Ack. What an awful list, judging from the central Texas choices. My wife and I have been studying central Texas BBQ and Tex-Mex for more than 30 years...since before the Salt Lick opened, even.
The Salt Lick, Cooper's, Rudy's, and Kreuz's are three Texas insitutions and one co-opted chain restaurant. SL, Cooper's and Kreuz's are famously popular, more for their ambiance than the taste of their smoked meats. Kreuz's can't even claim ambiance any more, since they moved out into that big barn. Mind, we go to all three on occasion, and enjoy ourselves, but great they ain't.
The Salt Lick, well, it's fun to ride out there, especially with a crowd, but please, the meat? You might as well eat at Luby's.
Cooper's meat is almost always overcooked, period. Wadn't like that 15 years ago, but that's the case today.
Rudy's stores in Austin are pure-dee chain-restaurant "BBQ" in name only. There's one about a mile from our house. I be we haven't been in there in ten years.
The central Texas holy trinity of BBQ joints is Black's in Lockhart, House Park in central Austin, and Donn's Texas BBQ out on 290 just past the "Y" in Oak Hill.
The Black family's been making smoked food down in Lockhart for decades, too, but have never been as popular as Kreuz's became in the last 20 years. The Blacks offer up sides, plates, even a spoon if you want it. They're the true kings of German-heritage meat smoking in the Lockhart area.
House Park's pit has had a fire in it for generations. The same guy has been tending that fire and the meats he cooks in it for at least the 30-odd years' I've been stopping in, through four different owners so far.
Donn's is an oddity, not an old place at all, but the same five or six guys have been working there for at least the last ten years. There is no Donn, by the way, nor is it directly affiliated with the other "Donn's" around town.
All three restaurants serve up tender, moist, smoky meats, juicy or lean, depending on your preference, with appropriate sides. Give 'em a try, go to the others when you want some of that famous ambiance.
Chuy's is a joke as a great Tex-Mex place. Aside from the words Tex-Mex in their logo and marketing, it's really more like New Mexico-Mex. What makes it so popular is margaritas.
There's lots of good Tex-Mex in Austin, but there's only one Amaya's Taco Village [well, actually there are two now, one down in Bastrop off the main drag]. The ambiance level is at exactly zero, in the Capital Plaza shopping center on IH35 just north of 51st St, but Bobby and Suzy Amaya have been turning out fabulous food since they moved here from the Corpus area decades ago. Each tortilla is hand made when you order your taco. Just look behind that McDonald's out on 35, and you'll find it, or try the Bastrop shop, behind the HEB.
If you disagree with me, you're wrong, get over it.