The Salt Lick

Didn’t have time to make it out to the farm so stopped at the airport location to try the brisket before leaving Austin. My sandwich was good (though not as good as Franklin’s).
After eating, one of my friends decided to buy a jar or two of the sauce, as she really liked it. The had a nice display with around 100 bottles at the front of the line. Problem was, after looking for a few minutes, she noticed that all of the bottles were past their expiration date by at least 3 weeks. Obviously after seeing that, nobody bought any sauce and we let them know that the bottles were expired.
Around 10 minutes later, 2 employees came out and started removing the expiration dates from the bottles, in plain site of anyone who was paying attention! They didn’t even bother to bring the bottles to the back and pretend that they weren’t trying to rip people off. I can’t help but wonder about the meat, sauce, bread, etc. on my sandwich and how old or expired it may have been. This must be an FDA or health code violation of some sort.
Needless to say, no members of my family will ever be eating at Salt Lick again as we will not support anyone who runs their business this way.

What hype?
Breakfast taco was ok.
The pickup service was terrible. The person doing the tacos skipped my number for whatever reason, and I came up to tell her that she missed me. She asked multiple times what my number was, what my taco contained, grumbly did my taco, and gave it to me without any explanation or even saying sorry.
Not coming back.

Basically you’re paying $ 15 for a brisket sandwich that tastes like a manwich from a can, a drink, and a side. It reminded me of the lunchroom in high school except there wasn’t any chocolate milk. This is not authentic Texas BBQ.

Wife brought home to chicago from the airport location some brisket and sausage. Was really looking forward to Texas bbq. The guest I had over to share with had to ask for a knife to cut her Brisket! Surprise. 25 $ pound dry flavorless meat. No thanks !

Bleh dry brisket. Highest rated restaurant for food though here. Small portion unless you order the combo meal. Lots of seating area in front of the restaurant. Water did not taste pure.

Average bbq at its finest. People were very nice who took our order. They had the southern black accent which everyone loves. It was good to hear since I am from the south. Let’s review the food.
We ordered the pulled brisket, the turkey and pulled pork. The brisket was ok. Not too much Taste and a tad dry. The turkey was very dry and unimpressive and the pulled pork, which I stopped eating really was the hero of the menu.
The homemade sauce they give you was good. Little sweet and tad spicy. Very liquidy so not to thick of a sauce. They also gave us a piece of bread which was average. Price was high but it’s the airport.
I would come back again because it’s the airport and you have to get food. This place was voted best place to eat. You really don’t have too many choices.

Taking a trip to Austin meant trying Southern BBQ at least once. Throughout my entire trip, I didn’t get to try it until I was at the airport. No better time than the present, so I went to Salt Lick and waited in line before my flight.
The joint eye catching. A huge sign and lots of different colors. The place, although small, really showed the smokehouse theme. My biggest problem was the cleanliness and staff. They were not really nice, super aggressive and pushy and their works stations were filthy. Lots of food everywhere. I was wondering if the food on the counters were mixed with the foods in the hot containers. They didn’t seem to care.
For lunch, I got the 2 meat platter for $ 13.95. My two meats were sausage and brisket, the platter also came with potato salad, coleslaw and beans. The brisket was good, a little overcooked, sausage was also dried out. I really didn’t like the potato salad, seemed like they didn’t use a lot of mayo or something. It was dry. Thank goodness for the beans. I used the bean gravy to really help enhance all the other flavors lol! The Texas toast was great for mopping up some of the gravy, I just wished everything was more fresh.
The part that saves me is that I know their potential. I’ve had Salt Lick before and it’s actually really good. I think it was just this location, being it was in an airport. Maybe next time I come to Austin, I’ll take some time to visit a Salt Lick outside the airport.

Great place to grab a taco to go OR eat here and listen to some good music from the stage just next door.

For anyone and everyone who «does not understand the hype» after eating at Salt Lick via this location let me let you in on a little secret. You’re eating BBQ at an airport. They cook the BBQ somewhere else, and truck it in. It’s not going to be good Texas BBQ.
Knowing this, and having been at the airport for several hours waiting on my step Daughter’s flight, which was super delayed, we decided to get Salt Lick to eat. I really should have known better. I got the turkey plate. The turkey was god awfully dry and leathery — slathered in a sea of sauce to compensate. The potato salad was oddly mealy, the beans were molten but tasteless, and the coleslaw I didn’t even bother with.
I threw it away. $ 30 right down the drain. Honestly, Salt Lick, you ought to be ashamed of such poor quality. I didn’t think that even you could stoop to such horrible, disgusting lows. I’ll definitely never be purchasing from this location again, and I’m seriously considering boycotting your other locations as well. But you know, I guess it’s my fault for being hungry, and knowing better, too.

Surprisingly good airport fare. Breakfast at an airport is pretty standard but the addition of properly smoked sausage or brisket to a taco makes it a cut above. Only holding to three stars due to the limited menu and the usual high prices at the airport.

