The Famous Dave's menu is the most expensive of any national barbecue chain, and it is unapologetic about it. This is a sit-down restaurant with a full bar, competition-pedigree ribs, and a signature feast served on a literal trash-can lid. If you are comparing it to counter-service barbecue on price, it will lose every time. If you are comparing it on what actually arrives at the table, the picture is different. Here is the whole menu with current prices, plus where the value genuinely sits.
Famous Dave's prices at a glance
Every price quoted in this guide, collected up front. Prices vary by location and change without notice.
| Order | Famous Dave's | Sonny's BBQ | City BBQ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brisket sandwich | $18.89 | $10.99 | $10.78 |
| Full/big slab of St. Louis ribs | $36.69 | $17.99 | $27.59 |
| Single meat platter | $17.79 | $14.99 | — |
| Individual side | $3.29 | $3.49 | $2.75–$3.59 |
| Kids meal | $6.69–$9.49 | $5.99 | $7.19 |
| Cut | Size | Price | Per bone |
|---|---|---|---|
| St. Louis-Style Spareribs | Big Slab (12 bones) | $36.69 | $3.06 |
| St. Louis-Style Spareribs | 2/3 Slab (9 bones) | $32.19 | $3.58 |
| St. Louis-Style Spareribs | 1/2 Slab (6 bones) | $26.69 | $4.45 |
| St. Louis-Style Spareribs | 1/3 Slab (4 bones) | $21.09 | $5.27 |
| Baby Back Ribs | Big Baby (12 bones) | $37.79 | $3.15 |
| Baby Back Ribs | Half Baby (6 bones) | $25.59 | $4.27 |
| Combo | Price | Cost per meat |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Meat Platter | $17.79 | $17.79 |
| 2 Meat Combo | $24.49 | $12.25 |
| 3 Meat Combo | $28.89 | $9.63 |
| Party size | Ordering individually | Ordering a Feast | Saving |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 people | ~$62 (two platters) | $55.49 (Feast For 2) | ~$7 |
| 4 people | ~$95 | $99.89 (All-American, over-orders) | — |
| 6 people | ~$140 | $99.89 | ~$40 |
| 8 people | ~$185 | $99.89 | ~$85 |
Famous Dave's prices in context
Sides are actually the cheapest of the three at $3.29. Everything with meat on it is substantially more. The gap on ribs — $36.69 against Sonny's $17.99 for the same St. Louis cut — is the single biggest price difference in American chain barbecue.
Award-winning ribs
Ribs are the entire reason Famous Dave's exists, and the menu treats them accordingly with four size options on the spareribs alone.
The per-bone column is the important one. The Big Slab at $3.06 a bone is nearly half the price per bone of the 1/3 slab at $5.27. If two of you are eating ribs, order one Big Slab and split it rather than buying two smaller portions — you will save roughly $5 and get more food.
Famous Feasts
The Feasts are the chain's signature and the thing people photograph.
- All-American BBQ Feast ($99.89) — Served on a trash-can lid. Full slab of St. Louis ribs, country-roasted chicken, Texas beef brisket, Georgia chopped pork, hot link sausage, sides and corn bread muffins. Feeds six to eight realistically.
- Feast For 2 ($55.49) — Two meats, two sides, corn bread. Feeds two generously or three modestly.
- Founder's Feast ($32.19) — The entry point.
The All-American at $99.89 works out to roughly $14 a head for eight people — which for a full-service restaurant, with everything on the table at once, is genuinely reasonable. Ordering the same food as individual platters would exceed $140.
'Que Combos
The second meat costs $6.70 and the third costs $4.40. The 3 Meat Combo at $28.89 is the best per-meat value in this section. Rib combos run from $26.99 for a Rib-N-Meat up to $35.19 for St. Louis-N-Baby.
Dave's Smokin' Ribeye is on the same section at $23.39 (8 oz) or $36.69 (16 oz) — the only steak on a national barbecue chain menu.
Pitmaster Favorites
The platters, ordered from cheapest up:
- Georgia Chopped Pork ($14.29) — Cheapest platter on the menu.
