Famous Dave’s

I’ve had Famous Daves in Fresno and their corn bread is absolutely amazing. That’s one of the reasons why I decided to stop by here, but I was a bit disappointed. Everything else was great, but the cornbread came out dry and a bit over baked. I don’t know if that’s the usual case here, but Oxnard’s Famous Daves needs to do something!

The greeter sat us down right away. Then waited for at least 15 mins and nobody came to ask serve us any drinks. They walked by us like 5 times and nobody asked us if we wanted a drink. When we left we noticed the girl that sat us down was sweeping and there were about 3 others just standing around. 2 of the workers were just chatting it up. We just left and ate somewhere else. Won’t be going back there!

So we are driving to LA from the Central Coast and stopped by the REI in Oxnard… We are hungry and I see the Famous Dave’s [FD’s] right down the strip from the REI… Well, we ate in FD’s in Minneapolis, Madison, WI and in Colorado Springs — always good food, but the wait time was always close to 30 minutes… We have time, so we get in this one, order St. Louis-​Style spareribs, some beer… 10 minutes later we get our platter on the table — the ribs look good, smothered in sauce… My first rib is hard beyond chewing, and not like cooked to crisp or charred — just plain old stale piece of pork… Well I’m hungry and still under the spell of good impressions from our previous visits to FD’s, so I just power through the first rib and keep eating… Then my wife starts to spit out chunks of meat, she can’t chew it either… It was definitely NOT cooked to order — either somebody ordered it earlier and changed their mind, or FD’s started to pre-​cook their ribs to have it delivered to the table in less time than before… Long story short — we just sat there, suffered through and ate almost all of it, paid our bill of $ 40 and left… In the hindsight — I should’ve just send this old slab back, talk to the manager, get us comped, or get a different food item, maybe Baby Back Ribs… That’s what happens when you have a good romantic road trip with your wife, walk on the beach earlier, and have the stiff idea or a concept created in your head that the «FD’s is a high-​end BBQ rib place with the meat falling of the ribs and melting in your mouth»… We just couldn’t believe it and just allowed this crap experience to spoil the end of our day… Well, now we are cured and are never again setting foot in this place… Still a little price to pay to stop being confused about the FD’s BBQ joint…

I love their BBQ! We almost always do the family feast or feast for two; it’s a generous serving of food and can easily serve more than the servings it claims. I don’t care for their hot links, but everything else is a go. If you have room left (which I usually do because my stomach is a bottomless pit) try the bread pudding. It is the best I’ve ever had… perfectly sweet!

Not sure what happened today we went in with a party of 6, and 80% of the tables where empty and we still had to wait over 20 minutes. Not sure if it was poor management and miss scheduling or just really bad service. I would total get it if it was busy and people were waiting not the case here so I call poor management. Only reason for the 2 star is because the food was good and the waitress was awesome.

The food is good but the service is awful. We waited what seemed forever to even get our drink order taken and when we finally got that we waited even longer to order our food. They need more employees and hopefully that fixes the problem because the food is pretty delicious.

The Palmdale location is much better; came here on a Saturday night and we should’ve known it was just gonna go downhill soon after we got there.
The hostess had a large and lovely hickey on her neck… nice!
The sweet tea we got was regular tea; our waiter/​waitress never came out so someone else had to pinch hit and take our order. She too had a hickey… what’s goin’ on?! Please try and keep it classy; this is a family spot and I’m sure you’d hate a smart kid calling you out on it and asking out loud ‘what is that thing on her neck, mommy/​daddy?‘
Grilled pineapple steak was horrible… pick another side please. My man’s baby backs came back SUPER SALTY. I felt so bad for him; he had one and he was done. We were too tired and hungry to have them fix it so we’ll find other dining options next time we’re in town. Thanks anyway.

Enjoyed a fabulous Mother’s Day with my family until we had dinner here. My husband did warn us this place was a bit pricey before we went in, however, after spending 2 hours watching a movie next door & being around 9pm, we were all hungry and decided to give it a shot.
We all studied the menu for a bit, yes the menu items were a bit high, but it being bbq, we kind of excused it. We ordered our drinks which were 2 strawberry lemonades (which appeared to be not fresh strawberry as there we absolutely no strawberries in either glass, so it looked like from fountain), and 3 sodas (2pepsi & 1 root beer).
The waitress stated she would bring us some of their special potato chips when she returned with our sodas. After our sodas arrived about 10 minutes later, mind you this is around 9pm, it was basically dead not busy at all and it appeared there were maybe 3 other tables occupied… that’s it, the waitress walked by & I asked about the chips & she replied, «they ran out». Ok, fine.
About 20 minutes or so later, we were handed our meals. For the price & the size/​quality, this place gets a flat out «F»! Both of my daughters ordered pulled chicken sandwiches & both were very dry. One daughter ordered a loaded potato soup. If you saw this, first of all… Wow. The cheese was not melted, not even close to being melted on the soup. Made me wonder if it was even warm. The soup was very watery. My other daughter tasted it & said it tasted like bean water! Wtf!!! The cheese looked like that fake cheese, literally. The only one that was a bit satisfied with their meal was my son and he had Fish & chips!!! This is a bbq place! Your so-​called bbq SUCKED!!!
When we were handed the bill, my husband was shocked at the amount yet knew it was pricey like he said, but for the size/​quality it was definitely not worth it at all… After he paid $ 100. Yes, $ 100, I then took a look at the bill. I expected like $ 80 – 90. I looked closer & to my surprise, we were charged $ 17 for sodas ALONE!!! That would’ve been a bbq platter. Again, WTF!!!
NEVER WILL WE GO TO THIS PLACE AGAIN. The service was crap, that alone is another story as the waitress we had & the 3 other tables occupied appeared to have been family because my husband would catch her visiting with each table, sitting down& eating off of their plates!!!
See copy of our receipt which is attached to this review… Unf*cking believable. All I can say is «F»!!! HIGHLY DISAPPOINTED FOR GOOD BBQ. How’s that for a review???

