Cracker Barrel Old Country Store

What has happened to Cracker Barrel? Our service was very very poor. Had to wait thirty-​five minutes to get water and drinks and meal took over an hour. Food was cold and was brought to table in waves. NEVER AGAIN CRACKER!!!

On one hand it was about what you would expect from a Cracker Barrel. On the other hand vegetables in my salad were partially frozen, my son was given the wrong side… and the fruit in that wrong side had mold on it. At one point there were no less than 5 employees standing in the entrance to the kitchen chatting with no care towards the customers. A disappointment.

We stop at this location quite often. Generally the service and food is the same as any other location. But this fri. We stopped and were promptly seated. Our service was good and the food was prompt. We ordered the Fri codfish lunch. The fish was hot and good, but the sides of fried okra was lukewarm and the hash brown casserole was under the warmer far too long. It was too dried out and only lukewarm. I have to say I did not eat the sides. They need to improve the kitchen.

Our waiter couldn’t remember a thing. He gave us our check right after serving our food. Could you ask us if we wanted dessert? I will never return! Oh… I also posted a picture of how clean this place is! GROSS!

If I didn’t know better, this Cracker Barrel could have just as easily been in Charleston, South Carolina. Or Glendale, Arizona. Or Delray Beach, Florida. Same layout, same menu, same friendly service.
As well, located right off the Interstate.

Good food, friendly service. I love the ambience and the country store always has the coolest stuff!

Our College group had lunch at the restaurant on January 19^th. Just wanted to say that the food and service was great!
Thank you to our great servers!

Disclaimer: (1) Since this is one of my favorite breakfast chains (think Denny’s, IHOP, Waffle House, etc), I have a hard time giving any Cracker Barrel under 3 stars.
(2) I am not a local or a frequenter of any particular Cracker Barrel.
Okay. Now for the review:
Cracker Barrel reminds me of long road trips with my family because that’s usually when I get to eat here. From collecting Beanie Babies every time I visited one to playing checkers with my dad while waiting for my food, this place holds fond memories for me. And I find it amazing how every single Cracker Barrel across the nation seems to reel in that same feeling of nostalgia. Maybe it’s just the old-​timey décor. I don’t know. But this one in Charleston was no exception. I ordered the same thing I always get when I come here – Uncle Hershel’s Breakfast with grilled catfish, hash brown casserole, scrambled eggs and biscuits. This last time in particular, I added 2 pancakes. My mom took one pancake and added blackberries and I took the other. And that was a great addition. The pancake was the best pancake I had ever tasted. The rest of the food was all as excellently prepared as I remembered it. Our waitress gave us pretty average service. She got the job done. I wasn’t displeased. But I guess I also wasn’t expecting waitress of the year from a Cracker Barrel. And regardless of her, I enjoyed my meal. Especially when we received the bill. We fed a family of four (two women and two men) for under $ 40. That’s pretty much unheard of where I’m from unless you’re going to McDonalds and eating off the dollar menu.
Later on in the store, my family and I were looking for a mug for our grandmother. And the two young ladies in the store were very helpful with that. The clerk actually found us some leftover mother’s day mugs with beautiful sayings on them. She also offered to gift wrap it for free and did it beautifully! The food and the assistance of the store clerks made for a great family meal and productive day. I enjoyed my short stint in Charleston because of Cracker Barrel.

Generally speaking this is just another Cracker Barrel (decent food, country music, little gift shop out front) but sometimes the services makes you want to kick people. I’ve been several times and I’d say about ²⁄₅ experiences are just fine, but the other ³⁄₅ are real «WTF» moments.

Stopped here while driving through, to eat dinner and catch their daily special. My favorite of their specials is the Tuesday night chicken dish. In their photos and in the 6 – 8 places I’ve had it, it is tender, buttery, with a butter & flour sauce/​gravy; but, this was something else. What this particular location served looked like a baked chicken, encased in baked stuffing… solid…dry…cooked until you could kick it down the road like a tin can (in fact, that would have been better use than consuming it)…and it wasn’t that mine was just a mistake… I saw others served that looked the same way. I always liked Cracker Barrel when traveling, due to the range of choices and the «standardization» of quality; this experience killed that illusion. I’ll return to Cracker Barrel (my wife & daughter love it); but, I’ll avoid this particular site at all costs.

First people to show up on a Monday (Labor Day), and the rap music in the kitchen was competing with the country music in the dining area, throughout our entire meal. The waitress didn’t seem to care much about are table (we had to keep waiting for her and asking for coffee).