Looking for Famous Dave’s vegetarian options? The Beyond Meat Burger is the chain’s one dedicated meatless entree. A long list of scratch-made sides, garlic mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, coleslaw, cornbread, builds out a full vegetarian plate around it. This is a barbecue chain built around smoked meat, though, so a couple of menu items that look safe on the surface aren’t. The chili is the big one. Check out what about the vegetarians for the bigger picture on how we cover chain restaurants like this one.
A Quick Look at Famous Dave’s
Dave Anderson opened the first Famous Dave’s on June 23, 1994, in Hayward, Wisconsin. Anderson is Ojibwe and Choctaw. He later left the company he founded and ran the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs from 2004 to 2005. He cut ties with Famous Dave’s in 2014 and opened his own barbecue chain, Jimmie’s Old Southern Smokehouse, soon after. That same year, the original Hayward restaurant burned down in a fire.
Famous Dave’s went public on Nasdaq in 1996. Its parent company rebranded as BBQ Holdings in 2020. That holding group picked up sister brands too, including Village Inn (which has its own vegetarian guide here), Granite City, and Barrio Queen. Canadian restaurant franchisor MTY Food Group agreed to buy BBQ Holdings in August 2022 for about $200 million, or $17.25 a share. The deal closed later that year.
Famous Dave’s now runs 111 locations across 30 U.S. states. A handful of international restaurants operate in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Dubai, and Winnipeg. Its Puerto Rico locations closed for good after Hurricane Maria. U.S. system-wide sales landed around $290 million in 2024 across 109 domestic units, per Technomic and Restaurant Business Top 500 data reported by Nation’s Restaurant News. Sales dipped about 6% from the year before, mostly from store closures rather than weaker demand. Average sales per restaurant actually inched up slightly, to $2.66 million.
Famous Dave’s Vegetarian Options: What to Order
Here’s where Famous Dave’s vegetarian options actually stand once the smoked-meat platters are set aside. This table covers the menu items and sauce ingredients you’ll want to double check before ordering:
| Menu Item | Vegetarian | Vegan |
|---|---|---|
| Beyond Meat Burger (no cheese) | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (ask about the bun) |
| Famous Fries (french fries) | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (shared fryer) |
| Dave’s Cheesy Mac & Cheese | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy, egg) |
| Garlic Red-Skin Mashed Potatoes | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (butter) |
| Garden Side Salad w/ Italian dressing | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Corn on the Cob | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (ask no butter) |
| Wilbur Beans | ⚠️ Check (unconfirmed recipe) | ⚠️ Check |
| Dave’s Award-Winning Chili | ❌ No (anchovies) | ❌ No |
Burgers and Sandwiches
The build-your-own burger and sandwich menu is where the vegetarian option lives. Swap in the Beyond Meat Burger, a plant-based patty, instead of the beef, chicken, pulled pork, or brisket base. Then load it with vegetarian toppings: lettuce, tomato, red onion, jalapeños, pickles, and a choice of American, Monterey Jack, cheddar, or pepper jack cheese. Comeback Sauce is one topping to skip. It’s built on mayonnaise and contains anchovies, so it’s not vegetarian at all despite sounding like a simple dip.
A fully vegan burger takes one more question. Ask whether the standard bun contains milk or egg, since bakery suppliers vary by location. Skip the cheese, the mac and cheese topping, and the cheese curds too. Every other build-your-own base on the menu, the beef burger, grilled chicken breast, hand-breaded chicken, chopped pork, and brisket, is meat, so the Beyond Meat Burger is the only plant-based choice.
Sides
This is where a vegetarian meal at Famous Dave’s actually comes together. The chain runs a real Southern-style side menu. Garlic red-skin mashed potatoes, fresh-steamed broccoli, corn on the cob, sweet potato soufflé, and creamy coleslaw are all built on butter and dairy rather than meat. That makes them vegetarian by default (ask for no butter if you want the corn on the cob vegan). Famous Fries share a fryer with the chain’s catfish fingers and hand-breaded chicken. They’re vegan by ingredient, but not guaranteed free of cross-contact if that matters to you. Dave’s Cheesy Mac & Cheese and the Corn Bread Muffin are both vegetarian, egg-and-dairy sides, not vegan.
Wilbur Beans need a direct ask. Meat isn’t a tracked allergen category, so Famous Dave’s own allergen guide doesn’t flag any meat-based ingredient for these beans one way or the other. Third-party menu trackers report that classic Kansas City-style baked beans, the style Wilbur Beans are modeled on, are often simmered with bacon or ground beef for flavor. We couldn’t confirm this from an official source, so ask your server before ordering them as vegetarian.
