Cracker Barrel Old Country Store

I like it. I use to go here whenever I go to south hill. I stop going because their food made my stomach hurt. :(lol but other than that it’s a nice place to go eat at.

It was after 8pm. After driving in pouring rain, we were & hungry on one of our rare road trips. Decided to have a decent hot meal with the family & stopped here. Why? Food always has been consistent & have always gotten good service at other Cracker Barrels in GA, AL, TN, NC & SC. We were seated promptly… in the very very back of the dining room. We sat down & looked over our menu. We waited…& waited…& waited. 15 minutes & not one server has come up to our table. My husband went to complain to the hostess & still it took several more minutes before someone showed up. The dining room wasn’t full. lots of empty tables so there was absolutely NO excuse for this. Other patrons had a server & their drink orders taken… so why the heck!!! Don’t like to play the race card but don’t assume that because we’re Asian, that you could treat us poorly. which was exactly the vibe I felt. There is absolutely no excuse for the lack of service. We received better service at the McDonald’s down the street.

This Cracker Barrel is a solid stop for the weary traveler. I always stop here if it is mealtime and I am either on my way home or on my way back to Richmond. I’m really glad this Cracker Barrel is located where it is because it makes long rides so much better and is like an oasis in the middle of Nowhere, Virginia. This location is always clean and the service is always friendly. I’ve never had what I would classify as a «bad» experience here.

*This is mainly a dinner review as I have eaten breakfast here and it wasn’t as bad but all in all maybe 3 stars combined*
With that said ate here with the wife last weekend and had the worst dinner experience at a CB in my life. I already knew I wasn’t big on any CB dinner food, but thought hey lets try this one. Wasn’t surprised when the food came out cold and in tiny portions tasting like it was fresh from the microwave or can. I got the sampler and the 3 item’s portions didn’t even cover my plate. The 2 ham pieces combined were smaller than my palm, the dumplings which taste canned looked like it was barely drizzled on my plate and only had 2 quarter sized pieces of chicken in them, and the meatloaf was just cold and greasy. My wife ordered the sirloin steak and it was so tough she couldn’t cut it into bite size pieces. I suffered through my food but she refused to eat the steak and after waiting 15 mins for the waitress to return they took it off the bill, never saw the manager. Don’t know if that was a good or bad thing. Will never return for dinner breakfast is in the air.

Whoever thought putting a Cracker Barrel Old Country Store in South Hill was a genius. On your way back to Richmond this is a great place to stop and get that home cooked southern meal. My only grip, and this is with ALL Cracker Barrel’s is the grits. Guys, come one now, this is Virginia. Straighten up and fly right when it comes to them grits.
The cold slop that serve is only fit to hold brick together. This is mostly forgiven because they serve nice bacon, fluffy pancakes, hot biscuits, and delicious gravy.

My husband and I love to come here for breakfast on Sunday’s. The staff is usually very nice and attentive. Our food is always good and I love looking around the store before we leave. It’s just like any other CB but I’d definitely recommend it!

I have taken large groups of people to many many restaurants as we have traveled through the years. Today I scheduled a business team dinner here, and as is customary at Cracker Barrel found hospitable and warm attendance by two servers and a manager. The manager worked with us to split the checks at the end of the meal. This is a really good thing to know for those who host big groups of people. The food was prepared, cooked and seasoned appropriately for a Southern US dinner, and the salad was fresh … and it always good to be able to order off of the breakfast menu. Several in our party did that. All in all we found the service and the food adequate and as can be expected for a restaurant in this market. One of the best parts of the Cracker Barrel experience is sitting outside for a few moments and rocking without feeing the rush to leave. So we partook of that even though there was a pretty strong chill in the air.

Quick, friendly, and filling breakfast along I-​85 in VA.

Stopped in for Thanksgiving Lunch on the way to beach. Even though there was a crowd with a wait list, was able to get in, eat, and shop around in less than an hour. The food was quick, hot, and good. Our waitress, Rebekah, was the greatest. Was very impressed because the other reviews had me worried. Turned out to be a great experience.

