Bigcat BBQ

Love me some ribs! Brisket is also good. Just watch the beef fat and you are all set for a fine meal

Finally timed it right to check out this little BBQ spot. The brisket was *moist* — they’ll ask you for inner or outer cut, and being fans of the bark we went outer. Still incredibly moist. Also got the St. Louis ribs — very meaty, but with a great crispy crust. The kiddos also got mac and cheese — it is hand-​made at the location and must have been good, because they wouldn’t let us try any. Bigcat has two sauces — a smoky sauce and a sweet-​hot sauce. Try them both — I caught myself swirling an empty rib bone in the sweet sauce just to get more of the sauce.
One note — they will close for the night when they run out, but they didn’t seem very busy. But you might want to call if its close to closing time and you have a big order.

Bigcat BBQ is great stuff, highly recommend it. Good portions, meats are all good to excellent, sides also solid. Prices also are reasonable. This is a good addition to the BBQ scene in Cedar Park.

BBQ is tricky because people have such personal tastes and the style of BBQ can differ based on who ever makes it. For me, if there’s stuff OTHER than BBQ on the menu (like the place that does breakfast and burgers well and also has BBQ) I’ll order the other stuff so as not to risk it.
That said, I really like the BBQ here. Brisket has a nice peppery crust and maybe is a tiny bit dry but still yummy. I love the pulled pork — soo good and most places don’t have it.
I don’t normally like potato salad but theirs is good; it’s the paprika, I think. The taste is reminiscent of deviled eggs, which I like. So take that for what it’s worth. Mac and cheese was okay, we got there too late to try the beans, green or pinto. But we’re already planning our next pickup order! So glad to have yummy BBQ nearby!

First visit… 5 adults 2 kids — everyone agreed it was AWESOME!
table tried: pulled pork sandwich, chopped BBQ sandwich, sliced brisket — fatty & lean — all were declared delicious and quickly polished off.
pulled pork had dry rub, so not overloaded with sauce, same thing with chopped BBQ — add your own sauce. Chopped BBQ had lots of «burnt ends» pieces — yum! peppery, seasoned rub, VERY delicious! lots of chunks of meat. brisket was fall apart tender, moist and delicious from either end!
Sides: coleslaw and potato salad good, green beans tasted like they had a chicken stock based light «sauce» — very tasty, pintos look plain, but have a slight kick and flavor reminiscent of ranch style beans.
prices were good:
Sandwiches around $ 6, combo with drink & side for $ 9, large double meat sandwich combo $ 11.
plates: 1 meat $ 10, 2 meat $ 12 and 3 meat $ 14 brisket plate — $ 12.
service was good — only problem was it took 15 – 20 minutes for them replenish the sweet tea :(
would definitely return!

Just ate dinner here for the first time. My friend and I both ordered the 2 meat plate with moist brisket and sausage. She had the jalapeño cheese sausage, me the regular. The brisket was fantastic!!! The sausage was great too but I will definitely return for the brisket!

Finally got to try this place after hearing so much about it. I ordered ribs, brisket, and sausage with Mac n cheese and pinto beans as sides.
The Brisket– very flavorful, tender, and smokey!
The sausage– just plain smoked sausagereally no need to get it.
The pork ribs– these were perfect! Absolutely scrumptious! Very tender with just enough bite… The layer of seasoning rub had melted into the meat a turned into a candy like texture full of smoke and flavor! These were the highlight… definitely some of the best ribs in town.
The sides were ok… but it’s not about the sides
Also, the sauces (they offer both a mustard based and a red sweet sauce) weren’t all that good but who needs sauce when the ribs are that good?!?

Not bad at all! Plenty of choices for prices typical of this area. Turkey was awesome! Fairly clean establishment and exceptional service.

I was on my way to another barbecue place when I saw this one. I am so glad that I stopped in and had lunch. The 3 meat plate was amazing. Great friendly staff and all the condiments you could wish for. Sorry Smokey Moe’s, you have lost me for life.

