Famous Dave’s

Ugh. This is the worst one I’ve been in. The brisket is riddled in fat. The sides have little to no flavor. Just take the extra time & go to the one at Chandler Fashion.

My brother and I were out in San Tan and while trolling around for restaurants, we found Famous Dave’s. I like Rudy’s BBQ’d meats but don’t really care for their beans or coleslaw. The hostess was pleasant and seated us immediately. Our waitress was very attentive and never let our drinks go empty. One unique thing that Dave’s does is give you a basket of freshly cooked potato chips and the waitress uses the chips to taste all their varieties of BBQ sauce. I had a brisket sandwich and found the meat to be tender, well flavored with just the right amount of smokiness. My brother also enjoyed his meal. I am looking forward to my next visit to Dave’s so I can try more offerings from their menu.

Famous Daves is great. I have tried joes and rudy’s and this is the best. Had a small problem recently with a big group that was not a good experience, but it doesn’t tarnish the good food. Try to keep it 10 and under and you will be good. Devils spit is the way to go.

Great service. Eddie made our experience most remarkable. Food was good. Potato n bacon soup a little salty. Everything else was good. Defenetly coming back to this location.

Came in for dinner Monday evening ¹²⁄₂₀ apparently right after a busy rush. Our server was Tisha and she was friendly but it seemed like she had some kind of back story excuse for everything. The cooks didn’t have chips made, which is usually our favorite part with the different sauces on the table. Whatever, we order dinner and she comes back 5 minutes later to tell us the entire restaurant is out of chicken entirely. So the store is dirty from a rush, they don’t have any chips ready, and they’re out of chicken. So my husband and I hesitantly order something else, working in the restaurant industry I’m trying to be sympathetic right? Our food then takes forever, and when we finally get it Tisha tells us that was the last plate of the second item we had to order because they were out of the chicken. We eat and our Mac n cheese is cold, and his brisket was dry. There were only 6 other tables in the store and we didn’t get our chips until half way through our meal. All that past us, she hands us the bill and I half expected some sort of a discount or something but no. We ordered food we didn’t want, got the chips after our meal, with excuses from a server that should know better than to tell us all her problems and make excuses. Never going back after this experience! I recommend you don’t either.

If you want great service and awesome BBQ you should head to Logan’s Roadhouse down the street located at: San Tan Village, 2649 S Market St, Gilbert, AZ 85 295. Now to Racist Dave’s, if I could give this place a negative star I would. I came in with my wife and 8 year old daughter. A female staff took our name down and told us there was a 20 minute wait. Minutes passed and I noticed people that came in after us got seated before us. Went up to ask what the deal was and they didn’t even take my name down. I guess they pretended to take my name down but they made sure all the white people that came in before and after me got seated. I know now, that at this place unless you’re white you won’t be getting good service. What a bunch of racist, uncivilized human beings. This place almost ruined our night but luckily we remembered that Logan’s Road was just down the street. They totally saved the night with their great service and awesome BBQ. Thank you very much Logan’s Roadhouse employee’s for living in the 21^st Century and leaving the racism out the door and being family oriented.

Ordered our food at 7:15 pm. Reminded the waiter for chips after 15 minutes. The waiter apologized then brought us a liittle cup of chip. After 30 minutes still no meal. Asked rhe waiter for the manager after 45 minutes. After 5 more minutes the manager did not show up. My wife and son had enough, we left. We will never go back to this place again.

I’m unfortunately only able to give two stars to Famous Daves today as the food was good (not excellent) and they were out of the banana pudding dessert. But the biggest reason for two stars was the EXTREMELY slow and somewhat nonexistent service by Tisha. We received the signature barbecue chips 30 seconds prior to our meals. We never received a drink refill though my tea was empty long before my plate was. The worst part is we dined at a non busy time. No wait and tons of empty seats. I’ll think twice before returning soon.

Amazing food once our server got around to asking us for our order. The female server didn’t come back around so we were served by Jeremy and he was awesome. I recommend the BBQ nachos with briskett. And love taking home left overs because the feast for 2 really can feed 4!

It’s been a long time since I reviewed this place. So I should update.
I only come here when they have a special. Free meal for veterans, coupon, etc. Otherwise there’s another place I prefer.
That said, the BBQ here is pretty good. Not great, but pretty good. They seem to do a good job with brisket and ribs. Their chicken is nothing special, and I don’t like the chopped pork. The sausage is OK… ordinary, but OK. The beans are pretty good, the corn is usually a bit mushy, and the fries are plain but good. I also like the corn muffins.
We sat in the bar, so our server was the bartender. Service was adequate. He checked on us enough.
Overall a respectable BBQ place.

Great location fast service Every time I go to Daves the food is consistent, hot and beer is cold. Basically all you want from bbq joint. Yes some reviews say good is salty and salads aren’t that great. I wouldn’t know… I don’t go to bbq place for the lettuce but the barnyard animals taste yummy!!! Oh and buy a jar of pickles when you leave!!!