I’ll be kind and blame this experience on Jr winning the race.
We stopped here for a late dinner, returning home from the race in Martinsville. Timing wise, we should have arrived to a full house. However, with Jr winning, a large throng of fans stayed late at the track, resulting in, on our arrival, a close to empty restaurant.
Oh, they had plenty of help. Looking for the expected crowds, which have arrived here, about this time, twice each year.
We were sat next to a table of 5 people who had ordered before us. The rest of the place, was pretty much empty. Plenty of help, no customers (see above).
The both of us, ordered off of the breakfast menu.
Cracker Barrel has changed. Goes with the shrinking dining dollar, one supposes. Where you used to get a plate of table bread with your drinks, now you have to wait for anything, other than drinks, to arrive all at once. Cheapening the cost of a guest check, it appears.
While we were waiting there was a great amount of noise and commotion coming from the food prep area. Lots of laughing and joking around (more later).
Our food arrived.
I took a bite into the hash brown casserole, and it was cold. Completely cold. I stuck my finger into it; cold. My eggs, were barely lukewarm, and my turkey sausage was cooler than my eggs.
I pushed my plate away.
It took awhile, for our waitress to come by (in a group, to sing happy birthday to one of the guys at the table beside us). She asked me if things were OK. I told her that my food was cold, and that I had heard all of this commotion in the kitchen.
Oh, we were trying to find something to use as a candle for the cake at the next table.
Did the entire kitchen and wait staff go on a scavenger hunt?
Am I to correctly presume that our order, was secondary to the table with the guy having a birthday? Does that mean that getting our food out hot, was secondary to their table getting a candle?
In my eyes, this is just another example of the downhill slide that Cracker Barrel is on. Since I had been nibbling on the slightly above cold biscuits, waiting for the waitress to find her way to us, I refused all attempts to «let me take that back to the kitchen» or to take it off of your check.
I had ‘technically’ ate:1 bite out of the cold hashbrown casserole. One bite of my just above cold eggs, and one bite off of the slightly warm turkey sausage, and had eaten several cold biscuits.
Nothing in my experience is going to put this place out of business. Like a blinded juggernaut, the chain just stumbles forward, propelled by guests who blindly go there, and, probably do not have the experience that I had. Make that we had; the XYL’s food was cold. She just ate hers.
I look at it like this. I gave Cracker Barrel honest money and got in return dishonest food in return. Had I had given Cracker Barrel some sort of dishonest money, they would chase me down to get that fixed. Serving cold food, with a wait and kitchen staff playing grab ass, just out of your line of sight, is OK.
Thee is no excuse, these days, for serving cold food.
Not recommended. Take your business elsewhere.
Another of the reviews, that had Unilocal given me the opportunity to make this 0 (zero) stars, this visit would have earned that.
Sigh…

SOLID 3.5 stars
I like to stop by here as it is a middle point between home and the racetrack.
The one thing I have to admit about Cracker Barrel is that they are often very consistent throughout all their stores. I have visited quite a few of these establishments up and down the east coast and my expectations have generally been met in the way you could only expect Cracker Barrel to fulfill.
With that being said these are things things you can expect:
The food is generally decent. It makes great «on-​the-​road» food. When I’m generally travelling, I’m not expecting the awesome sauce of restaurants. But I am expecting decent food to let me relax from the monotony of driving and it has to be something I can’t dish up in my car (not hard). But Cracker Barrel in general, is great because it has breakfast all day, and nice entrees that can fill you up as needed.
The service has only been bad once in all my years of visiting a Cracker Barrel. You should expect to have good service, friendly staff, and moderate cooking times that won’t delay your travels much.
The facilities of all the establishments are pretty much mirror copies throughout. Expect to see the vast array of random trinkets, bathrooms directly ahead from when you walk in, cashiers to the left, and main dining area behind the cashier (partitioned off). The restroom facilities are generally clean and are a good place to freshen up.
Overall, to be honest, it would be hard to give this place 4 stars as 4 would imply more than what these places were designed to be. But they aren’t atrocious or lack in anything much so 3 would be too low. A rating of 3.5 is definitely respectable and I know for a fact that I will be coming back.
Food taste — 3 to 3.5 pending locations
Overall Service — 4
Value of food to cost — 3
Facility — 4
Repeat customer? — yes

Typical Cracker Barrel. The staff here were very friendly.

I don’t know what the hype is about this place. The free biscuits were the only thing I enjoyed. They were hot and tasty. The service was nice enough — when the waiter still came around.
The food was greasy and gross. I didn’t like much of what was served to my friends – and I really came with an open mind and an appetite for food.
Maybe people like greasy-​ass «soul food» but it had no flavor to me.
The store… well that’s another story. Go for the chocolate covered peanuts and the chocolate covered smores.

I just love cracker barrel no matter! The smell walking in and the fire place is so pleasant. Sigh…

Another cookie-​cutter Cracker Barrel, but it doesn’t disappoint. The service was quick and friendly, and prices as always were great.

*** 3.5 stars ***
Cleanest friggin’ bathroom for a public restaurant in the middle of no-​where Virginia. Loses three stars as the eggs over easy I ordered were cold and had taken on a yellow jello consistency.
This CB wins back a star ’cause the older waitress lady was super nice to my coworkers and I. Plus that southern accent really makes me believe that she truly cares about topping off my coffee or bringin’ out more biscuits for the rest of our working crew.
The place was dead empty on the early Thursday morning that we stopped by with only two other blue haired folks sitting next to the roaring real-​wood chimney… obviously enjoying the senior citizens breakfast.
Most CBs I’ve visited are packed to the rafters with people and the wait is a minimum of 45 minutes just to be seated. It’s nice to know I can drive out 3.5 hours from my house just to enjoy a quiet CB without the wait.
We all finished our eats and paid when one of the ladies working in the gift shop area asked us if we were with the census. «No ma’am, we’re with another agency that starts with C…» responded one of our crew.
Yeah, but the only people that fear us are the Guatemalan bus boys… not spies. Wait, there are NO Latino bus boys… we must be in Southern VA :-)
It was a good experience, just wish the rest of our trip out to this neck ‘o the woods was as uneventful…
Will my fat ass return to this CB? Probably not… but not because of the food or service, just that I’d like to avoid going back to that area at all costs…