Railroad BBQ

We had the All-​You-​Can-​Eat catfish. Kind of pricey at $ 15.00 a plate but came with some other issues. Firstly we were warned that it would take twenty minutes to get our food and it was at least that long. After waiting thirty more minutes for our first «re-​fill» we received a basket of crumbs which were impossible to eat. Then one of the nicer staff members saw the basket, she apologized and went the back for a refill of real catfish, not crumbs. Their strategy must be to make you wait so long for a refill that will lose any appetite for more. Very disappointing.

We built our house four plus years ago in Kyle. Being so close to Lockhart started my barbecue craze. The first place we ate on the day we moved in was Railroad Bar-​B-​Que. We got it to-​go and ate on the floor of our new house. We have been back a handful of times. Railroad has a few locations around Central Texas. The Kyle location is in an old feed store next to the railroad tracks. Fitting.
My wife and I went there for lunch one Saturday. She got chicken tenders, and I got a three meat plate with moist brisket, pork ribs, and sausage. It came with a side of coleslaw and macaroni salad. The brisket was chewy and was like roast beef. You can taste the mesquite smoke, but other than that, it was bland. I am not sure the ribs ever saw a smoker. Sure it was pink like it has been inside of one, but I could not taste it. I would have thought it was baked or even worse boiled. They were tender and saucy though. The sausage was the highlight of the meal. The beef and pork blend was good. It had a nice pop, and the flavor was dominated by black pepper. The creamy coleslaw tasted like it came from KFC which is not a bad thing. I actually love the finely chopped coleslaw from KFC. The macaroni salad although solid seemed like it was a store bought variety.
Railroad Bar-​B-​Que is not our go-​to BBQ joint in Kyle. We prefer Milt’s Pit BBQ if we wanted to grab some local barbecue. Railroad does have all you can eat catfish on Friday and Saturday nights. Do not go on a Friday during Lent. It is crazy packed.

This location will be closing in April 2014 and all I can say… IT’S ABOUT TIME. I’m really shocked it’s been around 32 years, all the food is just edible. No big loss to Kyle when it finally closes it’s doors.

I couldn’t get home fast enough to post this… The All You Can Eat catfish is a great idea for Friday’s, but the quality of the fish is VERY POOR!!! The meat was very oily in spots and I am not talking about the oil it is fried in. Plus, they have no real procedure in getting refills of your catfish. Wade through the people and wait 15 minutes for some «Bottom of the bag» pieces.
Atmosphere was great, but the fish is horrible…

Arrived at 6:30 and they had no customers. ??? Didn’t get it at the time. Ordered 3 plates. My turkey was fair. Sausage had not much flavor and very dry. Brisket was fair. Finished eating (still no more customers) ordered a plate with chicken, dark meat only. Received plate and opened it to check it. It was a half chicken with breast the predominant piece. Went to counter to point out the error. Lady at counter called manager from back who said «that’s the way our chicken comes, can’t do anything about it. There’s some dark meat there, just eat that.» And she turned and walked back into the kitchen. The girl at counter was very embarrassed but couldn’t do anything. Wow what poor customer service. Guess thats why no one else was there. I won’t be back.

The brisket is very good, nice and tender, soft.. Their standard sausage is just that, standard, nothing worth writing home about. Service was fine, nice and quick.

Great small town food and price.

just ate there, it was horrible, the brisket tasted old, so did the pork ribs, i couldnt eat my potatoe salad, and cole slaw had no taste, i really wanted to barf!!!
so i bought 2 cookies from them to get the taste out my mouth, same thing tasteless, tasted old, i do not recommend this place at all.
i called a friend that lives in kyle, he said the same thing, he said the only good thing is the catfish. i really want to barf rt now!!!

I had driven by this place a dozen times or so, while on «BBQ Odyssey 2012!» and really like the building. It’s in an old feed store, and I think they have done a really great job of converting it into a restaurant. So I made a point of stopping in one afternoon and seeing what they had to offer. I was a little worried when I first entered as I was the only person in the dinning area. My Grandfather once told me that you should never eat in an empty restaurant, or one that doesn’t have windows. The empty restaurant makes sense, but I’ve never been sure what he meant about the windows.
Anywho, I decided to go ahead and tough it out and hope I wasn’t about to be poisoned. After all, I don’t live in Kyle so maybe the locals know something I don’t. I ordered the brisket plate and paid a very reasonable price for it. I was pleased to find that it was a sturdy brisket. Sturdy as in it was OK, and held up to some scrutiny. And while I don’t think they will win to many awards or land on the cover of Texas Monthly, if I lived closer I might pop in every once in awhile.
And this might sound silly but I thought they had great coleslaw. It was the only thing on my plate that I wished I had more of when I was done eating.

I like the old feed store that it is set in but the place (bathroom is dirty). Prices are fair but I did not find that the food had any flavor. I ordered the rib plate and even with their sauce it just was not very tasty. The beans very nice and soft but again just no seasoning to them. The coleslaw was very wet and a little too sweet. I did notice it was BYOB like some places in Hays county. Don’t think I will return.

In my opinion this place is a classic! It was here before any other and has managed to survive through the years!

The atmosphere is great, but the food itself is not as good as I thought it was going to be…(I got the chopped brisket) I’ve been a few times in the past few years, and always leave happy & full, so it’s definitely not bad. I have not yet tried the fried catfish, but I plan to do that soon! The kids loved the corn dogs with french fries.

This place is ok — could be cleaner, but the BBQ was adequate.

Aesthetically, this place is wonderful. Legions of license plates implore you to stray from you food and stare and wonder what kind of vehicle. they came off of.
Unfortunately, I think that’s the point because the food isn’t all that great. I believe I had the sausage plate, but it was a few years ago that I was last here.
I read a book while I was there.
In conclusion, I can’t remember what book it was.