Hill Country – takeout

A while back, I had frozen custard with Talida, and we got to talking about BBQ.  Seeing as she’s from Texas, she knows a thing or two about the stuff, delicious delicious stuff… Anyway, she mentioned how much she likes Hill Country – which I also enjoyed – and then mentioned a little ‘secret’ about eating there for cheaper than their high prices.  Get gift certificates from Restaurants.com! 

So, I did.  I managed to snag a couple of gift certificates for lunch, valued at $10 each, and I paid $2 for each.  Then I just had to find a time to get over there during lunch… and I went two days in a row to pick up a bunch of items.  Hehe. 

The first day, I grabbed 1/4 pound of the brisket moist. 

Most excellent, moist, fatty, delicious, amazing.  It just runs out too quickly when you eat it!  😉

I clearly wasn’t paying too much attention that first day and just ordered every side that looked marginally interesting.

Sweet corn pudding: total WIN.  I will be ordering this again, it was completely delicious and sweet and a great foil to the salty meats.  Yum.

Succotash was a last minute addition, and quite honestly, pretty spicy for me.  I wound up mixing this with sour cream and eating it as a salsa of sorts with chips a few days later.  I won’t order it again, though there was nothing wrong with it, per se. 

The cole slaw was vinegary and pretty good, but nothing that wow’d or amazed me.  Maybe you like cole slaw more than I do.  Maybe I’ve just had better cole slaw.  It was… sufficient. 

And of course, mac & cheese, one of my perennial favorites.  Still good.  Still yummy. 

The total for all of the food above, after my $10 gift certificate, came to $24.21.  Delicious… and worth it… I had leftovers for a while though.

The next day, I decided to try to smarten up about my choices.  So I went with some lunch specials – first, the BBQ beef sandwich special, which comes with BBQ beef, a side, and a drink.

Like pulled pork.  Tender, delicious, and on the bread provided, quite delicious.  I was happy.  I think the special is $11.50. 

For my side, I chose green bean casserole?  It was alright, the beans were too mushy for my liking, but I liked the flavor quite a bit. 

There’s actually a minimum purchase for the gift certificates – I think it was $15 for the $10 ones – so I also opted to get the “Healthy Market Special” for $9, despite it being only a 1/4 chicken and a market salad, plus drink.  The nice thing was that you could ask for anything you wanted on your salad, so I got a nice combination of corn, buttermilk ranch, peppers, egg, etc.  The salad was quite nice. 

And the chicken was succulent – I opted for dark meat of course – and juicy, but a little on the bland side for flavor.  Probably would have zazzed up nicely with some BBQ sauce, but they didn’t provide any in my bag, so I didn’t bother grabbing any.  And while the salad was good and fresh, it’s totally not the reason why I go to Hill Country, you know?  If I want to be healthy, I’ll eat somewhere else. 

The second time I went, my total came to $9.25 after gift certificate.  (This is also after he charged me just for the sandwich as opposed to the meal – a $2 difference, I believe – because I didn’t want a second soda.  It was hard enough rushing around after this all while carrying the one soda I didn’t want to begin with… I’d wanted root beer but it was fountain soda only, oh well.  It was nice of him to do so :))

And yes, the second time, totally worth it – I would totally recommend getting that BBQ beef sandwich deal, it’s so worth it! and if you get the gift certificate, then tack on a side or dessert, your meal comes out to super cheap. 

Yvo says: The food, per usual, was completely delicious and yummy.  The prices after gift certificate are totally affordable too – thanks Talida, for the head’s up! – I foresee doing this again over time, even with all the ridiculous restrictions on the gift certificates.  It’s so worth it!  Nom nom nom. 
recommended, especially if you can get the gift certificates – dinner is $25 gift certificates, I think you can get those for $10 normally and on sale… like $5?  Not bad!!!