Where is the best barbecue and Korean food near Fort Hood, and what do the neighborhoods around them cost?
By Kyle Melvin · NMLS #1486450 · REV Mortgage · Licensed in Texas ·
Short answer
Bell County is having a barbecue moment — two joints on Texas Monthly's statewide Top 50, and a Belton pit that took #1 on the 2026 Texas Barbecue Top 50 — and Killeen has had real Korean food for fifty years, because Korean spouses of soldiers built the restaurant strip on Rancier Avenue. The barbecue is in Belton and Harker Heights, where the newer subdivisions are; the Korean food is in Killeen, where the older, cheaper housing is. Both are inside a 20-minute drive of the main gate.
Barbecue
Rossler's Blue Cord Barbecue — Harker Heights. Texas Monthly Top 50 (2025). The name is the infantry's blue cord; the owner is a Fort Hood veteran. Brisket and the beef rib. Live here: Harker Heights — the 1990s–2010s brick subdivisions east of Killeen, the school district most families ask for, 15 minutes to the East Gate.
Miller's Smokehouse — Belton. Texas Monthly Top 50 (2025); #36 on the 2026 Texas Barbecue list. Brisket, sausage and a coffee roaster in the same building. Schoepf's BBQ — Belton. #1 on the 2026 Texas Barbecue Top 50, Texas Monthly honorable mention; the open pit out front is the whole show. Live here: Belton & Nolanville — Belton is the historic county seat with 1900s–1960s homes near downtown and new construction on the lake side; Nolanville is the fast-growing stretch between Belton and Harker Heights. 20–25 minutes to the gate on 190.
Cosper's Country Meat Market — Killeen. #11 on the 2026 Texas Barbecue Top 50; a meat market that smokes. Band of Brothers BBQ — Killeen. #20 on the same list. Live here: Killeen — the closest housing to the gates: 1960s–80s ranches south of Rancier and the 2000s tracts on the south side. Lowest price band in the county; BAH covers a lot of house here.
Pustka Family Barbeque — Temple. #29 on the 2026 list, Texas Monthly honorable mention. Temple is 30 minutes east; worth it for the road trip, too far for the commute.
Korean
Koreana — Killeen. The one the public radio stories were about: owned by a Korean woman who came to Killeen with a soldier husband, feeding homesick soldiers and the 2,000-plus Korean residents of the town. Kimchi jjigae, bibimbap, and the banchan spread. Rancier Avenue around it is the Korean restaurant and grocery strip — Killeen has about eight Korean restaurants, more per capita than anywhere in Texas outside Houston and Dallas. Live here: Killeen — same neighborhood, same math: the oldest housing in the county sits right behind the Rancier strip.
Copperas Cove. The west-side town, 15 minutes out the West Gate, with its own small cluster of Korean cafés and a lot of 1970s–90s single-story brick. Live here: Copperas Cove.
Why this is a housing article
The map draws itself. Texas Monthly barbecue is in Belton and Harker Heights — the towns where the new subdivisions, the newer schools and the higher price bands are. The Korean food is in Killeen, on the older side of the base, where an E-4 can still buy a three-bedroom brick ranch with BAH and change. Pick the food you'd drive for, then look at what the driving distance costs on the BAH-to-payment tool.
Rankings: Texas Monthly Top 50 (2025) as reported by KWTX and KCEN; Texas Barbecue Online Magazine 2026 Top 50 as reported by the Killeen Daily Herald; Koreana per KUT / Texas Standard (2015). Confirm hours and locations before you drive.
Related guides
Questions people also ask
- Where is the best barbecue and Korean food near Fort Hood, and what do the neighborhoods around them cost?
- Bell County is having a barbecue moment — two joints on Texas Monthly's statewide Top 50, and a Belton pit that took #1 on the 2026 Texas Barbecue Top 50 — and Killeen has had real Korean food for fifty years, because Korean spouses of soldiers built the restaurant strip on Rancier Avenue. The barbecue is in Belton and Harker Heights, where the newer subdivisions are; the Korean food is in Killeen, where the older, cheaper housing is.
Apply with Kyle
Found the neighborhood? Now the payment.
Kyle turns your BAH into a payment with the real tax bill for that ZIP and tells you whether the house you liked appraises clean. Orders and an LES are enough to start.