We stopped in for dinner around 4:30 on Sunday. I have to say that the staff is kinda friendly and helpful. The atmosphere is mostly «Cliché’» and un-​unique compared to some other local BBQ restaurants I have visited. We decided to try the 2 meat plates. My dining partner had the Pulled Pork and Brisket with Garlic potatoes and green beans. I had the Venison, Shiner sausage and «Moist» Brisket. (Only option they had). I requested a little bark w/​the meat order, however, was told that they were out of «Lean» meat. (1^st red flag A BBQ joint with no Bark??) As I sat down to try this food,
The side dishes were potato salad and coleslaw. The potato salad had too much vinegar and certainly would have not made it through a family reunion w/​o a fight or insults. The coleslaw had a «Wanky» taste as well as being soggy w/​no crunch. The green beans were just one step away from being infant food, they were really mushy. I have to say that the garlic potatoes were the best part of eating at this place.
I realized that there was a large amount of fat on the brisket slices. I took the order back and ask to have some trimmed away and looked to have a slice or two of actual brisket meat. Nope, the guy w/​the uncovered BEARD serving me food, just gave me more of the shiner sausage after asking him to replace the weight of the fat he had to trim away. (Not Good customer service) This wouldn’t have been bad if the sausage didn’t remind me of a lightly smoked bologna ring from ye Ol’ meat market. The brisket could not have been cooked on a BBQ pit, no smoke ring, flavor as well as missing bark. I did have a sample of the pulled pork. It was moist and was decent but had a lot of sweet bbq sauce. Sad to say, the $ 33.00 would have been better spent at some place like Rudy’s lol. Not sure what Big Cat’s is going for but it certainly is NOT BBQ. Sorry Big Cat’s But you have some work to do. Bubba marks this place (No RETURN) (Drop’s Mic)
Find us on FB, Bubba’s BBQ Review:

Great addition to CP/​Leander! We’ve been lacking a bit on BBQ. The Big Cat sandwich (brisket and sausage) and garlic taters were excellent.

Wow were we surprised how good everything was here. Strip mall BBQ is like gas station sushi but not this time. We split the three meat plate — moist brisket, turkey, & pulled pork — one pound of meat! And everything was delicious. The BBQ sauce was addicting, probably lots of sugar in it. Potato salad was pretty good. All the pickles, onions, & Jalapeños you can eat — yum!
Although it’s not on the board you can also order meat by the pound. Just ask or pick up a Togo menu in the front of the restaurant.
Nice to have a good BBQ place close to home!

Very disappointed. Even my kids noticed it wasn’t quite right. We only ordered meat, moist brisket, pork ribs, turkey and a Shiner sausage link.
The moist brisket was really fatty and somehow the meat was still dry. There was a thick layer of fat towards the outside of the slice, but it didn’t seem to be interlaced well in the meat. The meat was dry, more like what you would expect for a lean cut. The meat did not fall apart easily as one would expect and it had little flavor. They had a sign that said their brisket won 2^nd place in some contest. The brisket I had would not have won in any contest. Based on that and other Unilocal reviews, that were more positive, I can only guess they have consistency problems.
The sweet BBQ sauce was too sweet IMHO and took away rather than complimented the meal.
The turkey for some reason gave me the impression of lunch meat turkey in flavor and consistency.
The sausage sounded good, but in the end was just ok. Seemed more like store bought than made in house (not that they claim to make it in house).
The pork ribs were the best of the meats. They had good seasoning but were a little dry and weren’t very meaty.
I was excited to have a BBQ place in Cedar Park, but in the end this is not a place I would go to again.
I really hope they can fix these problems and get it right. I would love to have a great BBQ place nearby.

Fantastic Meats and sides! There’s some love put in to all the food. Will be a regular stop for us during our trips to Austin.

For those who score this place low because they run out of food… ummm…hello…one of Austin’s most «famous» joints – Franklin’s — is notorious for doing just that. You get in line and hope you make the cut before they run out of food.
Big Cat is a truly locally owned real deal place, not a chain like Rudy’s or Smokey Mo’s. The owner is actually in the back trimming the meat and watching over things. In addition he is constantly tweaking his sauces to see what customers like.
You can request your brisket lean or moist; the pork and venison sausage is delish. I personally love the chopped brisket because it’s a mix of lean and moist.
The guys behind the counter are always friendly and helpful. So glad to have this great place in our neighborhood!

Lots of potential and pretty good. I would give an extra ½ star if allowed. My first visit to big cat and I ordered the big cat sandwich which comes with double meat, a side and a drink.
I chose brisket and it was nicely marbled and tender. It was little bit too salty and not nearly enough pepper on the rub. The bun was completely overwhelmed and I tried too different sauces — one that was really sweet and then a vinegar based sauce. I didn’t really care for either one but they were pretty good when mixed together.
Since it was my first time, I asked the counter guy what was the most popular side and he directed to me to the green beans. A good recommendation that was! Lots of bacon and nicely seasoned. It almost tastes like they snuck some butter in there. The portion was generous.
For a drink a chose the tea and it is fresh made there. The cups are very thin (kind of like McDs) and of course it collapsed when I tried to pick it up.
In summary, good brisket that needs just a bit of tweaking, sauces that aren’t strong on their own but mix well, great green beans and good tea in a poor cup.
I will most likely give these guys another shot and try something new the next time I drop by.

