This Fresno eatery has the best tri-tip sandwich. It’s not who you might think
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- MEGA Texas Barbeque got 41% of the Bee reader vote for best tri-tip sandwich.
- MEGA Texas doesn’t make its tri-tip in the traditional way, instead smoking it to medium.
- The $22 sandwich has a half pound of hand-sliced tri-tip served on a potato roll.
We asked Bee readers in a poll to pick the restaurant that had the best tri-tip sandwich in the Fresno area.
And though plenty of people expected it to be one of the big boys that’s dominated the tri-tip game here for years — Dog House Grill or Mike’s Grill, for example — it wasn’t.
MEGA Texas Barbeque ran away with this competition.
The restaurant that got its start at a gas station in 2018 got 41% of the vote. MEGA Texas has since moved up to its own space at 3598 E. Butler Ave., near Orange Avenue, where people often line up for its food.
The Meat Up came in second place at 21%, with its two locations (at Herndon and Marks avenues and Willow and Shepherd avenues).
Another thing that makes the MEGA Texas win unexpected?
Tri-tip is a California food, most notably Santa Maria tri-tip that is grilled and seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic.
It’s not really a thing in Texas barbecue (and it’s the brisket at MEGA Texas that a lot of people get excited about). But tri-tip is increasingly showing up on menus in Texas with Texans putting their own spin on it.
The tri-tip at MEGA Texas is not made the traditional way.
“We actually smoke the tri-tip to medium as opposed to grilling it,” said Anthony Vallejo, who owns the restaurant with his wife, Tasha Hellman.
Many people cook their tri-tip closer to well done, he said.
MEGA Texas tri-tip is still seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic. Vallejo, who grew up in the area, said his food is “Texas inspired, California fired.”
The tri-tip sandwich
The meat is hand sliced when a customer orders and cut against the grain for optimum tenderness, he said.
“One thing a lot of people don’t realize is that tri-tip has two very distinct grain directions,” he said. “If you’re not paying attention to that, you can actually ruin the texture of it.
The $22 sandwich is made with a half pound of meat — no sauce — served on a potato roll made locally by Max’s Bakery brushed with garlic butter.
It’s served with a side of the customer’s choice. The most popular is the green chile mac and cheese.
It’s pricey for a sandwich, Vallejo acknowledges, but worth it, he said.
“You’re looking at over a pound worth of food,” he said.
In 2024, MEGA Texas was named one of the Top 50 Texas-style barbecue restaurants outside of Texas by TexasMonthly. The author included a mention of the tri-tip as “some of the best smoked tri-tip I’ve ever eaten.”
All the sandwiches at MEGA, tri-tip or not, come with a half pound of meat.
“It’s purposely too much,” Vallejo said. “Nobody’s leaving hungry.”
MEGA Texas is open from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. or until it sells out (though it rarely sells out before 2 p.m.) Wednesdays through Saturdays.
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