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.
I've been to this Cracker Barrel twice and I have a friend who visits weekly. Â The service is excellent and the food is the same high quality I get at every Cracker Barrel.
On my last visit I tried the catfish and it was perfectly cooked. Â My friend and her husband get the catfish platters almost every time they go and are never disappointed. Â I'm a pescatarian (mostly vegetarian, but I do include fish in my diet) so I asked the server about meat-free side options and she quickly was able to get me a list. Â I didn't get any hassle about asking for meat-free either (some restaurants give me a hard time about it).
As always, the frosted mug of apple cider was delicious. Â :-)
All in all, I'd say it is a wonderful place to eat and a perfect place for families. Â Good food, good value, pleasant atmosphere, friendly staff. Â If I didn't live so far from it, I would visit more often.
We went to this Cracker Barrel for lunch around 11:45AM and lunch special for the day was chicken pot pie, in fact the hostess pointed that out when we were seated. Â My wife ordered the pot pie and they were somehow out in the five minutes between when we were seated and placed our order and it wasn't even 12noon. Â I ordered a house salad as one of my sides, but never got it before my entree came out. Â I had to point this out when my entree came and they were just going to bring it out afterwards (appetizer before entree?!?) so I just swapped it out for a regular side. Â Even had to ask for biscuits twice before we got them.
Everything took longer than it should have, we were constantly waiting on refills, and there was no apologies for any of the bad service. Â When I went to pay the bill and they asked "How was everything?" and I told them that the service wasn't good, they were dumbfounded how to respond other than a half-hearted "I'm sorry...I'll be sure to let a manager know..."
On vacation, we stopped at one of the few restaurants in Kodak, TN. Â While the Chop House has pretty good ratings, we chose to try the Cracker Barrel as we weren't dressed for a nicer meal. Â I wish we would have dressed nicer.
The CB was pretty lousy. Â As a matter of fact, when we sat down I asked about ordering a beer after driving 10 hours that day, and our waiter indicated we could go to the Chop House to get a drink, and he said "the food is actually better". Â He couldn't have been more correct. Â The beef stew had two pieces of beef in it and the corn muffins were tasteless.
We will not be visiting this chain again.
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