- Country-Roasted or BBQ Chicken ($14.29)
- Traditional or Boneless Wing Platter ($16.49)
- Southside Rib Tips ($16.99) — The most underrated item here. Rib tips are the trimmings from the St. Louis cut, they eat like burnt ends, and they cost less than half what the ribs do.
- Texas Beef Brisket ($17.59)
- Iris' Down Home Fried Chicken ($18.99)
- Burnt Ends ($24.99) — The most expensive platter and the best thing on the menu if you like fat.
Burgers, sandwiches and appetizers
Famous Dave's runs a genuine burger programme, which most barbecue chains do not. Build Your Own Fresh Burger ($14.49) up to Ultimate Burger ($18.89), with Dave's Favorite and Devil's Spit at $17.79 each.
On sandwiches, the Texas Beef Brisket Sandwich at $18.89 is the most expensive barbecue sandwich of any chain covered on this site. The Manhandler ($16.69) and the BBQ Tacos ($17.79) are the two most interesting items.
Appetizers are where the bill inflates fastest. Dave's Sampler Platter ($27.79), Double Winger ($31.99), Burnt Ends Appetizer ($16.69), Shack Shrimp ($16.49), BBQ Nachos ($15.59). The one worth ordering is Onion Strings at $8.89 — the cheapest starter and the best.
Sides and desserts
Every standard side is $3.29: Wilbur Beans, sweet corn, garlic red-skin mashed potatoes, creamy coleslaw, Famous Fries, Dave's Cheesy Mac & Cheese, side Caesar, side garden salad. Collard greens and steamed broccoli are $2.99, corn bread muffins $1.99.
Pint sides for sharing are $6.69, individual sides à la carte $4.49, meats by the pound $16.69, extra meat $6.69.
Desserts are large and priced accordingly — Dave's Award-Winning Bread Pudding ($9.99) and Chocolate Cookies & Cream Cake ($9.99) are both genuinely for sharing. Down Home Banana Pudding ($8.89), Dave's Famous Sundae ($7.79).
Kids' menu
The Lil' Wilbur meals run $6.69 to $9.49 — Kraft mac and cheese at $6.69, chopped pork sandwich and mini corn dogs at $7.29, burger and roasted chicken at $7.79, cheeseburger at $8.39, and a full kids' rib dinner at $9.49. Root beer floats and sundaes are $2.59.
Is Famous Dave's worth the price?
The honest answer depends entirely on group size.
Eating alone, it is poor value. A brisket sandwich at $18.89 is nearly twice what City BBQ charges for the same thing, and the ribs at $36.69 a slab are more than double Sonny's.
Eating as a group of four to eight, it flips. The All-American BBQ Feast at $99.89 for six to eight people lands around $14 a head in a full-service restaurant with a bar. That is competitive with almost anything, and it is the only order on the menu that genuinely justifies the chain's pricing.
So the rule is simple: never go to Famous Dave's alone, and never order individually when you can order a Feast.
What to order
Group of six or more: All-American BBQ Feast ($99.89). Two people: one Big Slab of St. Louis ribs ($36.69), split, plus two sides. Solo and hungry: Southside Rib Tips ($16.99) — the best plate-to-price ratio on the menu. Solo and curious: Burnt Ends Platter ($24.99).
The sauce range — the thing Famous Dave's genuinely leads on
Whatever you think of the pricing, Famous Dave's carries the widest sauce range of any national barbecue chain, and the sauces are the reason the brand exists. Dave Anderson built the company off competition barbecue, and the bottles are the part of that heritage that survived scaling.
- Rich & Sassy — The flagship. Sweet, tomato-and-molasses, thick. The default.
- Georgia Mustard — Yellow mustard base with vinegar. Correct on pork, excellent on sausage.
- Texas Pit — Thinner, smokier, less sugar. The one to use on brisket.
- Devil's Spit — Genuinely hot, habanero-forward. The most distinctive bottle on any chain menu.
- Sweet & Zesty — Milder than Rich & Sassy, and the one children reach for.
Every table carries the full set. Compared with the eight-sauce wall at Mission BBQ, Famous Dave's has fewer bottles but a wider spread — the gap between Sweet & Zesty and Devil's Spit is larger than anything Mission BBQ offers.
