Black Gold Craft Meats & Cocktails

Great food! The brisket was perfect. Not overly salty. The pork ribs were very nice. Great sides to choose from. I'd like a sampler taste of each. They were definitely low on staff today. Emerald was great. A really cool addition to the neighborhood that isn't just tacos. They have vegetarian options too!Nice music cozy atmosphere and patio.

I've been twice so far, both times for dinner. In general I find the cocktails and the meats to be amazing and the sides disappointing. But I mean, it's in their name: "Craft Meats" and "Cocktails"; and they do these two things very well.5-Stars: I've had both regular brisket and lean brisket and both are great. The lean brisket is actually a nice compromise as it still retains (in my opinion) just right amount of fattiness to retain the perfect amount of moisture. Both briskets were melt-in-your-mouth and nicely seasoned with the perfect amount of smokiness. I've enjoyed the Poblano Oaxacan cheese sausage both visits and it is in my "top 10" for sausages (and I've been to the Top 50 BBQ places as listed in Texas Monthly). It is that good! I also really love their pickles, which are nicely crisp and taste home canned. 5-Stars: The Pumpkin Spiced Old Fashioned is an amazing cocktail! I was worried it might be too sweet or overwhelmed by the flavoring but it is very well balanced. It consists of upgraded bourbon, chai demerana (simple syrup) and chocolate and angostura bitters. (This one is not included in the happy hour). The $10 happy hour-priced plain 'ol Old Fashioned is also very good. For many cocktails it sometimes comes down to the bartender, and we were fortunate enough to have the same great bartender both visits.3-Stars: The bacon-braised green beans. The green beans were good and the bacon flavoring came through, but the bacon wrapping the beans forming little bundles was cold, limp, and very fatty.1-Star: A lot of people seem to like the mac & cheese, but mine was bland and flavorless. Salt might have helped a lot. The Mexican street cornbread was pretty terrible, quite dry (the crema topping couldn't save it) and weirdly sticky sweet.

The food has been delicious since day 1, but the bbq sauce seems to have gone down hill. It's more the consistency of ketchup now. The cocktails are the real disappointment though. They were delicious for the first couple of months - now they're unbalanced and the bartenders seem to not care. The quality has really just disappeared. I guess we'll be going back to our old spots.

This is place is fancier than i expected! Very nice ambiance and design. We ordered cornbread, pulled pork sliders, 1 cocktail, turkey blt with cole slaw, 2 sausages woth mac and cheese. Total was $95 (before tip).Corn bread was sweet a touch dry, pulled pork was tender and you get 4 sliders in the order with a aide of ketchupy bbq sauce. I liked it better without the sauce.Sausage had an interesting spice blend very herby.Turkey blt had guacamole and creamed spinach in it. Turkey was very juicy and a generous portion.

New, elevated neighborhood BBQ spot. I went on its second day. I will only evaluate the food because service may be up and down as they learn the operations for the ideal guest experience.Scale: 1 = poor | 5 = top notchSausage - 1Ribs - 2Mac n Cheese - 4You can imagine if the best thing I ate was the Mac & cheese, you may want to proceed with caution. Too many stellar BBQ spots locally to invest (literally) in mediocre BBQ.Flavor is lacking. Sausage was dry. Ribs were bland. Actually glad I didn't get the brisket, because I expect it to be much like I described.I don't see a reason to return unless someone else was buying.

This is a brand new place, today is official opening days and you can see they are still working some kinks. Place is very cute and modern inside, there is outdoor patio and a well furnished bar.The food was good, however the operation has serious problems they have to fix before I can love this place. The service was very slow and it was like pulling teeth to get plates, tea and even bbq sauce, which the original amount given was ridiculously small. All the temperatures were off, with most meats barely warm and our potato salad wasn't cold. However the flavors were definitely there and we will give this place a second chance in a few weeks. It helped a lot that the manager comped our meal, which was super nice even though he didn't have to.

