Lubbock is West Texas, and the cooking is accordingly direct: beef, chicken-fried steak under cream gravy, and barbecue smoked over mesquite rather than the post oak used further east.
The surprise is wine. The Texas High Plains around Lubbock grow the substantial majority of the state’s wine grapes — the elevation and the cool nights suit them better than the Hill Country where most of the tasting rooms are. Several wineries operate within a short drive of the city.
Texas Tech gives Lubbock a student population and the restaurants that go with it, concentrated in the Depot District and along Broadway. The Mexican food across the city is long-established and inexpensive.