How to eat at Famous Dave's without overpaying
The single biggest determinant of your bill here is not what you order but how many people you order for. The maths, for the same food:
The break-even is around five people. Below that, Feasts do not help. At six and above, the All-American is dramatically cheaper than anything else on the menu, and by eight people it costs roughly half.
What the appetizer menu does to your bill
Famous Dave's runs the most expensive appetizer list in chain barbecue, and it is where a manageable dinner becomes an expensive one. A table of four ordering Dave's Sampler Platter ($27.79) and Shack Shrimp ($16.49) has spent $44 before any barbecue arrives — roughly the price of a Founder's Feast on its own.
If you want a starter, Onion Strings at $8.89 is the only one that is not disproportionately priced, and it is the best of them anyway.
Rib tips: the item nobody orders
The Southside Rib Tips Platter at $16.99 deserves its own section because it is the most mispriced item on the menu in the customer's favour.
Rib tips are the cartilage-heavy strip trimmed off a spare rib rack to make it a St. Louis cut. They are the same meat, from the same rack, cooked the same way. They eat like a cross between burnt ends and ribs, they are fattier and arguably more flavourful, and they cost less than half what the ribs they came from cost.
If you are eating alone at Famous Dave's and you want the most food and flavour for the money, this is the order. It is not close.
Famous Dave's nutrition and calories
Famous Dave's publishes its own calorie counts, and every figure below is the brand's number rather than an estimate. The Cal column in the full menu below carries the rest — this table is only the items people most often compare.
| Item | Calories |
|---|---|
| Burnt Ends Platter, no sides | 480 |
| Texas Beef Brisket Platter, no sides | 490 |
| Georgia Chopped Pork Platter, no sides | 530 |
| Southside Rib Tips Platter, no sides | 640 |
| Baby Back Ribs (Half Baby, 6 bones) | 560 |
| St. Louis Spareribs (1/3 Slab, 4 bones) | 640 |
| St. Louis Spareribs (1/2 Slab, 6 bones) | 960 |
| Baby Back Ribs (Big Baby, 12 bones) | 1,120 |
| St. Louis Spareribs (Big Slab, 12 bones) | 1,910 |
| Fresh Steamed Broccoli | 60 |
| Side Garden Salad | 100 |
| Creamy Coleslaw | 120 |
| Garlic Red-Skin Mashed Potatoes | 140 |
| Wilbur Beans | 210 |
| Cornbread Muffin | 260 |
| Dave's Cheesy Mac & Cheese | 280 |
| Famous Fries | 370 |
| Onion Strings Appetizer | 1,510 |
| Dave's Award-Winning Bread Pudding | 1,330 |
The brand's own numbers overturn the two assumptions people arrive with. The first is that burnt ends are the indulgent order: the Burnt Ends Platter is 480 calories, the lightest of the plated meats and lighter than the chopped pork at 530. The second is that ribs are ribs — they are not. A Big Slab of St. Louis spareribs is 1,910, while a Big Baby of baby backs, the same twelve bones, is 1,120. If you want ribs and you are counting, order baby backs: that swap saves 790 calories and is the single biggest saving available on this menu.
The two items this page recommends on value come with a warning attached. Onion Strings, the cheapest and best starter, are 1,510 calories — more than any of the plated meats and more than a Big Baby slab of twelve baby back bones. And the Southside Rib Tips Platter, the best plate-to-price ratio here, is 640, which is still lighter than most of the sandwiches. Sides are the cheap lever in both senses: broccoli at 60 or a garden salad at 100 against Famous Fries at 370.
Desserts are sized for sharing and the figures say so. Bread Pudding at 1,330 is more than double any of the plated meats it follows, so one between two is the sensible order. For groups, the All-American BBQ Feast is 8,390 for the whole trash-can lid — spread across the six to eight people it is built for, that is roughly 1,050 to 1,400 each before anyone touches a starter.
Who Famous Dave's is actually for
It is for groups, for occasions, and for people who want a bar and table service with their barbecue. It is not for a weekday lunch — City BBQ does that better and cheaper — and it is not for anyone whose priority is ribs per dollar, where Sonny's wins outright at $17.99.
Where it wins is the thing the competition cannot copy: a full slab of competition-style ribs, five sauces on the table, a waiter, and a feast that lands in front of six people at once. That is a specific experience, and the pricing is the cost of it.