So this happened to my husband and I tonight. We were seated quickly, got our order for food in and ordered water with lemon but received very watered down lemonade with lemon. We had to wave down a different waitress to get our water. After about an half hour our waitress explained somewhat vaugly what happened to our order. Another 20 minutes go by and we ask for a manager as we are getting ready to leave. Terry (spelling) asked us to please stay and that dinner was on him. He again took our order and received our food very quickly but not altogether correct. At this point all we could do us chuckle and eat. The food was great and so was dessert. I want to thank Terry for saving our evening with good food and a good laugh. read more

Went for the first time with my dad tonight and we were not disappointed. From amazing service to amazing food. We were truly cared for unlike most chain restraunts, the owner and the server, Austin, treated us like family and made a great atmosphere which they are trying to build. Definitely will go back. read more

I will never recommend Famous Daves to anyone again. In the few times I have been to this location, either to sit down and eat or place a togo order, I have been let down and disgusted. The first time I went in with my family to sit down and eat, it was a busy night, we waited about 5 min for anyone to greet us. Understandable. Finally, the hostess came and sat us at one of the larger tables in the middle of the restaurant. Our server came over right away and took our order. While we waited for the food to arrive I heard another server talk about one of the customers sitting next to us. He was blatantly talking about giving oral sex to one of his customers. In no way was he trying to be discreet. I am sitting with my family and I hear that from an employee?! I almost lost my appetite. When the food finally arrived it was disappointing. The fries were cold and stale, and brisket was almost entirely fat. My husbands' ribs were tough. Food tasted as if it were sitting in a steamtable all night and heated in a microwave. We paid our bill and left pretty quickly. The next most recent time I came in and sat at the bar. I was ordering food on my lunch break. I overheard the general manager complaining about customers. I have been in restaurants for years, I know how rude and obnoxious people can be. But you should remain professional on the job and as a leader, you set an example for your employees. It's very clear that this manager is setting a poor, disrespectful example. In the time I was there, employees were just standing around talking and chatting and eating in front of customers. I heard a commotion and glanced up once, seeing a group of employees crowded around a to-go countertop. I saw what looked to be a little roach or beetle scurrying towards the kitchen.. After that, I will never go back. Do yourself a favor and look for decent BBQ elsewhere. read more

Yuck pulled pork is ok but brisket is well not sure you can even call it brisket. Touch chewy sliver slices. So sad. Be sure to look at the picture. That is really what they served me! read more

Famous Dave's Bar-B-Que - Brisket if you can call it that - Barbeque Near Me - Madison, Wisconsin

There are not a lot of places to find good bar-b-que in Madison and this is my personal favorite. The Dave burger makes me gain weight just thinking about it and it is worth having to fit in another workout to enjoy it. The place is nothing fancy but something that serves huge slabs of meat should not be. The service is simple but good. If you want a fun atmosphere, great eats that will not empty your wallet I recommend Famous Daves. read more

Just sat here for 30 minutes. No one even offered us a glass of water. Left after being told 3 times our waiter would be right with us. Yet mooned offered any help. Will not be coming back anytime soon waiters and host were busy talking up at the front entrance of the entire time. read more

I have always really liked Famous Dave's. Dave has always been good to me, he knows just how to make a pulled pork sandwich just the way I like it. His ribs are delcious, too. You're not going to find any earth shattering new way to get pork dishes, but man it's delicious. Great cheap, hearty food to make you feel better. The televisions everywhere are probably great for game days, but a little distracting when you're with friends. My buddy Marcus also brought to my attention to the pig motif carried through the entire restaurant with disturbing frequency. Try that with cows in a burger joint and see how that plays out... read more

We had Famous Dave's cater our wedding in 2003 because we loved it soooo much. Since then we've come in a couple times here and there and just never seemed to be the same. We were visiting my Aunt at the hospital and decided to give it one more try. Boy am I glad we did! It's like we turned back time ! We got the feast for two with brisket. Everything on the tray was incredible! Our server Famous Jeffery was amazing! We haven't had an experience here like this for years! We will definitely be back and be telling all our friends to come in. read more

Dave, I get it. Your establishment serves lots of tasty meat. Understood. But do you have to name a sandwich "Texas Manhandler"? That's really just too much. read more

I can make BBQ at home in my slow cooker. If you want good BBQ go to Smokey Jon's not a chain restaurant.

