Buddies BBQ

We arrived around 11:30am before the larger lunch crowd. Greeted nicely and welcomed by an open Bible, verses, and a sign in book for travelers. Loved that atmosphere. Service was good. The two things I wanted the most they were out of and that's why I gave food 4 stars. The food we did receive was excellent. Pulled pork and thick bologna sandwiches, fried pickles all very good. Love they have all the sauces on the table. Seating was comfortable and not cramped. It was packed by the time we left and the servers were all smiles and never flustered. We will definitely visit here again when in the area.

Man what a great BBQ joint. I got the Meat Sweat's plate. They were out of chicken so I got the sausage to replace it and man it stole the show and that is saying something! The brisket was delicious, moist and had a great smoky flavor. The pulled pork was excellent. The ribs were mighty fine! The slaw was pretty dang good. Their onion rings were not homemade but were some of the best non-homemade that I have had. I asked for my fries to be extra crispy and they were really the only disappointment on the plate as they were not crispy nor seasoned. I also got a piece of key lime pie and it was so good. I highly recommend Buddy's!

Awesome place!! Food was excellent, the service was second to none!! Crystal is the absolute boom!! On top of everything to make our experience perfect!! It was well worth the 1.5 hr drive. We will definitely be back.

1st time coming here. Can’t believe how much food is in the plate!! Had to take a to go box home. We will return and I say go check it out

Crystal and Kristie were great servers. The fried gizzards were the best, but they were too salty. The ribs were very good, but they were too salty. The slaw was very good. The hush puppies were good. The baked beans tasted more like pork and beans. The hush puppies were good. This was the first time I've ever eaten anything at a restaurant and thought it was too salty. People accuse me of over salting my food. Hopefully someone accidentally made a mistake and oversalted the ribs and gizzards . We traveled over 50 miles to visit y'all and we will be back, but please check the salt. 8-16-2025 3:00 pm

The food was absolutely worth the drive. Some of the best ribs I've ever eaten. My wife got the piglet loaded fries, and they were delicious. My daughter got the grill chicken tender plate with mac-n- cheese with side salad. I had the ribs with bake beans and side salad. The salad was fresh and flavorful. The homemade ranch was so good that I almost wanted to get it as my drink. The service was great , everyone was very friendly and helpful. They only problem was I didn't get to try the brisket or half chicken because they had run out. That's ok because it gives us reason to return, and we definitely will. Sorry about the photos of the food. It smelled so good I didn't get a picture before taking a few bites.

I'm literally in love with this place. When I first came to Talladega, this became one of my favorite restaurants. The staff is really nice, the atmosphere is welcoming. The food is ALWAYS good from the meats to the sweets. No words, just know I get happy when my man say we eating here. Don't get me started on their beautiful deals and daily meals. Everything is amazing here. God bless.

Buddies is a great meat and two place for lunch. It's about $15 for lunch but it is good food.

Buddy's is hands-down our favorite place to eat in Talladega. The staff is friendly - eat here more than twice and they treat you like a regular. The food is delicious. If you like old-fashioned Southern cooking, then you will find some of the best dried beans/collard greens/vegetable sides at Buddy's during their lunch hours. Their chicken and dressing is the best restaurant quality dressing we have ever tasted. They have a great variety of choices during lunch, and you always have the option of their regular staples, including fantastic barbecue and sides. Their breakfast isn't shabby either, and now they are starting cold lunch plates, which look fantastic, including options, like broccoli, salad, homemade chicken salad, and pimento cheese. You just can't go wrong eating here. The restaurant is a little older and the bathrooms don't look that great, but you can tell they do their best to keep everything clean. The food and the friendly staff make this place a hit. Add to that the fact that the owner is always willing to help out Customers and needy people in the community. If you follow him online, you know he even promotes other local restaurants. He has a motto of trying to lift everyone up instead of tearing down his rivals.

Kind of like the rest of Talladega. It's just gone down and it's sad. No more fried Oreos.

Stopped in Buddy's BBQ for the first time. The hospitality was great. Living in texas over 20 years i didn't want to be critical of the BBQ so I decided on the 2 whole catfish meal. This is something I'm familiar with since this is my hometown. The place was lively and I'm not sure if that was the normal pace of the service but I wish it had been a bit faster The sweet tea wa SWEET tea! I let some of my ice melt and ot was fine. The catfish was hot and seasoned just right. For the sides I had fried green tomatoes and potato salad. Neither was the best that I ever had but it wasn't bad at all. I'll support this spot again the next time I'm home. It seems to be thriving in a town with slowly dying small businesses. Hopefully it's still around.