Black Gold BBQ offers an upscale BBQ dining experience, and our first visit left a positive impression, especially given that this was the restaurant's opening week. We went with a large group and ordered nearly everything on the menu. Having visited Interstellar BBQ earlier in the day, we were ready to compare--and Black Gold held its own in several areas.The Meats:The brisket was solid, with a nice smoke ring and good flavor. However, make sure to ask for the wet/moist cut (the fatty portion), as they tend to serve a mix of moist and lean cuts, and the lean can be disappointing.The pork ribs sparked some debate at our table. One friend declared them better than Interstellar's, while my wife felt they didn't quite measure up. This might come down to personal preference.We ordered two beef ribs, and the quality was inconsistent. One was moist and flavorful, while the other was much drier. This lack of consistency was a bit of a letdown for such a signature item.The turkey had decent flavor but lacked the smokiness you'd expect, and the smoke ring was barely visible.The hot link sausage was mild, not living up to the "hot" descriptor. However, the poblano Oaxacan cheese sausage stood out with its great smokiness and flavor, though the casing was a bit too chewy.The Sides:The esquite fritters had good flavor but were too dry and crumbly, missing the mark on texture.The garlic parmesan fries were tasty but could have used a bit more seasoning to elevate them further.The mac and cheese was a table favorite with its creamy, cheesy goodness, but the portion size was disappointingly small, especially for a group.The beet salad was flavorful, though there weren't enough beets, and one of our party noted that grilling the beets made them less juicy without adding much flavor.The garden salad was a pleasant surprise, with the smoky dressing receiving high praise from everyone who tried it.The Drinks:The cocktail program is excellent, and the drinks were a highlight of the meal. I tried "The Becky," their unique take on an espresso martini, which was well-balanced and delicious. Other members of our party also raved about their drinks. However, the cocktails were served after all the food, which felt out of sync with the flow of the meal. Water, oddly, is served without ice and not chilled, which some may find off-putting.Service and Atmosphere:The service was where Black Gold BBQ truly shined. Despite being a new establishment, the staff was extremely accommodating and attentive. We moved tables three times to find the right spot for our group, and the server and manager handled it graciously, ensuring we were comfortable. The server was quick to address all our needs, and while the cocktails came out later than expected, the overall pace of the meal was excellent.What set Black Gold apart was the personal touch--the server and manager took the time to talk to us, ask for feedback, and genuinely seemed eager to improve. All the comments mentioned here were shared with them, and their openness to constructive feedback shows a commitment to delivering a top-notch dining experience.Final Thoughts:Black Gold BBQ is off to a strong start with flavorful BBQ, excellent cocktails, and exceptional service. While some inconsistencies in the meats and sides need to be addressed, the overall experience was superb, especially for opening week. With some fine-tuning, this could become one of Austin's go-to upscale BBQ spots. We're looking forward to returning to see how they continue to evolve.

I absolutely love the turkey BLT, and due to its size I always have half of it left for tomorrow's lunch!! Some other fav food items would definitely be the fries and green beans, just writing this review has my mouth watering! The service is great at the bar and the drinks are awesome! My favorite was the violet crown until i had this black berry mezcal sour!!

We ordered a split fatty brisket and non fatty brisket. The fatty brisket slices weren't as moist and fatty as Loro or Terry Blacks. The potato salad was excellent. I liked that it wasn't sweet like Rudy's. My husband thought his maccaroni and cheese was under seasoned and needed more salt. We would be willing to give this place another try. We like that Black Gold and Loro are opening in North Austin.

4 stars is fairly accurate for this restaurant. They are just starting out so I'll give them some time and another visit at some point. The good - brisket taco was on point. I like that they give you a huge slice of brisket, and the guac, pickled onions, and other toppings were excellent. It's $14 but the slice of brisket is 1/3 lb so it is pretty filling and comes with fries, which were also plentiful and very good. The so-so: we got the beet salad and it was $25 with tuna added. For a $25 salad, it left much to be desired. It's just some romaine, goat cheese (which was good), dressing, tomatoes and a few small slices of beets. I'd hope for better with a salad at this price point. Also so-so: Mac and cheese - was pretty good but the cheese sauce was a little too thin and runny. The bad: the cornbread. It tastes like dried out jiffy cornbread with some corn kernels mixed in. In fact, the plain jiffy corn muffin mix and recipe cooked properly in a cast iron would be a big improvement over what they serve. It was school cafeteria grade cornbread with a couple sauces thrown in top. I've had cornbread at other restaurants and it usually comes out hot in a small cast iron skillet with some butter on top and it is fantastic and easy. That is all they need to do here but they tried to overcomplicate this dish and it is a huge dud. Don't waste your time on this one. Since the brisket was really good, this place deserves a shot just for the bbq alone. But I would stick to those plates and avoid the other stuff. If this place were not new, I would give it 3 stars. Like I said, they deserve some time to hone in their craft.