I'm a native houstonian, and I find hill country to be excellent, at least significantly better than what the other options are. The moist brisket and chicken, as others have said, is outstanding, and I think the sides are good. I also find it to be reasonably priced compared to a lot of the other barbecue options.

Hill Country and Blue Smoke are (I believe), the only smoked meat barbecue places in Manhattan. The smokers at Hill Country are a special design, similar to blue smoke, that allow them to circumvent the restrictions on smokers.

Virgils is very poor, dallas barbecue is tasty, but like calling taco bell "mexican food" - it's not a bad meal, and very cheap, but unrecognizable to someone familiar with the real deal.

There's another place, Rub, near Hill Country on 23rd and 7th, that has mediocre barbecue, but the sides are lacking.

Of course, all of the discussion about which is the best totally ignores the point that before six or seven years ago, our only option in NYC was Virgil's or Dallas BBQ. So I'll take the improvements we've made thus far as a welcome sign.