Very bad experience, which is disappointing considering how frequently the owner(s) advertise their food as some of the best in the area. I placed an order over the telephone, consisting of one of their daily specials and a cheeseburger, all coming as is- apart from adding bacon to the cheeseburger, and asking for cheese + bacon to be added to the baked potato. The lady on the phone (Katelyn/Kaitlyn) was extremely kind, as was the lady who we were greeted by at the counter. However, the lady at the drive-in window was extremely rude, after we gave her our name, claiming that we arrived too early, and that she was "running around like crazy looking for our food, but that it wasn't ready, and we'd have to wait." This in and of itself is never an issue, however, it was the manner in which she said it- it came across as her accusing us of trying to inconvenience her on purpose, rather than simply trying to get our food. Mind you, she told us "20-30 minutes" on the phone, and it took close to an hour for us to actually receive our food. After we returned home with our food, we discovered that not only was our baked potato very poorly made, the cheeseburger was missing its bacon, and three of our sides were missing from our order. I would usually like to recommend our beloved local restaurants (such as Stampede, and Millers) but unfortunately, I cannot recommend in this case. Very disappointing. Hopefully they can do better by other customers in the future, for as long as they continue to operate in this town. If you are here visiting, perhaps consider to visit one of my aforementioned suggestions.

This place is a joke. BBQ is way too greasy, sits out too long. Forget getting all the sides after lunch. Owner got an attitude when it was mentioned that we were constantly being told sides were not available for dinner.

This is the Burger Man with Best Burger in America Association, and I was invited to score their burger for them, and this is what an All-American Classic Cheeseburger is all about. Fresh, never Frozen patties topped with the freshest and best toppings. This burger scores very high. Great owner and staff. I wish they were closer to where I live, because I would eat there often. I recommend this place for sure.

Our son and wife are visiting and we wanted to take them to a local restaurant for dinner. This place had been recommended to us, so we tried it. We ordered 4 meals and an appetizer. This place does a huge amount of carry out and it took over 30 minutes to get the appetizer. The hush puppies tasted like onion - one was eaten, one had a bite out of it and that was it - big waste of $$! When our meals finally arrived, the piglet and fries were cold - the cheese on the piglet wasn't even melted. The green tomato BLT was disgusting! Bread soaked in grease, overcooked bacon, salty green tomato - most of that was left on the plate, as were the onion rings, which were greasy and cold. The club sandwich was also gross. The biggest eater of our group left more than half of it on his plate. His fries were also cold. The fried bologna sandwich was eaten - the cold onion rings were left on the side. Service wasn't great - she never checked back to ask if we needed anything or to ask how the food was. We are new to the area and REALLY wanted to love Buddy's BBQ, but sadly, that is not going to happen. I've followed the FB page and can see the owner is a Christian man who cares about his community - another reason we wanted to support his restaurant. Money is too tight to give this another try, so we won't be back.

The food is really good. The service isn't consistent, but the restaurant is a little country place with a good menu.

Always good food, variety, clean, and a friendly staff. Love their BBQ! Their burgers are good, as well.

One plate of to go food literally took an hour to make after they told me 25 minutes. And the food isn't even that good. Go to Campbell's or Millers BBQ instead.

Food was amazing , service was great . And place looked good not expensive at all. Bathroom was messy but overall good .

I love this place it has really really good food I had the bbq pulled pork with chips and a drink and extra barbecue sauce if we needed it. It was really good. I loved it. The people there are super nice and fast. They are awesome people. The place is clean and it's handicapped accessible. I love love the food there. It's just so good like I said

Buddy's is a great mom and pop restaurant, the home fries are the best. Their hamburgers are fresh made and the bbq is good. They have a great ham,egg and cheese on white bread.

I ignored the reviews and paid the price. We got our order to go and it was too far to take it back. This was the worst pulled pork and ribs I've ever had in my life. The ribs were like jerky and the pulled pork was so dry I had to smother it in sauce to rehydrate it. Please do not waste your money here on bbq. The wait staff is very friendly and maybe some of the other food on their menu is good but I won't be going back to find out.

Not great! The bacon hard as a rock and when i got BLT from buddy's the bacon was deep fried and that's definitely not how you cook bacon! Do better buddy's! Y'all cost too much for the food not to be great!

