection! The corn casserole is heavenly. And I attempted one healthy side with the tomato cucumber salad that was delicious.
I can’t wait to come back to Austin for their BBQ.
The lunch line on a Friday at noon took 20 – 30 min to get through. I had to park a block away. I’d do it all over again.

I really wanted to like this place, but alas, no. Honestly the thing my whole party liked the most was the potato salad; second best was the turkey. Brisket was pretty dry (even the «moist» cuts) and not that tender. Didn’t seem like enough seasoning, either. Even though I now live in TX, I still like BBQ sauce, and their sauce was just bland and runny. The first time I’ve ever thrown away the food I had left instead of taking it home for later.
A side note that may not seem important to some, but the napkins on the table were really small and flimsy.
The staff was very friendly, they and the potato salad are the reason this isn’t a one-​star review.
Before I moved to Austin, I was lucky enough to try La Barbecue, and that’s still my gold standard.

We drove up to Austin from Houston. Found this place on Unilocal as we were in the neighborhood playing chicken shit bingo! We went based on the reviews.
Really liked it here. The brisket was some of the best I’ve ever had! The beef ribs were decent too! The mac and cheese was average at best. Absolutely hated the BBQ sauce. It was very bland and watery. However, the meats were so good you don’t even need it!
The staff was fantastic!!! They let us try whatever we wanted before we ordered! Also really liked the corn casserole thing they had. Very creamy! Oh yeah and the cole slaw was decent too!
If you need a good sauce for your meal this is not the place for your. However, everything else is absolutely delicious! Couldn’t give this place five stars.

Delicious! I had the turkey and it was cooked just right. The sauce was nice and spicy and the atmosphere just right. If you’re going for sides go for the corn bread and slaw because I will say that the mac & cheese left something to be desired.

I’m a little pissed and hugely disappointed.
We did the 3 meat plate with Brisket, jalapeño and cheese sausage, original sausage, and pork ribs. Also added on the $ 10 beef bone which ended up being complete crap– it was over smoked, dry, and similar to beef jerky but more likely to chip your tooth. The very nice man handed it to me with a seemingly genuine smile. I felt deceived. Any food idiot would have known the beef rib shouldn’t have been served; cheapskate-​worst scenario: recover some of that –ish by adding to a chopped beef sandwich, if not the trash.
Everything else was okay and slightly dry. Tried to dip in BBQ sauce but it was too simple of a mix, mostly vinegar + water. Probably made as such to avoid taking flavor away from the meat but a winning sauce could have helped recover the moisture lacking from the meats.
The corn casserole side was good.
In general:
My local friends recommended this place to me over long lines (Franklin’s) and far drives (original Salt Lick), but I should have been suspicious when I asked «what’s good?» And they said «the turkey is amazing.» SMH. I felt cheated from my $ 10 dry beef rib and a victim of this Texas BBQ fad.

One of Austin’s many popular barbecue joints, this one is a little out of the way on Lamar Blvd., west of I-​35. The Stiles Switch sign seems tucked out of view as well. I used the GPS feature on my phone to find it.
Once inside, you fall into line and order your meat (s) in something like a cafeteria style set-​up, or even a Subway or Chipotle, with employees adding sides to your plate. The two-​meat plate seems the most popular option and gives the visitor a chance to sample more than one item. That choice comes with two sides. Many local and national beers are stored in a case behind the servers.
I tried the barbecue brisket and pork ribs, and found that they were surprisingly bland. Maybe I hit them on an off night, or maybe the lateness of the hour (it was after 7 pm) meant they were not as fresh as they had been earlier in the evening. But the corn pudding is to die for and the wonderful pinto beans have a bit of a spicy kick to them! It’s rare that a meal’s sides outpace the main entrée, but in this case it happened.

A meal worthy of the wait. We waited for about 30 minutes, but the line moved smoothly and the food was well worth the wait.
I ordered the ribs and brisket, with a side of Mac n Cheese and the tomato salad (thank god this was an option!)
They had tons of seating inside and outside, and as the weather was so nice, we sat outside. The food, along with the atmosphere, was great. The food looked amazing, smelled divine, and tasted even better :)

Simple: It’s good.
Meat was good, sides were good, sauce was just a bonus to it all.
Even the Iced Tea was good.
As Arnold said in the terminator, «I’ll be back»

Meal. I thought it was really good. The meat fell off the bones and had great taste. The potato salad was also decisions and I believe home made. Sometimes certain salads are very thick and not really flavored but this one was good. The pinto beans had some meats in it which was tasty but a little spicy after eating several a bites of it. The price point was a little more than I expected with the portion size. But with ribs you never know how much you are really going to get. I would come back for the pork spare ribs though and bring others to taste their food. Overall a good experience but would definitely go with the pork ribs.

It’s a bit hard to find, but that’s the only negative to this world class Texas bbq. We have tried the brisket, pork ribs, spicy sausage, and today, the smoke prime rib (the first in line gets the end cut, heh, heh, heh). Everything we have had has been fabulous and the prime rib is just completely off the scales delicious and tender. Lance did the duties today and what a treat. He told us that he put the prime rib on the bottom rack at 6am and took it off at 9:30am allowing an hour and a half to rest. It was perfect. We have tried the coleslaw, beans and potato salad, and they were all good. The brisket has a wonderful flavor, but a bit too tender for my taste.
You will have to wait a bit, but the wait is reasonable and definitely worth it. The prices are very reasonable and actually less than a lot of bad bbq places in Austin. If you are from out of town, limited in time, and don’t want to wait 4 hours for the overhyped places, go to Stiles Switch.

If it weren’t for GPS, we would have missed Stiles Switch all together! They don’t have signage on the road, so you have to keep an eye out for the neon sign that hangs over the doorway.
While in Austin for a work trip, we solicited all the locals for barbecue suggestions, and we were probably told 7 different places (figures that there isn’t a clear favorite). We consulted Unilocal.And then we were told by someone that while these other places are more famous, Stiles Switch was the only place she brought out-​of-​towners, for three reasons: it’s delicious; it’s reasonably priced; it doesn’t have a ridiculous line. Combined with the positive Unilocal reviews, we were sold!
Once we found the place, there were only a few groups ahead of us in line. We got excellent service– we asked about their favorite sides and they gave us Yankees great recommendations.
I ordered the two meat plate, and got brisket and a jalapeño and cheddar sausage. For my sides, I got the lemon vinegrette coleslaw and the corn casserole. They also gave each of us a little of the special– smoked prime rib. My compadre ordered brisket and a mild sausage and got mac and cheese and traditional coleslaw as her sides. Let me just say… we were both floored by how good this food was. And I loved their house-​made barbecue sauce, it had the right acid level to balance the fats of the meat and I wish there was a way to order a case of it to be shipped to me in Michigan!
I also ordered a very reasonably priced beer and a chocolate banana pudding, which was fantastic. I was already stuffed, but not knowing how soon I’d be able to visit again, I figured I might as well try to stuff it all in before I had to waddle my way through the airport to fly back home.
Also, you know it’s good when you leave smelling like a smoked meats. I’ll be dreaming of this joint for years to come.

Came back and brought a date. This was his first time trying Texas BBQ and I almost cried when he almost ordered pork loin. Then he decided to change to a giant beef rib and the date was allowed to continue (lol).
He’s now a convert to Texas BBQ and to this place’s brews!
Thanks for a great time, Stiles Switch.