I know, another BBQ place in town. Thought I would give it a shot but I wasn’t expecting much.
It took over the store that used to be Dickie’s BBQ. The first time I went, it wasn’t busy. One couple in front of me said I could go first. But I didn’t know what I wanted. So I asked what ribs they had. Pork and beef with Caroline style sauce. I order a plate of Pork ribs with a side of green beans and potato salad.
The setup is make a left when you come in the front door. On that wall is a huge menu. Walk to the counter to order then around the side to pay. My plate was around 10 bucks. Once I had my bag of food, I stopped at the condiment counter. Grabbed some bread, napkins and lots of pickles. Arriving home, I open my package of food.
There was 5 pork ribs that smelled delicious. The green beans were not appealing looking at all but taste them. Slap my butt but these were the best beans I have ever tasted, well-​seasoned and not mushy. The potato salad was average, nothing special. Now the ribs… OMG. It was crusted in a salt seasoning but not over-​powering. So moist and tender. Through my entire eating experience I was Mmmmmm with every bite.
Yes, I went back again in the same week. Still good.

These guys provide not just great barbecue but top-​notch customer service!
Picked up a good spread for our New Year’s eve party but got home and realized we forgot a few condiments that we wanted. It was pretty late after we realized and we were worried they might be closed so we called to make sure they were open before we went to get the other items. They answered the phone even though they were already closed, took our call and stayed at the store and waited for us to get there so we could enjoy the barbecue.
I am a fellow business owner in the customer service industry and I can tell you this quality service is hard to find these days. Much appreciated and I would definitely recommend the food for quality as well.

We came in at about 6:30 pm and they were sold out of the regular sausage, pork ribs and green beans, which I was prepared for based on the reviews. We had the moist brisket, which was solid (way, way better than Rudy’s for sure) as well as the jalapeño sausage (which they admitted is not made in house, but rather comes from Dallas) which was tasty and not really spicy at all. The potato salad was ok– it has a little mustard. The buttered corn was a little spicy (black pepper) and not anything to write home about. The gentlemen manning the counter were very respectful, addressed us as «sir» and m’aam”. The only reason I knocked off a star was that the unsweetened tea tasted moldy or old. We noticed several people come in for to go orders after work. We’ll be back!
Update 05Dec2015: made it back for the beef ribs! So good; the meat close to the bone reminds me of eating bone marrow. The moist brisket was again, very tasty. Updated to 5 stars! The brisket easily rivals Franklin, LA Barbecue and Micklethwait, without the insane lines and having to eat outside because it’s a trailer.

My husband and I hoped in to Bigcat BBQ this afternoon to try them out today and were not disappointed, although there is room for improvement.
When we came in, we were greeted by a nice big menu board as well as a guy behind the counter who welcomed us. We pondered a few things and then waited in line for our order. The first guy behind the counter, (the meat cutter) took our orders and weighed out our meat. It was nice to see that they were being consistent with their weights — making sure to weigh the plates first and then put the meat on. Thumbs up for that! All the guys behind the counter, (there were 3) were very courteous and thanked us for coming in. service was an absolute delight.
Their space is big and open, with sky blue walls and vintage style signs hanging everywhere. They have plenty of tables and a big drink station at the back where there were pickles, onions and bbq sauce and teas as well.
The Beef Rib: My husband said that the beef rib was really good. A nice bark on the outside, smokey flavor and a huge portion. It was moist and flavorful throughout and he pretty much finished the whole thing.
The Coleslaw: Really, really good. It had a light creaminess to it and good flavor. A lot of coleslaw sides go overboard with it which can just be too much.
The Turkey: It was really moist, but lacked a smoke ring as well as a big smokey flavor. I did, however, like the pepper rub on the outside — it was spicy without being overpowering.
The Potato Salad: Pretty run of the mill, but fresh and good.
The Pinto Beans: At first when I tried the beans, I really liked them but after a few more bites I noticed that they were massively under seasoned. Once I added a little salt, though, they were perfect. In my opinion, the best thing that I had. Really good smokey flavor to them, full of chopped brisket, excellent.
The BBQ Sauce: It was good… a small bite of heat, with a nice balance — I liked it.
So, I’m giving Bigcat four stars, but please read as 3.5 — I just felt three was too low. Bigcat has some decent bbq going on but I do think they need to work on their turkey as well as the seasoning of their beans. We will definitely be back to try their pulled pork, pork ribs, and brisket!