$13.73 lunch rip off. Dried rib plate with no sauce. Turnip greens and mashed potatoes with gravy ok. Large lemonade with no ice served up 80% ice 20% drink, WTH? AND I'm still hungry. Ribs were pretty good two years ago. However, now it's do it myself or Miller's, closed on Mondays.

Local mom and pop. Yes they have pulled pork but my coworker and I might have been the only 2 that ordered it while we were there. I had the haystack as recommended by a couple locals, he had a bbq plate. The haystack is a good idea. Fries or tots topped w bbq cheese and sauce. New to me bbq joint so I got no sauce. The sauce was super sweet. Didn't care for it at all. The bbq was watery and largely devoid of flavor. The haystack base I selected was 50/50 tots and fresh cut fries. Best part of the dish by far. Fries were really good and crisp and had been freshly prepared. The server was friendly and chatty. The 3 servers worked together well with refills, bringing out each other's food.... I don't think I ever need to go back. If I did for whatever reason I would definitely get the fresh cut fries. Not what I would consider a bbq joint. More of a mom and pop burgers, sandwiches.... and they happen to have bbq. The BBQ just isn't very good at all. They should really look into improving their pulled pork big time if they're calling themselves a BBQ joint. $10 for my haystack was a bit much for what it was. The nice server made it a pleasant dining experience.

Good BBQ and good Service. The pig n the haystack was a large portion. The Hamburger Steak was a lean hamburger coked on the flat grill. The fried Oreos were a nice treat but definitely a sharing portion. The side choices were Mac and Cheese, Okra, mash potatoes, pinto beans, Cole slaw, baked beans, tater tots and fries. Restaurant was fairly clean and the strawberry cake looked delicious. I'll try it next time.

Great BBQ and home cooking. They have a great menu which features meats and vegetables. The BBQ is great. The atmosphere is great. The service is great. I highly recommend Buddy's. It is one of the best restaurants within 100 miles.

Buddy's is an institution in Talladega. It's been around as long as I've been alive, and although the ownership has changed a few times the food is always good. The place is very small, it probably only seats 20-25 guests, so when it's only half full it feels packed. Service is usually fast, with one cashier and one server. The menu is your basic small town diner fair.. Burgers, country fried steak, BBQ, salads and sandwiches, along with all the fixin's. There is a lunch special every day, their cheeseburgers are second to none and they also have several homemade cakes available for dessert. The crown jewel of their menu is the pig in a haystack. Try it. You're welcome.

By far my favorite place for BBQ. Flavor, smoke, and service is spot on. Janice and the others are just as sweet as the homemade cake offered daily.

BBQ is good but definitely not the best in Talladega County. I know of 4 on the Southend that are much better. Place is more of a diner that serves BBQ. A little unorganized staff. Service was acceptable. Just not impressed overall.

im new to this stea & was turn on to buddy's by a great guy! i love the food & the customer service s 100! its right around the corner & always s very friendly atmosphere! i reccomend everyone check out this great establishment! laydg

"BBQ" is very misleading...more of a generic diner. Ordered some bacon & cheese fries as a side. The "bacon" was bacon bits. At a BBQ restaurant!!! Didn't seem to be many BBQ meat options (ribs and...?). Cornbread was also very dry.

We ordered a Boston butt from here and it was horrible, full of fat, not cooked fully, and no taste at all. It was my first and last time ordering from here. I ended up throwing the whole butt away after I spent hours trying to get it cooked all the way and sliced. Never again.

this the spot! will be hard to beat assuming i try a different place. pulled ribs a+++++++ falling off the bone tender bbq sauce a+++++++ fried green tomatoes a++++++ collard greens a++++++ pulled pork a+++++ just finished eating. i am so happy!

The Mac and cheese tastes like it came right out of the box. The hamburger stake was tough but the potato salad was passable. Pass this place up next time

This place is the real deal folks, and has some of the best BBQ in T'dega. Particularly good is the dark red, vinegar based sauce. Service is friendly, and it represents a solid place to visit in the morning for a delicious full breakfast with a pipin' hot cup of coffee. Take-outs are always handled fast and efficiently. I once entered a BBQ contest in New York City, and had a buddy of mine (pun intended) swing by here, put the stuff on cold-ice, and fly with it up North on the airplane with him. Suffice it to say, we placed favorably in that contest and represented well the State of Alabama against NC, TN, GA and other Mason-Dixon BBQ bastions. Come on by. You won't be disappointed!