The airport Salt Lick is pretty on point. It’s located near gate 12 and is a mini version of the Driftwood location. There’s a small circular grill with sausage and brisket cooking.
The brisket is always delicious. I love that you can grab a whole cooked brisket and bbq sauce to go and it’s packed in a Kold to Go bag. All you have to do is heat it in the oven and it’s ready to cut and eat.
It’s pretty amazing that you can get Salt Lick in the airport. I would highly recommend this airport stop to anyone from out of town to try. Or to take the brisket home with you to enjoy with family and friends.

Decent BBQ for the airport, but everything was consistently salty and a little dry.

Maybe because it’s just an airport but I still expected it to be much better… Especially considering the line (although it does move very fast). I went with the pulled pork and brisket combo. The pulled pork was a bit dry and out side was hard/​chewy. I would def recommend the brisket over it; that fat in the brisket makes it excellent. The sides of beans, bun, and coleslaw were all pretty sad– reminded me of grade school cafeteria sides. #ComeOnMan!

Don’t understand the hype. Ya I guess I got it at the airport, but Phil managed to churn out some good stuff at the SD airport so I don’t have any sympathy. Overall, I thought the food was bland and weak. I mean it just was super average. There are places in San Diego (not including Phils) that have better BBQ than this joint.
Nothing special…
Chopped beef — good flavor just not amazing.
Pulled pork — like pulled pork usually tastes… nothing special

The only place I’ll ever eat while waiting for a flight in Austin. I go with the pulled pork sandwich and chip combo. One of these days the brisket is gonna have its number called and we’ll see if it’s up to the task.
The line moves slowly but the payoff is worth it. I wish they had macaroni as a side option because let’s be honest, who doesn’t need more macaroni in their life?
Definitely check this place out and be sure to grab plenty of napkins!

Fresh feces masquerading as brisket
Lukewarm dong called sausage
All slathered with a sick as fuck tangy shit sauce
I wonder why?
The lowest quality «BBQ» I’ve ever ever had
Just a piece of duck shart.
I didn’t expect much and got nuthin’.

This is one of my favorite place for pork ribs! They are DELICIOUS!!! Full of flavor, tender and moist! I preferred this place for pork ribs over John Mueller and Mickleitwait bbq.
I love their bbq sauces!

So this is one of the more interesting meals I’v had in a while. As a Texas native, I’m a lover of good BBQ, and I’ve had my fair share of it during my travels. When I got off the plane at Austin-​Bergstrom I was hungry, so I turned to Unilocal for an in-​airport recommendation. The Salt Lick sounded promising so I moseyed on over for a bite to eat. I chose a 2-​meat platter with turkey and brisket. Their platters come with a sample of all of The Salt Lick’s available sides-​coleslaw, potato salad, beans and a roll as well as a fountain drink.
Their brewed iced tea (unsweetened) was fresh and tasty. I was disappointed that they did not have lemon for it. Even though it’s an airport location it shouldn’t be too hard to keep a sliced lemon on hand. The coleslaw and potato salad were totally forgettable, and the «roll» was nothing more than a cross-​section of the grocery store-​quality, sesame seed hamburger buns on which they serve their sandwiches. After tasting each of the sides I was disappointed, but consoled myself with the thought that at least with the generous portions I would be full until I could try for something better at dinner time.
I next turned to taste the turkey. The texture was wonderful-​perfectly smoked and very moist. But I was really disappointed by the sauce which is The Salt Lick’s claim to fame. Frankly I was completely mystified how anyone could get excited about that sauce-​it tasted like honey mustard dressing with a few spices thrown in for heat. I plowed my way through the turkey, finding the sauce more cloying with each bite.
Then I started on the brisket. And that, gentle reader, is why this is a four star review. If the two kinds of meat on my plate had not been served side by side before my very eyes, with the sauce spooned over both of them I would have sworn there was a completely different sauce on that brisket. It was heavenly. When paired with the turkey it was all sticky sweetness. But paired with perfectly smoked brisket it was nothing short of AMAZING. The mustard and spices became complex, and the sweetness of the sauce was the perfect foil to the brisket’s savory, smoky flavor.
So, now that I’ve figured out what to order at The Salt Lick (a la carte brisket with a side beans) I will definitely be back!

Had a Baja Brisket Breakfast taco.
Very tasty, smokey, brisket… too bad they chopped it into oblivion and let it sit around to dry out like beef jerky.
If it wasn’t so dried out, I would most likely give it at least 4 stars. But the service also sucked.
But hey, what are you gonna do? It’s the airport…
High prices, bad service. No real point in reviewing this really, but I had the time.
Might try Nuevo Leon next time.
Love the other Salt Lick locations and is a must for bbq lovers.

Just got off the plane and was hungry for something. Checked on Unilocal and found this place.
I ordered the 3 meat combo with pulled pork, turkey, and brisket.
It came with some nasty looking and tasting potato salad and coleslaw. What were they trying to do with those gross tasting beans? Tasted like it was from a can. Yuck!!!
Loved the meats, they were all juicy, flavorful, full of smoke, and had an awesome mustard type sauce on them. Too bad the airport location doesn’t have ribs, if I am ever in the area again I want to go to their sit down restaurant and try out the other meats.