Fun place to share a few plates of food with friends. Fast service/helpful waiter.

I was still a little pissed about the wings and the fish sandwich. I learned my lesson. Good place, good BBQ, good ribs, good sauce. Overall, pret-ay, pret-ay, pret-ay, pretty good. read more

We have been there a few time now and have always experience great food, friendly staff. We went there on 4/25 and the food was amazing. They really kicked up the smoky flavor of the food which made it even better than it had ever been in prior visits. We have not had a bad experience here during our multiple visits. I would change my rating to a five stars if they can continue to infuse the food with that great extra-smoky flavor, just the way BBQ was intended. read more

I was very pleasantly surprised. Don't get me wrong-- this place's flavor profile is almost entirely made up of butter, but you probably knew that if you're considering a chain barbecue joint to go eat aren't you? The tenders, ribs, chicken are all great. They offer a variety of different barbecue sauces depending on your palate for sweetness and for spice. The corn muffins are sweet and moist, which makes them easily delicious. Wait staff is attentive. Good spot. That being said, my good experience probably cost on the order of 3500 calories, so just know thats whats happening. read more

Some restaurants have ways to distract patrons from inherent issues that make an average dining experience into something worse. Enter the corporate crafted look of Famous Dave's. While nothing about this franchise location is, in itself a deal breaker, there are enough individual problems to cause concern. To be sure, flavor profiles are well crafted, but when you serve everything at varying degrees of warm instead of hot, one wonders if the microwave is doing the most work. To back track, I started my meal with the chicken with wild rice soup. Flavor was good, but the wild rice was under-cooked enough to be noticeable. Next, the rather anemic sized brisket sandwich. Flavor and seasoning was acceptable, but the meat was dry. The small portioned sides also had good flavor, but were gone in three bites. read more

We live in Florida, when Irma hit we drove home to Madison and the first place we went to was Famous Dave's the best Restraunt in madison the Cajun chicken sandwich is to die for worth the trip from florida to Madison read more

Horrible, horrible catering service and experience. Expect the food to arrive 2 hours late. Save your time and money, go elsewhere.

Firstly why is it called Famous Daaves BBQ? 1. Who is Dave? 2. Is Dave really famous? I walked in, curious to try the food. The decoration is cute, lots of sign boards everywhere. My waiter was pretty awesome. We had 6 bottles of BBQ sauce on our table and he explained every single one of them, the flavor, how hot / sweet it was, what it was made of. Then he brought us a plate of potato chips so we could try each sauce. I liked the original and the sweet/zesty one. I was afraid of trying the XXL sauce because it was super spicy. Spicy food makes me cry. I ordered from the lunch menu and decided on the St. Louis ribs. It came with a corn muffin, corn on the cob and your choice of side, I had broccoli. When my food came, I only had 3 ribs. I was expected at least half a slab. St. Louis ribs aren't that great, the meat isn't that tender and there is too much fat. Baby back ribs are so much better, baby ribs are always WINNING! The corn muffin was excellent. Corn on the cob, can't say much, just has lots of butter so it tastes good. At the end of the meal, the waiter gave us a free bottle of original bbq sauce. read more

Famous Daves is the perfect place for some old fashioned comfort food. Is it a chain? Yup. Does that mean it's not delicious? Absolutely not! The parking lot is definitely a rarity downtown, and super nice, but the inside leaves a bit to be desired. It's clean enough, but a small space with no booths (where do I put my purse!?!?) and server stations are right by the tables. It feels like you should be able to get your own refills at the soda station but instead your server does it about a foot away from you. The service was efficient. He was not one for small talk, but we didn't wait for anything he was very on top of everything. Food is good, my mashed potatoes were only like warm but everything else was good as usual! Good place to go for some American BBQ and a cold beer (in a frosted glass!) read more

