Famous Dave's

Oh how I love Famous Dave's!! I went to this one recently with a co-worker for her 65th birthday. She and I were both extremely pleased with the quality of food, service, and restaurant as a whole. We caught lunch here and I had the ribs and pulled pork combo platter. I mean, really, I've got nothing to say here other than phenomenal as usual. If my gut could survive it, I would eat here all the time!

"UNACCEPTABLE - Intolerant and exclusionary treatment of those with food allergies and their families!"

Reviewed onJanuary 27, 2013

After a fun day of shopping with my 3 daughters, two of them and I were excited to have Famous Dave's for dinner at the Mall of America tonight. Since my youngest daughter has severe food allergies and can eat restaurant food in very few locations, I picked up a to-go bowl of chicken, rice and corn from the Chipotle next door.

Imagine my surprise when we were refused entrance to the Famous Dave's because we had "outside food" with us. I explained the nature of my daughter's food allergies (severe with the potential of anaphylactic reactions) and asked to speak with a manager. Mark Lindsay, General Manager, came up to reaffirm that no, we could not possibly enter with the food for my daughter. He claimed it was his restaurant's policy to not permit any outside food for the safety of the dining patrons. When pressed, I asked him what of babies or toddlers who have cereal, baby food or bottles brought in? How was providing food, outside food, for them any different than me providing food for my 9 year old who could not safely eat food prepared at this restaurant? He did not have an answer and continued to merely repeat his concerns for the safety of the diners in the restaurant.

I have NEVER experienced such intolerance and so-called policy excuses to bar customers in this service based restaurant industry. Nor have I ever experienced such a lack of empathy and understanding. Clearly the restaurant didn't need our $ because my daughter's chicken, rice and corn were so disruptive and hazardous.

So my daughters and I kept on walking to Buffalo Wild Wings where they were clear in stating that of course we were welcome to dine in their facility and of course they would be more than willing to allow my daughter to eat her meal with her sisters and mother at the same time.

(They will be receiving a glowing review on TripAdvisor for their kindness and making our dismal Famous Dave's experience have a happy ending with their trademark Buffalo Wild Wings excellent service!)

Furthermore, I WILL be writing to the corporate office of Famous Dave's expressing our displeasure at the demonstrated intolerance and exclusionary treatment of those with food allergies at the MOA location. I will also be in contact with FAAN (The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network) and AFAA (Anaphylaxis and Food Allergy Association of Minnesota) to let them know of our experience.

I sincerely hope that this is not Famous Dave's policy at their other locations - or we will be certain to refuse to patronize them as well.

I was actually surprised by how satisfied I was with this place. I hadn't tried a Famous Dave's in years, and my hubs loves BBQ so we decided to do dinner here. I got a spicy burger and fries, which I ordered medium-rare. It seemed like they use frozen premade burger patties because when I cut open my burger to check if it was medium-rare, the meat was just kind of grey - not at all pink. Aside from that, the toppings on the burger were good and the bun was nice and squishy. Our table had fun trying and comparing all the different types of BBQ sauce on the table, it definitely kept us entertained.

Our server was quite good, but it did feel very corporate - phrases like "can I help you with the menu?" seemed corporate/forced and prompted my (corny) husband to respond with "no thank you, I'm mostly literate." Not a big deal at all, but I felt bad the server had to put up with us...

The decor was sort of obnoxious. We sat in the "porch" area that faces into the mall hallway. It was a little corny, but several of the other sit down restaurants have the same set up. The decor was a little too fake-country for me... there was a lot of kitsch on the walls, etc.