Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Arbutus

For a Sunday evening busy time, one can, and even should, expect delay on service and food delivery, of course, but, not getting two out of three of the meals delivered and the third left sitting till the rest of the table was halfway through their meals with a bad attitude all the way around, from management on down. The two meals that were served, one the steak was so tough, they could hardly cut through with the provided steak knife, and had to reorder a different meal. The other meal was a trout dish, and it was bland and overly fishy in taste...the kind that is old and with an unpleasant aftertaste. It took an unsual long time just to get refills as well, and I was deliberately ignored by staff, after having even made eye contact with a smile and a wave when the server was absent for a long time. I needed a to-go box for the one meal that actually, and finally, did come out decent, and even that seemed like forever. Additionally, the table next to ours was that of a senior couple, and it took over 20 minutes for anyone to even acknowledge their seating and for just drinks, and was also pushed off and ignored by staff. To top it all off, management was laughing and carrying on about with staff and some staff were even playing hackey-sack with dirty napkins in the cubby area in front of the kitchen...all the while, customers were waiting for food that sat visibly waiting to be delivered and customers to simply be acknowledged. I advocate having a great and fun working environment, but when food is near inedible, customers waiting for service, and the customers are obviously trying to get staff attention and not having an enjoyable experience, management should be out and about to set things straight, helping servers with taking orders, bussing tables, whatever or wherever the extra help is needed...not just standing around trying to look in charge and important, and playing around and goofing off with the employees standing around that should be taking up slack with the business being so booked. It's basic customer service and business practice. I will go out on a limb of good faith here...maybe the management is new, and/or inexperienced!? But, all the older (in age) staff members, with the exception of the front of the house staff, were really the only ones working, while the younger ones stood around and goofed off. I asked one of the managers if they gave any senior discounts, and he sharply replied that they don't do "any of those discounts", as if annoyed at such a bratty question and being asked was below him...a simple, "no, we don't give discounts anymore, sorry!" with at least a smile, would have sufficed..my parents used to always get a small senior discount, and my military friends and family as well, so, if you're a senior citizen, as one of my guests were, military, police, or other discount worthy patron, don't expect a discount here anymore per management. Cracker Barrel has seriously gone downhill...I get the discount thing, but the food and service is the big and main issue here...and it's a shame. It used to be a favorite, the customer service used to be top notch best...but with food and service that has increasingly gone downhill to the point I leave a bad review...I do NOT recommend Cracker Barrel at this time. I gave a two star on service, because the busser lady was literally racing and getting her job done, and was on top of the tables like a pro, however, one could see the physical strain and toll, as I only really seen her bussing the tables, she was an older lady with a limp, and being harshly bossed around by the younger staff that could have easily picked up a table to help her, instead of playing around in groups of two and three, in the corners. They have, at least her, as a good employee. Unsatisfied and very...

I was visiting the area and ate at this location twice. The first day the food and service was excellent. My husband's salad looked so good the first day that I wanted to go back the next day to get one for myself. The second day, everything from beginning to end was horrible. I ordered the same salad my husband had the day before (minus tomatoes). I asked for extra honey mustard and plasticware). My husband ordered a 4 piece (bone in) mixed (dark and white meat) country fried tchicken with 2 sides (as explained by the waitress). His 2 sides were broccoli and a side salad. He asked the waitress if there was a smaller portion available that had only 2 pieces of chicken (dark meat) and she said no. Our salads came pretty quickly. The waitress apologized for not having croutons as they weren't ready but she would bring them out shortly. My husband started eating his salad as I waited for the plastic ware and croutons. We both noticed the lettuce was still wet (water sitting on it). While waiting for those things, she brought out 2 pieces of chicken and broccoli for my husband and had a breast cut in strips on a plate and said the cook made too many and asked if I wanted it for my salad at no charge, so I accepted it. At that point I asked about the croutons and again asked for plastic ware and my husband questioned the fact that his plate had 2 boneless breasts.. She apologized and said she would be right back. She apologized again and according to her, went to talk to a manager because it was only her 2nd day of employment. She informed us that what he was served was the only type of chicken they have. Also, she still did not bring our croutons nor my plastic ware again. We asked her to just cancel his meal order and I gave her the chicken breast that she had given me and again asked for the items we were waiting for, which she did finally bring. She said the manager was removing my husband's meal from the order and only charging us for the salads and my tea. My husband ate his salad and I ate a few bites of mine and asked for a to-go box. When the waitress brought the ticket, everything we originally ordered was still on the ticket. We had to wait for that to get fixed. As we were waiting, I was packing my salad to go and noticed water in the bottom of my bowl from the wet lettuce. Once the ticket was fixed, we proceeded to the register to pay. The day before, the cashier informed me that I had two rewards on my account. One was for $14.50 and the other for $7.50. I chose to use the higher amount that day because he said I could only use one. On the second day after all of the craziness during our visit, when we went to pay, somehow my reward of $7.50 was not showing. It was actually the same cashier as the day before. He asked someone about it and we were told that maybe it expired. Overall, that 2nd day was far below the standard we are used to at any Cracker Barrel location, which is what we informed the cashier when he asked how our dining experience was. They did offer to get a manager but it was clear that management was not interested in our issues as they never came out to speak to us in the midst of our subpar experience. The other cashier apologized for our experience and used the excuse that they were extremely busy as the cause. They actually were not that busy as we were immediately seated and our order came out quickly. The day before when our experience was...

Walking in is the normal Cracker Barrel country store charm. We were seated quickly but it took about five minutes before we were greeted. We ordered the potato casserole tots as an appetizer and they were delicious. From there I got the fried fish and shrimp or seaside sampler(can't remember the name right now). Talk about did not look like the picture. I was expecting a couple large pieces of fish and some nice looking shrimp. Instead I got what looked like a filet cut in half then battered and fried. The shrimp was mediocre. With that said, the portions, though deceiving in the picture, were perfect and the fish was tasty.

My wife had a slightly different experience. Her food had an incorrect side, that was replaced, but her food was luke warm. Especially disappointing for her since we came for the hot biscuits that were almost room temperature. It is still worth the visit if you are looking for some decent country style cooking.

Update: the last few times coming to this location the food seems to have gone down hill. The hash brown casserole that I grew up loving tastes like it sits all day in warmer before served. The Friday fish fry I had last night, 8 Mar 2024, tasted like old overheated oil with a bitter aftertaste. My son usually loves the roast beef but could barely eat the slab of fat and tough meat (used to be so tender). My wife got Grandma's Sampler with scrambled eggs and grits. She was able to eat the pancakes, ham and eggs, though the eggs came out as a plain omelette. The sausage looked like it had been cooked hours ago then dried under the heat lamp. A fork couldn't even penetrate it. The service was as good as it gets I guess for a busy Friday night. But at least the manager kept the fire stoked ... I assume it was the manager. He watched from the fireplace as tables got sat back to back and were barely taken care of due to staff capabilities (a server even complained about being sat back to back in front of customers, then approached the fire stoker to voice the same); not seeming to touch tables and see if they were being taken care of. After the 45 minutes it took to get food we were checked on once then our server vanished leaving us waiting 10+ minutes for a check.

I come to this location for convenience and a taste of home being from the south, never expecting greatness. But a little more care in quality, leadership and consistency could go a long way and I would love to see...