Famous Dave's Sides Ranked: All 11, With Prices

Here is the oddity of Famous Dave's: it runs the most expensive meat prices in national chain barbecue and the cheapest sides. Every standard side is $3.29 — under Sonny's at $3.49 and at the bottom of City BBQ's $2.75 to $3.59 range. On a menu where a brisket sandwich is $18.89, the side board is where the value is hiding.

The full side list and what each costs

Because eight of the eleven cost exactly the same, price tells you nothing about which to pick. So here is the ranking.

The sides ranked

1. Wilbur Beans ($3.29). The signature, named after the pig on the sign, and the only side that tastes like it came out of the same building as the barbecue — sweet, thick, studded with meat. If you take one side, take this.
2. Dave's Cheesy Mac & Cheese ($3.29). Rich enough to read as a small entrée at roughly 320 calories. The kids' menu sells Kraft macaroni separately at $6.69, which tells you the house version is the real one.
3. Corn Bread Muffin ($1.99). The cheapest thing on the entire menu and the one item you should always add. An order of muffins is $7.79 for the table.
4. Garlic Red-Skin Mashed Potatoes ($3.29). Skin-on and coarse rather than whipped smooth. Better with brisket and burnt ends than with ribs.
5. Creamy Coleslaw ($3.29). Mayonnaise-forward rather than vinegary. Its job is cutting fat on a Big Slab, and it does it.
6. Collard Greens ($2.99). One of only two sides under $3, and a genuinely Southern one on a menu founded in Minnesota.
7. Famous Fries ($3.29). Fine in the restaurant, hopeless twenty minutes later. Never order these to travel.
8. Sweet Corn ($3.29). Inoffensive, buttery, forgettable.
9. Fresh Steamed Broccoli ($2.99). The lightest thing on the menu at roughly 50 calories, and the reason a Famous Dave's meal can land under 700 — covered fully in the calorie guide.
10. Side Caesar Salad ($3.29). A salad in a barbecue restaurant. It exists.
11. Side Garden Salad ($3.29). As above, minus the dressing that made it interesting.

Pints, individuals and the ordering math

There are three ways to buy a side here and they are not priced the same:

The $1.20 gap between the platter price and the à la carte price is a quiet penalty for ordering sides on their own. And the pint at $6.69 is roughly two individual portions for the price of 1.5 — for any table of three or more, pints are the correct call, and it is the same logic that makes the Feasts work.

Which side goes with which meat

• St. Louis spareribs (Big Slab, $36.69) — creamy coleslaw and Wilbur Beans. Fat needs acid and sweetness.
• Texas Beef Brisket ($17.59) — garlic red-skin mashed potatoes. Beef wants starch, not sugar.
• Burnt Ends Platter ($24.99) — steamed broccoli or collard greens, genuinely. At roughly 1,100 calories the burnt ends do not need help.
• Georgia Chopped Pork ($14.29) — coleslaw, on the sandwich rather than beside it, with Georgia Mustard from the sauce lineup.
• Southside Rib Tips ($16.99) — Wilbur Beans and corn bread. The best cheap plate in the building.

What the sides tell you about the menu

A restaurant that charges $36.69 for a slab of ribs and $3.29 for a scoop of mac is telling you where its margin comes from. The practical consequence is that the way to eat well cheaply at Famous Dave's is to buy fewer meat items and more sides — a Southside Rib Tips Platter with two sides and a corn bread muffin is a large meal for under $20, while the same money spent on a Texas Beef Brisket Sandwich at $18.89 buys one sandwich.

For every item and current price, the full Famous Dave's menu has the complete list.