Bud?s Family Style Chicken (Review)

In the middle of winter, in the middle of one of the worst economies the country has ever seen, comfort food provides a brief respite. And no comfort food has ever beat down-home, honest-to-God real fried chicken and all it’s glorious trappings.

That’s what you get at Bud’s.

And if one orders the family-style all-you-can-eat lunch ($10) – which is what we recommend – you get more comfort than a body ought to. (There are daily lunch specials for $5 and occasional dinner specials for $8.)

Bud’s is the reincarnation of a family restaurant that operated in Benton County in the 1980s, but sold out about 20 years ago. Keith Jensen, the son of the original Bud’s owner, was in the house-building business; when that started going south, he dug out an old family recipe and reopened the Bud’s concept.

Two of our reviewers decided to check it out and ordered the all-you-can-eat for a recent lunch and then set out to talk business. Before long, the conversation was punctuated with “Mmms” and “Ahs” and “Oh, mys.”
With the family-style offerings comes a first course: a crock of the restaurant’s famous bean soup – a smooth, buttery concoction lightly salted that could easily serve as a meal on its own.

But both reviewers had their eyes set on the prize. After a hasty bowl of the soup, they nodded for the attentive waitress to bring it on.

She did. Bowls of corn, green beans, mashed potatoes, cream gravy, cole slaw and buttermilk biscuits were served up, followed with an initial offering of crispy golden fried chicken, an offering that didn’t slow down until the reviewers cried “uncle.”

One reviewer figured Bud’s would dish out generic-tasting cafe food for the sides, allowing the kitchen staff to focus all attention on the chicken. He’s seen that restaurant trick before. But that was not the case at Bud’s. Side dishes are fresh, well-seasoned and homemade (the slaw is a particular treat). Most all would be worthy of a trip to Bud’s even without the fowl fare.

Oh yeah, the chicken. Bud’s serves up normal-sized pressure-fried chicken pieces from normal-sized birds, not from small birds being rushed to market and not bite-sized cuts for the sake of convenience. This is chicken the way it’s supposed to be enjoyed: hot, fried and on the bone.

“Juicy, tender, crispy, fried to perfection,” said one reviewer. “I’ve never had anything quite that good.”

 “The food is excellent, the atmosphere is very basic,” said the other reviewer. “Not the place for a high-power lunch or sales meeting, but a great place to work through some business details.”

Both agree Bud’s is worth revisiting again and again.