Got to Batch around noon yesterday and was glad to only find about 4 groups ahead of me in line. Ordered a 3 Meat plate which came with 2 sides for $30. Went with pork ribs, pulled duck and a link of Boudin which rotates, and was a Brisket Boudin along with Creole Tomato Salad and their Crawfish Cornbread Dressing. Also, ordered a slice of brisket as that truly is the benchmark for judging any Texas BBQ spot IMHO.
At the time of my visit the only items sold out were the smoked ham steak, the pimento M&C and the Pistolette Rolls, which I was most disappointed about!
Got a beeper and grabbed a Maine Root Beer and a 4pk of Batch beer to go inside. Waited about 15 minutes for my beeper to go off and it was go time.
Everything was great! Boudin was the standout as it was moist, juicy and well seasoned with nice chunks of smokey brisket throughout. Ribs were really good with their sweet, peppery crust and the Duck was solid albeit a little bit forgettable. Brisket was solid. Not life-altering, but definitely on par with most of the top spots I’ve tried. Cornbread dressing was really good, although I admittedly don’t have a lot to compare it against as it’s a pretty unique side. Didn’t have a lot of crawfish but flavor was definitely apparent in every bite. Tomato salad was good, although I didn’t pick up a lot of creole seasoning. It was a nice palette cleanser to cut all the meat fat.
Owner was walking around chatting up folks and seemed like a really nice guy. I thanked him for the excellent BBQ and talked to him about them being right down the way from KG BBQ and he said he knew their pitmaster from their time at Interstellar. Didn’t realize they both come from there.
If I was forced to pick one at gunpoint, I’d probably say KG was a bit more unique and mind-opening about what BBQ can be, but that Parish certainly lived up to my expectations. If you can make it a crawl and hit both! Pretty cool that two such unique, amazing spots are right next to each other tucked away in this little pocket of E. Austin!
by Chowdahead