Ate here twice while in Oxnard visiting family. Food was great, service was fast and waitress Vianca was personable and remembered us when we came back the second time. We will return again!

Food was good but horrible service. Our server was rude right off the bat. We ordered an Appletini and a Long Island Iced Tea and neither one of our drinks tasted like they had any alcohol. When we told our server right away she got an attitude and said she would charge me for something different and that I would definitely be able to taste the alcohol. When they brought the second round of drinks they tasted pretty much the same and even left out the cherry on the Appletini. When we informed her that they just didn’t taste right she sent the manager and he was even worse than our server. We very politely explained the taste of our drinks and he said everything was measured and that their drinks were not supposed to taste like alcohol but that they did have alcohol in them. I just wanted to have a nice evening so I agreed to to just keep my drink but my friend tried to tell him that she would just like a water. He literally walked away as she was talking and didn’t even apologize or attempted to make it right. Both Janelly our server and whatever his name manager were very rude. The food was good and we might be back since we liked our meals but I hope their service improves.
I’m pretty generous when it comes to tipping since I used to be a server but we definitely sticked to the minimum 15% on this one and didn’t feel guilty.

I don’t understand why there are so many bad reviews. This was our second time here and both times was great. I ordered boneless Buffalo wings and they were amazing! Much better than wing stop and Buffalo wold wings. Took me for a surprise but they were crispy and not at all soggy like the others I’ve had. My fiancée had 4 sliders and he loved them very smoky and flavorful. I I had a few bites too and couldn’t complain. The atmosphere is family friendly and they weren’t in a rush to get us out. The service was great we had the same server both times and she’s a darling I wish I knew her name. :(by the way I love the sweet and zesty sauce. Yum!

Another awesome choice for dinner tonight. My friend and I’s waiter was friendly and attentive, I believe her name was Chelsea. We didn’t wait long for our seat, drinks, or food. Burger was yum, as were the mashed potatoes. I used to think the sides were small, but recently learned that they’re portioned that way so that they come out to 100 calories. That’s amazing ! Keeps you in check ;) Great atmosphere and friendly staff

This is a chain food BBQ restaurant so keep that in mind. I’ve lived in Texas for several years so my expectations for good BBQ is really high. Overall, the food was average but priced a little on the high side. Unfortunately there are not many BBQ joints in this area so with that said, this is place is in a decent location with average food.

This place keeps getting better and better. They have new management now and the service has dramatically improved. New management and staff are very friendly and provide with great service. There is a manager named David he is just awesome. Comes to our table every time to check on how everything is going and just to say hi. Not in an annoying way or anything lol
Pretty cool. The food is as delicious as always. I really like their chicken sandwiches, baked potatoes and BBQ. They also have delicious cornbread muffins and different BBQ sauces to choose from. They have great lunch specials, daily drink specials and an awesome happy hour selection. They have plenty of tvs to watch sports. The place is always nice and clean, including restrooms! It doesn’t matter how busy they are they always take care of their costumes. I’ve never had an issue here before. With plenty of options at the collection I can honestly say famous Dave’s is one of my top choices!

Bomb Cajun Chicken sandwich… bomb Brownie too omg shout out to Perry on the Brownie you got down on it

My boyfriend and I came here on a Monday before Christmas and our experience wasn’t quite what we were hoping for, the place was understaffed and therefore the wait time for our appetizers and entrees were pretty long. The food was great but again, the service lacked and we weren’t sure if we’d return.
Well, we had an opportunity to give it another try since we had no complaints about the food before and this time was a complete turn around! Excellent service to match the great food. We were asked several times if everything was going well and we received our orders in a timely fashion, arriving hot and correct as we ordered. I enjoyed a cup of chili and a chicken caesar salad while my boyfriend had the brisket with Mac n cheese. This is definitely a good place to try if you’re in the mood for good barbeque.
And the cornbread is awesome!

Well I guess I’ll jump into the 1 star reviews. I’d give a zero if I had the option. Whet in at about 515pm for dinner. Waitress took drink order and returned them and placed them in reverse order. So on to the big issue here, ordered Country Roasted chicken dinner and was told by the waitress that they were out of chicken. Really??? Well she then went on to say that they were out but she would go back and see how long it would take. Again Really? So are you out of chicken or are they just not ready? She went on to try and explain this and at the end she decides to go and check to see how long it will take. 30 minutes was her response so off to another place to get dinner.
Really strange that they could run out of something or not have it ready so early for the dinner rush.

Pros:
No Wait
The banana pudding was delicious!
Cons:
Slow Service (almost 40 min before we got our food)
The Food was served Luke Warm and tasted Dry.
Overall I had a negative first experience.

The second time sucked! The only reason my husband and I came back was our first meal was edible. The second time was way different. The burnt ends had some really chewy ends and the amount was smaller.
Wait staff is not on top of things. We received our appetizer and our dinner at the same time. Our waitress was an airhead. The macaroni was nasty, I fed it to my dogs. I expect better food quality for the prices.
We had to wait forever for our waitress to come back to our table with our receipt.
This place has OK food but nothing special. I enjoyed our first visit and our second one will be our last.

Went there for dinner with some good friends. Me and my husband had the brisket and it was ok. It was tender and smoky but kind of on the salty side. We had the garlic mashed which was good. He had the macaroni and said it was delicious. I had the collard greens which were way too salty. Our corn muffin was cold and hard. The server was warm and friendly and service was good. My friend had the Cajun chicken sandwich which she said was good. Her husband had the chopped pork and he liked it.