Sorry folks, but if you think Famous Dave's is great BBQ then you need to get to a real down home open pit place sometime. Few BBQ places in the Midwest serve up the real deal BBQ, but there are some around, just not in Madison. Head to Speed Queen or Isiaah's in Milwaukee for truly excellent BBQ. Other than that head down South. Whatever you do, don't confuse Famous Dave's with the real thing. It ain't. read more

This is for the Dells location which didn't come up on Yelp but I'm sure it would be the same review anyway...so would you think "Devil's Spit" BBQ sauce would be spicy? You'd be wrong here....no heat just endless sugar and salt...even the broccoli! read more

Lemonade was great. Sauces are good, flavorful. Cornbread was buttery and crisp. But the brisket was tough and gummy. The chicken was ok but wasn't much. Gone after a few pinches off the bone. I don't like thigh meat. I expected pulled bbqed breast meat. But it was whole chicken thighs so the meat was not flavorful. The beans were described beautifully but it was just plain ole beans with no flavor. read more

Omg I love famous daves!! Their food is amazing, the service is above average and I always get my food right away. I would eat there every day. read more

Sure the idea of bbq from a chain restaurant is a turn-off but Famous Dave's really is a good place. The ribs are good the sauce is good, the brisket is good. $3 margaritas every day. Tonight our ribs were just a little tough and our server could have done a touch better, but we are fans and always like our dinner here. read more

It's always disappointment to see what not available on the menu. We come for the "feast" and surprise to learn, after the fact, that some components are missing. Not ok. read more

Famous Dave's has some great sauces to choose from. I am a fan of the Fire Pit. The food is great and filling. You get a lot of food for a decent price. We had excellent service as well. But, then again, it was a Monday late afternoon. The place was pretty empty. read more

We were sat close to the bar but tucked out of the way. The problem with that was we were forgot about just as a table near us was left dirty during most our visit, 3 servers walked over food on the floor near our table, our server seldom came to our table, we had someone else bring our food. I'm pretty disappointed in this location. I do enjoy the location in Lake Delton and Wisconsin Dells. I will never frequent this location again. read more

Excellent carry out service. Open your order boxes to make sure it us correct. Plenty for a serving!

Went there today with my kids and husband at State street Madison. Verry disappointed. They give away our table to bigger group, sat us in smaller table, wait for 20 mins no waiter, no water, nothing. really bad customer service, crappy hostess. read more

Just visited this place? Lousy service!!! I would not recommend to anyone. Had to go to register to get check and both the waiter and mgr thought it funny! DO NOT GO!!! read more

I'm a big fan of Dave's, but today we had an unpleasant experience at the Madison location. We arrived at the restaurant around 4 pm and the place was empty, employees were seen talking in the bar side but there was no one to greet us. there were 5 dirty tables and they remained dirty the whole time we were in the place. the food was OK but the ribs a little over cooked. The part I found most unpleasant was when my daughter found a piece of chewed flesh into the mashed potatoes,I told our waiter about it but nobody said anything, that made me think that the food is recycled. finally I pay my bill and leave 25% tip because Tom gave me good service( and because Im in the restaurante business), although he disappeared and no one at the door when we leave, employees including the manager were too busy talking.I said thankyou and noone answered, is very sad to see that people we trust to take care of our business they really don't care ( looking from the business owner perspective) I think I will continue eating at Dave's in Rockford branch hereafter. read more

What a dive today. Waited to be seated, waited to be served, waited for boxes and check. Waited to pay the check, got up and started putting our coats on, before the waitress showed up. Tables around us weren't bussed until after we got our food, when they were, they were never wiped down, and people were seated at them like that. One guy was seated at a table with a dirty glass on it, the waitress never noticed. And it was so cold we kept our coats on and wished for a blanket. I'm not going back there any time soon unless its for carryout. read more

Hit or miss in terms of the quality of ribs. They are very good in most occasions but can be overlooked. Friendly service and immediate seating. I like Miller lite but they don't come only in bottles so that I have to order them multiple times. I wish they come in pint size draft beer. A reasonable price but the restroom may look spooky to young girls. read more