Cracker Barrel Old Country Store

What is the point of this. It is Cracker Barrel. Better than Perkins or Waffle House by a mile. I think that they finally got rid of the smoking sections finally. It is good and cheap, and you can pick up an Alabama CD on your way out. Uncle Herschel is my pick.

I've never had a bad experience at a Cracker Barrel. Other than hitting the place during the breakfast rush when you'll be waiting as much as an hour for a table, everything has always been quite consistent at all of them - shop full of overpriced knick-knacks and high-sugar candies, restaurant with Southern foods. Blindfold me and I could not tell one Cracker Barrel from another. Every one is exactly the same!

Today's lunch was no different. I arrived between the lunch and dinner hours, so I knew there wouldn't be much of a wait. For some reason, my stomach ordered us a cheeseburger with fries. I'm not sure why I went with that when there are so many other perfectly good options - broiled catfish, chicken pot pie, meatloaf sandwich and of course their breakfast menu is good all day - but that's what we had.

The burger arrived with the usual fixings - tomato, lettuce and sweet slices of pickle. Steak fries were good and I tried not to eat all of them. Waitress refilled my water glass as often as I emptied it (driving 1000 miles is apparently thirsty work). Picture attached.

Good parking with lots of space for the four wheeled cars and the RV area looked like it was easy enough to get in to and out of. Right next to the highway.

When I saw the other one star reviews, I couldn't believe that this Cracker Barrel could be much worse than any of the others at which I've eaten over the years. They lost points with me a few years back, when they discontinued 100% maple syrup.

We were at this one in early afternoon, with the restaurant about 1/2 full.

We found the food to be fairly typical of the chain. I thought that the chicken on one of my companion's salad looked pretty burnt, but she insisted that it was ok. My wife's $4 egg and bread was ok, as was my batter fried cod.

I thought it odd that the person bringing out the food told us that they were out of biscuits. At a Cracker Barrel??? Then, even more puzzling when, 30 seconds later, the same person walked past our table with a plate full of biscuits.

Our server was doing fine, except when I saw her clearing a nearby table and dropped the stopper for a vinegar cruet onto the floor. That would have been fine, except that she then replaced it into the vinegar cruet. When I called the matter to her attention, she was gracious about it, and we could see her through the kitchen doorway dumping out the vinegar into a sink.

So, bottom line for me is that the food wasn't particularly any worse than usual (and I generally find Cracker Barrel to be a decent meal when nothing more interesting presents itself), but that this location's training needs a bit more attention, dropping them a star below the typical Cracker Barrel.