Bama Bucks — Restaurant in Sardis City

Our GPS system took us to the Bama Bucks property with no problem. It was a drive of about an hour and fifteen minutes, which we expected, and it was worth the drive. Using a paper map would have been a challenge.

The restaurant does not take reservations. We arrived at about 12:30 on a Friday and were told there would be a wait of 45 minutes to one hour. There is an app with the URL that goes to a cell phone that tells one how many people are in front and how long you have been waiting. In our case, it was 36 minutes so shorter than we anticipated.

While waiting, we walked around the area checking out a Chevy Truck with a 1945 tag installed, a 1946 Farmall tractor, and various items for sale including whiskey barrels, artwork with a rustic, rural flavor, and a general store. While in the store, one of the employees had a baby lemur curling around her neck and staring at the visitors. Frankly, seeing the baby lemur and how the kids in the store reacted to it made the drive worthwhile.

Our server was Elisha. She was very helpful and delightful to talk with and provided outstanding service during our meal. Despite my questions and taking up her time, she was very good natured and enjoyed the exchange. Every restaurant server should be as good as Elisha was on this occasion.

I asked her questions she probably gets a few times every day such as "what is a brace of quail?" and "what is airline pheasant?"

I wanted to ask those questions because, while I eat in a restaurant almost every day, these are unusual items on the hundreds of menus I have used in restaurants around the world. More importantly, she accurately described what the terms meant (airline means wings of a pheasant and a "brace of quail" is two pieces).

A brace of quail translates, roughly, into about 1/4 of a chicken.

The seasoning on the quail was excellent--it was peppery with a slight taste of salt. It was cooked so that the skin was crispy but not burned. The flavor was very good. If it were not so small and seasoned so well, I would have thought I was eating a very small chicken.

The angus burger was cooked perfectly as ordered. It was very large and served between two pieces of bread rather than a bun. The onion rings were reportedly not outstanding according to the one who ate them—more like they were delivered to the restaurant frozen and then fried according to the person who ate them.

The airline pheasant was also excellent. It was also cooked to a light brown, seasoned lightly and had a delicate flavor.

For those with a taste for game, consider any of the following as an entree that are also on the menu: New Zealand Venison Bison Ribeye New Zealand Elk Steak Bison Lasagna.

For dessert, I ordered the Bourbon Pecan Bread Pudding—with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Fortunately, it was not a massive serving. The calories with the whipped cream, ice cream and the ingredients to bread pudding would ruin any version of a diet.

Having said that, I would order it again. The bourbon flavor was throughout the pudding. It was cooked perfectly. Some restaurants serve an inexpensive ice cream to top off pudding like this but Bama Bucks used a better brand that was creamier and added to the experience.

There is an animal park behind the restaurant. There is an extra charge of $3.00 per adult. It was a very hot day (car thermometer registered 104 degrees when we started it after lunch) and some of the animals were wading or just standing in water. Probably a good move.

Seeing the variety of animals was worth the $3 bucks to enter.

Bama Bucks is unique. It is worth a trip. The food is very good. The service was excellent. It is a family type of restaurant so lots of whining children on a hot day but this is not a formal restaurant with white table cloths and an extensive wine list for those who might prefer an excellent French white wine to go with their order of quail. The ambiance is more like a casual restaurant in a Western town with wooden tables, Western art on the walls, and servers in...

I originally found Bama Bucks on social media and was so excited to find the opportunity to come here! We live in Birmingham but my fiancé and I spent the weekend at Guntersville Lake for his birthday and I realized the restaurant was about 40 minutes from where we were staying. We got there right around 5 and the wait was 2 1/2 hours. The employee who was helping with cars and directing the parking lot was super friendly and explained how much the wait was worth it. The parking lot was full but they have additional parking at a church down the street and a truck shuttle to get patrons back and forth which was a nice touch. We decided to walk to the restaurant after parking since it was only a 5 minute walk and it was so pretty coming up to the deer and restaurant. It’s $5/head to go into the animal park, which we didn’t mind paying for. You can tell the animals are very well cared for and loved. Sand Mountain Sam lives here! We had so much fun looking around at all the animals! We walked around the exhibit a few times and at one point, an employee came out with coffee on the house for those who wanted which was a nice touch. There is a nice general store with knick knacks and a few outside areas that also sold various items. It was very fun to look at everything! I will say, when it hit the 2 hour mark, we did get a little bored and walked around the exhibit a bit more but eventually we sat at a bench for awhile until our table was ready. We shared the duck blinds as an appetizer and those alone made the wait worth it. The restaurant was packed so we did wait a little bit for our order to be taken, getting our check, etc., but we still enjoyed the indoor atmosphere as well despite the busyness. My fiancé got the elk steak and I had the venison. We both enjoy wild game and have tried our fair share of it and easily agreed this was some of the best we had/best cuts. We enjoyed sharing bites of each other’s meal. The meat was cooked so well and the fruit reductions included with the meat added such a great touch. We were very pleased and knew the wait really was worth it after the first bite of our meals. We ordered dessert to go and took home the bourbon pecan bread pudding and apple cobbler. Truly, the best bread pudding I have ever had and my fiancé said the cobbler was incredible. If you are patient and willing to wait, do it, you will not be disappointed! The staff were amazing and very kind. They do the very best they can with how busy this place gets. Very well staffed and you can tell everyone enjoys working there. We are so excited to come back and try some more of the wild game sometime. We visited here on 2/8/25. Thank you for a...

This review is just for the food and restaurant. We didn't go into the animal park because we'd just come from Tigers for Tomorrow and had our fill of wildlife viewing, lol.

Came here for lunch Friday last week with a large group after aforementioned TFT visit. Reading how popular this place is, I was worried it would be a struggle to seat us all (party of 12), but we only had to wait a few minutes while they pulled some tables together.

Walking up to the restaurant there are a few little pockets to look at stuff for sale, much of it hunting/wildlife/wild game themed. There were some really funny taxidermy animals and plenty of souvenirs. There's a larger indoor gift shop that also houses a resident live sloth. The sloth was sleeping, of course, but fun to look at and you're allowed to shop while you wait for your meal, so we took turns poking around.

The decor really is fun and to me it's almost worth a trip based on the novelty of it all alone.

Our waitress was fine. We had a lot of questions about the menu but she mostly just said everything was good, which I guess is a fine opinion to have but didn't help us make a decision, lol. Food was a little slow to come out but they got the modifications for the kids right and no mistakes on our food either.

On to the food -- I actually think I was the happiest with what I got out of everyone. A rarity. And if anyone else had written this review, it might've only been a 3 star. But I was happy!

I got the fiesta chicken (grilled chicken with queso, peppers and onions, and tortilla strips) with broccoli and sweet potato fries. I also ate a couple of the complimentary rolls -- they were yummy yeast rolls and freshly baked! My chicken was juicy and perfectly cooked and I enjoyed the myriad flavors of the toppings. The broccoli was plain but tender and plentiful. The sweet potato fries were extra sweet but I prefer them that way. They were nice and crispy too.

My fellow diners got a bunch of stuff -- burgers, several French dips, a couple of wild game steaks and beef steaks for the kids, etc. the French dip didn't look that good to me and no one who ordered it finished it; they said it was weirdly sweet. The elk steak was tough and dry but the bison ribeye was better received. I didn't try either because I'm a wuss, lmao.

I'm glad I ordered what I did and I would reorder it if I happen to...