Pretty good food nice good place to eat for not alot of money would go back again for the food and beer

Just ok today, usually a little bit better. I think the 4^th of July holiday rush might have taken them off-​guard a bit. Service was a slower today than usual, onion-​straw appetizer was very much on the greasy side, and food/​drinks took some time to find to navigate the labyrinth from the bar/​kitchen to the table.
Food — well that’s what you come for, right? Food was spot on as usual. Can’t go wrong with Dave’s if this is your style of BBQ, they definitely have all kinds of variety to suit every BBQ taste.
Usually a great place to go, just a little off today.

Servers were not well trained. Ordered Ribs, salad and baked potato. Ribs were so overcooked they were dry and burnt. Potato was cold. Server came with salad same time he served the food. I asked him should I eat the salad first so the food get cold? Lets just put it in a box. Then I realized the whole meal was warm at best potato didn’t even melt the butter which I had to ask another server to bring me.. Who trained this idiot. After I asked to speak with someone no one arrived we paid the bill and left. Took the salad home.

Famous Tanisha was a great waitress. We were seated quickly and served our drinks promptly.
The food was pretty decent, just very salty. I ordered a BBQ chicken salad. Asked for extra tomatoes. Took 3 tries to get it right but hey, maybe I’m just picky.
Great waitress service and pretty typical of what you’d expect from this type of restaurant.

Let me start out by saying that I love Famous Dave’s. I have a great experience at my usual location. This is my first time trying this one; and it started out terribly. I was quickly seated … then ignored. The only way I was able to get service after around 15 minutes was to hunt down a waitress and ask for help. This is not what I expect from this restaurant.
I was about to give a one star review, although it was saved by our waitress, who was awesome. So good in fact that I gave a 50% tip. She was the best part of our experience there. The rest of the staff however, leaves little to be desired.

We had the American Feast & it was great. I will definitely be back. I’m so stuffed, I have tried other BBQ places since we have moved to Arizona this is definitely to the go to place.

Famous Daves in San Tan
After 3 visits and a broad sampling of what they have to offer, I feel I can review this place with objectivity.
It is expensive for what you actually get and the formula seems to weigh in favor of fats and sugars to keep you blindly returning for more.
Looking around the room while dining in one can see this hypothesis brought to bare on the wide girth of the patrons stumbling in.
They start you out with home made potato chips in a sweet BBQ sauce.
The lunch portions are quite small. For $ 8.29 my husband got a very small piece of chicken and a small scoop of mash potatoes with a small corn muffin.
Does anyone need all these carbs?
On another visit he had the double «portion» of meats ($ 9.59)
This came with a very small piece of chicken with a small hot link in a piece of bread, again the small side dish and muffin.
Clever sayings on the backs of the t-​shirt uniforms reveal the sentiments of Famous Daves aptly.
One says «because you don’t win friends with salad»
I suppose that anyone could choose some better side dishes but the problem with this is that the only way they know to make anything appeal to the palette is with butter salt or BBQ sauce. I had my side dishes sans butter and the lack of culinary skills at Famous Daves was supremely evident.
So if you are brave enough to taste the food here without its disguises (Butter and or BBQ sauce) the awareness will dawn on you… not good food here… not good food at all.
True, it is a BBQ joint, but the quality is simply not there.
(butter, salt and BBQ sauce… the trilogy of culinary camouflage.)

Thought we’d try something different tonight as we’re celebrating my boyfriends birthday week. We have both been to Famous Dave’s before just never together.
We arrived about 715pm and we always sit at the bar, especially during football season. The bar had 2 guests souring at it and the remainder of the bar was dirty. Not one open seat inviting us in. As we stood there, i finally spoke up and asked the bartender if we can sit there, and he finally started cleaning up.
I thought ok, let’s give this guy a chance, he probable just finished a rush and hadn’t pickled up yet.
Ummm no!!! The service continued to decline and the mess just piled up.
Boyfriend and I finished first beer and waiting 10 or 15 minutes before I asked across the beer for 2 more beers. REALLY? this is crappy service.
Not only did the bartender wait on the bar guests, he was responsible for all the tables in tyne bat and the outside patio. While he was outside I could have served myself quicker. Not very smartly thought out.
Service was crappy, food was cold, dirty restaurant. Very disappointed in this location. Even saw manager running food out, but never stopped to greet tables or round on guests. Obviously this location is lacking from management down. Chandler mall and mesa riverview will get my business next time.
UPDATE ¹¹⁄₃ Impressed that the General Manager attempted to call me to speak with me regarding my experience, however after each of us leaving a message for one another, it didnt go any further than that. The ball was left in his court and he never attempted again. Guess he REALLY didnt want to talk to me. Too bad!

Went there this afternoon with our kids (4 of us). Used my daughter’s birthday coupon to get ½ off the 2^nd entrée.
We got the Feast for One (with the roasted chicken) and another entrée of St. Louis Ribs with Texas Beef Brisket with mac & cheese with broccoli.
Everything was delicious, though, my daughter commented she liked her aunt’s ribs better. This was a lot of food and we all ate until we were stuffed. The Feast for One is enough food for 2 adults to get stuffed.
We went about 3:00 pm or a little later, so there were hardly any people in the restaurant. Our server Sarah and the other people that helped were fantastic. No complaints.
It’s a little pricey for what we usually do, but once in awhile and a coupon certainly does help. The roasted chicken, the pork, the ribs, the brisket were all so yummy.