Famous Dave's Bar-B-Que — Restaurant in Bellevue

We've all had the dining experience wherein the food reality is nothing like the pictures taken by a professional food photographer.

If you’re looking for a catering service that serves near-rancid ribs and then has the audacity to blame you for their own failures, look no further than Famous Dave’s BBQ. What was supposed to be a delightful catered meal for a big celebration, turned into a stomach-churning nightmare, and their refusal to take ownership of this culinary catastrophe only adds insult to injury.

Point-blank, Famous Dave's has gone completely downhill and what they served us was a crime against BBQ.

The so-called "famous St. Louis-style spareribs”, I would be polite if I said I've had better meat from a gas station hot plate. The ribs Famous Dave’s delivered were a grotesque mockery of BBQ—dry, and teetering on the edge of spoilage given the weird taste. The exterior was a charred mess, as if they’d been left on the grill for hours by a distracted cook and the taste of rancidity was enough to send my four of my guests straight to the toilet. This wasn’t BBQ; this was a biohazard that we tossed in the garbage.

Thank you Famous Dave's!

Of course, there is no accountability, just blameless excuses from their end.

Famous Dave’s reached out to get my feedback on what they claimed should have been the most earth-shattering, epicurious experience of my life... rather than the patent travesty it was. I gave them honest feedback, not requesting any refund or compensation, and the manager had the balls to meet me head-on with nothing but abject deflection, denial, and gaslighting. Instead of owning up to their failure, they had the gall to suggest that we were the problem— or perhaps our “expectations” were too high or that we somehow mishandled their precious ribs. Excuse me? I didn’t realize expecting edible food was an unreasonable demand - shame on me. Famous Dave’s refusal to take responsibility for their subpar product is not just unprofessional—it’s downright shameful. A company that can’t admit when they’ve served garbage doesn’t deserve your business.

I think their blaming of the customer was what sent me over the edge.As if serving inedible ribs wasn’t bad enough, Famous Dave’s took it a step further by trying to pin the blame on us for their negative feedback. Apparently, our honest critique of their rancid ribs was unfair and exaggerated. Let me be clear: there’s nothing exaggerated about the nausea my guests felt after taking a single bite. Famous Dave’s attempt to gaslight me is a pathetic tactic to dodge accountability.

If you can’t handle criticism, maybe don’t serve food that belongs in a dumpster.

Avoid at this place at ALL COSTS!

Famous Dave’s BBQ catering is an absolute disgrace to the art of barbecue. Their ribs were an abomination, their customer service is a joke, and their refusal to own up to their mistakes is infuriating. If you value your taste buds—and your dignity—steer clear of this sorry excuse for a restaurant and their even sorrier excuse for catering service .

Famous Dave’s, you should be ashamed. Do better, or better yet, just close up shop.

Rating: 0/5 stars. I’d give it negative...

Famous Dave's = Famous Disaster. After noticing a promotional offer online for new Loyalty Rewards members, I decided to proceed with picking up dinner for the evening. The promotional states: "Free burger or sandwich with any purchase. Must present offer to server or cashier or redeem at checkout online."

Therefore, I logged into my account via the app to begin placing my order. After 20+ minutes of relentlessly trying to redeem the offer online with constant error messages, it became evident that it wasn't going to happen. I then attempted to contact the Famous Dave's 1-800 number and requested loyalty rewards support. I was then informed that they couldn't assist as they don't oversee the rewards program anymore. I then decided to contact the store location directly at this point. After explaining my issue to 2-3 different people on the phone, they were beyond confused.

Finally, I ended up just driving over to the location to get things sorted out. I then began placing my order at the take-out/order pickup window inside. The order consisted of a pulled pork sandwich (my purchase) and a cheeseburger (free from the promotion.) After presenting the code to the cashier, she had issues inputting the code into the system. In the end, she said that she would ring the items up on a ticket and take off the price for the burger, given that the code was having issues.

I then was instructed to wait outside in my vehicle in one of the curbside stalls. Approximately 2 minutes later, a gal brought out a bag of food, told me to have a good evening, and went back inside. I was only given the pulled pork sandwich. I was left confused as I had never paid for the meal and still hadn't received the free burger from the promotion. At this point, I should have just taken the free food and left due to the nightmare experience. However, I don't condone getting items for free that were not intended to be. I then walked right back inside to inform the cashier/bartender of the issue. She then stared at me like a deer in headlights.

She then said, "You can only redeem the promotion for one free sandwich." I replied in a joking manner, "Okay, let's back up here... The coupon states with any purchase, which I haven't even made a purchase and could have just left." After an additional 10-15 minutes of conversation, I finally received the free burger! Unfortunately, after arriving home, the food was certainly not worth the wait. The food quality suffered, the portion sizes were mediocre, and the items were overpriced. Our family has made previous trips to Famous Dave's over the years, and they have appeared to share commonalities. There will be no more returned...

If I give zero stars I would. I came in just me to sit down and eat the person at the front desk said ok got me a menu sat me down at a table . I sat there for 15 minutes plus waiting for someone to even acknowledge me the front desk man went to the back few times during those 15 minutes also during me waiting to even be acknowledge or asked if I wanted water or anything like 7 servers were walking in the same area I was seated at and like 4 looked me in my face and came and talked to the table right beside mine and still didn’t ask if I had been waiting on or if I wanted anything . There were even a waitress cleaning and walking back and forth she also didn’t say anything . A party of like 5 6 people walked in after I had been waiting all that time and got waited on and asked if they wanted some to drink immediately. I then went to the front desk and spoke to the guy who was a manger and his response was “sorry about that I was in the back busy “ which is not a excuse he is the manager not a server so that was not excuses why he has over 5 servers and not 1 waited on me or said anything to me while sitting in there. If your restaurant is like other restaurants in the minute that you say you’re going to get a table at the front desk they click something on a computer which shows there’s somebody’s waiting at that table so somebody was informed that there was a customer sitting at the table and nobody came to even wait on me or acknowledge me And that is unacceptable. If it was extremely busy and it was only 2 or 3 waiters then that’s understandable but I seen servers going in and out of the back where the kitchen was and walking around there’s no way people are being seated and you don’t know there there. The person at the front desk could see my table from where the desk is so is just no way no one was informed I was seated and needed to be waited on it was absolutely ridiculous and staff need to be talking to and the manager but there is no...