Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Asheville

When the founders established Cracker Barrel, they knew how to deal with the Sunday go to meeting crowds. With rocking chairs and the old country store. Especially since the world has had to deal with the medical crisis we've been dealt the past few years.

Imagine if you will, a restaurant not filled to capacity in sight of health precautions and labor shortages, with the onslaught of hungry churchgoers waiting in the wings for a Sunday dinner table. One hasn't to imagine too deeply, the reality, fact is more stranger than fiction.

I placed my name on the wait list, and found my place to rest until my table was ready, in approximately 35-40 minutes. From strolling the store, gazing at the new Christmas merchandise, to a relaxing rocking chair on that beautiful last Sunday in August.

An hour later, my table was ready. I will say in all honesty, this was the only drawback during the whole Cracker Barrel experience.

My server was quick and efficient at her job. When I chose my meal of country fried steak/w brown gravy, mashed potatoes/w brown gravy, pinto beans, collard greens, and biscuits, it didn't seem but a short minute before my meal was placed before me. But there were plenty of distractions to keep my eyes and mind preoccupied until the food came, so I was satisfied. That did give me the opportunity to see how the patrons were seemingly spaced out according to potential health protocols, or the lack of help. They are hiring.

But I was thrilled when the food arrived. After saying my prayers, I quickly dug in, and as per usual, I wasn't disappointed. I will say, the brown gravy to me is much better that the sawmill gravy that accompanies the country fried steak. Again, the food was typically delicious, so to describe that is truly a moot point.

However, if there was ever a reason for 5 Stars for a restaurant, Cracker Barrel received the highest 5 star praise from me this day for one thing, or 5. It would be the fresh baked goodness of Cracker Barrel biscuits with butter laced in each morsel. Baked to a light golden brown, and soft. I'm not a fan of biscuits that can seem to cut your mouth when trying to chew them. Cracker Barrel biscuits were baked perfectly that afternoon. Grant it, the turnover of biscuits were at a high volume, I'm certain. But I had no arguments. And as I said, I ate 5. The last 3, the server brought a bowl of butter, and not the typical little packaged butter. I was in high heaven in buttered biscuits.

My meal was over quicker than I was seated, but I will consider that as me being more and more satisfied as the experience progressed. But then again, one must think, where on a Sunday afternoon will you find some place open with quick seating for the hungry church crowd, other than the confines of your own home.

You wouldn't want to try my biscuits, I...

First I provide my reviews on our experiences just so others will know how the visit went. I don't give good or critical reviews to get something. If things are really unsatisfactory then I'll notify the management, and even if they offer a freebie I'll decline and have done so on those occasions. I comment on quality of food, service, atmosphere, and if necessary cleanliness.

So here we go,...

The thing about Cracker Barrel is while not great, it has always been good and consistent. For years in our travels everything was as expected, however that seems to have changed. Recently we're running less than 50% on the good and consistent. This time was no different, our order wasn't hot, just barely warm. The requested vinegar for the greens never arrived, the sever never returned until check time.

I expect a line at the register, and this time was no exception. Still with a long line of customers extending into the dining area and blocking traffic, one would think staff would notice more than one cashier was needed. Nearly ten minutes later a manager arrived to help. When he asked if everything was ok, I informed him of our experience.

So now unless we are desperate, in our future travels Cracker Barrel is off our list of stopping places. Really dislike the barely warm food and long waits to pay the checks which has become the norm at multiple Cracker...

Currently sitting in the restaurant in the farthest dining room. We are the only table in here. It took over 10 minutes to be greeted. I can guarantee the host didn't inform our server we were sitting here. So this is not the server's fault at all. She is actually very sweet. My problem is the rest of the staff. There was a server here who was cleaning up some other tables around us and didn't even bother to ask if we had been helped. Must not have adequate training here. I asked the host to speak to a manager because at the time we had not yet been greeted. A manager did come to the table to address our concerns and his response was I will talk to my staff to make sure this doesn't happen again. Unacceptable. I worked in the service industry for damn near 20 years and I have never worked anywhere that at least did not offer something for the inconvenience. Not looking for a handout, but at least offer something. AND the coffee is old. Why are your servers not making fresh pots when ordered? Your staff obviously needs better training.

Update: Our dinner was awful. The dumplings tasted like straight dough. Like they didn't get cooked all the way. And I upgraded to the loaded hashbrown casserole, which didn't come in the dish and the cheese wasn't wasn't melted. Unfortunately we had to complain again, but the manager did comp our whole meal....