Most barbecue chains want you to compare eight sides. Buddy's Bar-B-Q does not have eight sides. The chain runs a deliberately short menu — no burgers, no salads, no broad appetizer list — and the side that matters is a paper basket of ten hushpuppies for $3.99. Here is how the side of the plate actually works at Buddy's, including the parts the website does not spell out.
Hushpuppies, ten for $3.99
This is the item to understand. Hushpuppies are deep-fried cornmeal batter, a Southern staple that most national barbecue chains have quietly dropped — of the chains covered on this site, only City BBQ still carries them. Buddy's sells ten for $3.99, which is the best value on the menu by a distance and the reason a pork sandwich plus hushpuppies comes in under ten dollars.
Two honest notes. First, they are a genuine side, not a garnish: ten pieces runs around 560 calories, more than the $5.49 pork sandwich they usually sit beside. Second, they are at their best within about twenty minutes of the fryer, which is why they belong to an eat-in or drive-home-now order rather than a cross-county catering run. The calorie arithmetic is laid out in the Buddy's nutrition guide.
What comes with a basket
The basket format is Buddy's answer to a combo: a sandwich plus sides, priced about $3.50 above the sandwich alone. Run the numbers across the board and the pattern holds — a Beef Brisket Sandwich at $7.49 becomes a Beef Brisket Basket at $10.99; a Pork Sandwich at $5.49 becomes a Pork Sandwich Basket at $8.99.
| Sandwich alone | Basket version | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| Pork Sandwich (Regular) | Pork Sandwich Basket | ~$3.50 |
| Beef Brisket Sandwich | Beef Brisket Basket | ~$3.50 |
That is a fair deal, and it is worth stating why: à la carte sides at the national chains run $3.50 to $4.50 each. Buddy's is effectively giving you the sides at the price other chains charge for one of them. There are also two basket variants without a sandwich underneath — the Smoky Wing Basket (6 pc) at $10.49 and the Chicken Finger Basket at $9.49 — which are the fried end of the menu rather than the smoked one.
What comes with a dinner
Dinners — the Pork Dinner from $10.99 up to the Sampler Dinner from $16.99 — arrive as a plate with sides included rather than as a build-your-own tray. This is the older, diner-style format, and it means you are not standing at a counter choosing between mac and slaw. It also means the side list is not something Buddy's publishes item by item on its menu the way the national chains do.
The practical consequence: what is on the side list varies by restaurant, and across roughly fifteen East Tennessee locations that variance is real. If a specific side matters to you, call the restaurant. That is not a dodge — it is how a regional chain with no central menu-engineering department actually operates, and pretending otherwise would put a wrong answer on this page.
The side that is not a side
A Gallon of Sweet Tea at $5.99 functions as part of the table setting in East Tennessee, not as a beverage upsell. For a family pack order it is the cheapest thing you will add all night. And at the other end of the meal, a slice of meringue pie for $3.49 — chocolate, coconut or lemon, tall meringue, Southern diner tradition — is closer to a required course than an option.
How to order the sides right
- Always add hushpuppies when eating in or driving straight home. $3.99 for ten, shared across the table.
- Take the basket over the sandwich if you want sides at all — $3.50 beats buying sides anywhere else.
- Skip hushpuppies on a long delivery run. They do not survive the trip.
- Ask what the sides are today at a location you have not used before.
Everything above, with the current price ranges by location, is on the full Buddy's Bar-B-Q menu.