The Loaded Baked Potato is worth a second look too. Loaded potatoes at barbecue chains typically come with bacon and sour cream by default. Order a plain potato with butter instead, or pick the Garlic Red-Skin Mashed Potatoes, if you want to stay meat-free without any guesswork.
Salads
The Garden Side Salad and Farmhouse Side Salad are both vegetarian on their own, with no meat added by default. Both come with a choice of ranch, bleu cheese, Italian, or honey mustard dressing. Italian dressing is the pick if you want the salad vegan, since it’s the only one of the four with no listed dairy or egg. The Caesar Side Salad needs its own caveat. Famous Dave’s own allergen chart doesn’t flag fish for its Caesar dressing, but classic Caesar recipes are built on anchovy paste, so ask before ordering it if you’re strict about avoiding fish. Skip the chain’s other salads if you’re vegetarian: Dave’s Sassy BBQ Salad and any Caesar salad topped with a protein come built around a choice of pulled pork, brisket, chicken, or shrimp.
Desserts and Drinks
Every dessert on the menu runs on eggs and dairy: Apple Crisp, Dave’s Award-Winning Bread Pudding, Down Home Banana Pudding, Lemon Cream Cake, NY Cheesecake, Chocolate Cookies and Cream Cake, and Peach Cobbler where it’s offered. All are vegetarian, and none are vegan. The Bread Pudding also carries pecans, worth noting if you’re avoiding tree nuts. Drinks are simpler. Fresh-brewed iced tea, Pepsi products, Mountain Dew, Mug Root Beer, and Tropicana Lemonade are all vegan.
What’s Vegan at Famous Dave’s?
Vegan options are thin but real if you build your own plate. Order the Beyond Meat Burger without cheese, mac and cheese, or cheese curds, and check on the bun. Famous Fries, corn on the cob without butter, and watermelon, where it’s offered, are all vegan by ingredient. A few sauces are vegan-friendly too. Fat-Free Italian Dressing, Georgia Mustard, and Texas Pit sauce carry no listed dairy or egg allergens. Most of the core barbecue sauces list only soy and wheat, with no dairy or egg: Rich & Sassy, Devil’s Spit, Sweet & Zesty, Wilbur’s Revenge, and Blackberry BBQ Sauce. None of that rules out honey, since honey isn’t a tracked allergen, so ask if you’re avoiding it too. Every dessert on the menu runs on eggs and dairy, so there’s no vegan dessert at Famous Dave’s right now.
Special Dietary Requirements and Allergies
Famous Dave’s states plainly on its own allergen guide that no menu item is certified gluten-free, vegetarian, or vegan. Shared fryers and prep areas mean cross-contact is possible anywhere on the menu. A few specific traps are worth knowing before you order, based on the ingredients and allergen information Famous Dave’s publishes:
- Dave’s Award-Winning Chili contains anchovies, confirmed directly on the official allergen guide. It’s not vegetarian, despite reading like a simple bean-and-vegetable chili.
- Comeback Sauce also lists anchovies alongside egg and dairy. Skip it on a build-your-own sandwich if you’re avoiding fish.
- Cheese in every application, on burgers, mac and cheese, and salads, doesn’t have a published rennet source. Strict vegetarians who avoid animal rennet should ask.
- Wilbur Beans are not confirmed meat-free by any official source. Ask before ordering.
- Fryers are shared across menu items like fries, onion strings, and hand-breaded chicken and catfish. Cross-contact is possible for anyone avoiding meat or fish entirely, not just allergens.
Tips for Vegetarians at Famous Dave’s
- Start with the Beyond Meat Burger. It’s the one built-for-you vegetarian entree here, and ask about the bun if you need it vegan.
- Build a full plate from the sides. Mashed potatoes, broccoli, corn on the cob, mac and cheese, and cornbread add up to a real Southern-style vegetarian meal.
- Skip the chili and Comeback Sauce. Both contain anchovies even though neither name suggests fish.
- Ask before ordering Wilbur Beans or the Loaded Baked Potato. Neither is confirmed meat-free.
- Choose Italian or Fat-Free Italian dressing on a salad for a vegan option. The creamier dressings all use dairy or egg.
- Call ahead if fryer cross-contact matters to you. Famous Dave’s shares fryers between fries, onion strings, and breaded meat and fish items.
Conclusion
Famous Dave’s isn’t built for vegetarians first. It’s a barbecue chain. The Beyond Meat Burger plus a full Southern-style side menu still adds up to a real meal if you know where to steer. Skip the chili and Comeback Sauce, ask before ordering Wilbur Beans, and lean on the sides that are already dairy-based rather than meat-based.
For the bigger picture on eating vegetarian and vegan at restaurants, see our full guide, browse more restaurant guides, or check out what we found at Village Inn (same parent company), Texas Roadhouse, and Cracker Barrel.
