Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Blackman Charter Township

This is pretty rare for me to leave only a 2-star review, but I select 2 stars with substance.

The quality of food is very good at the Jackson Cracker Barrel. Pot roasts are always tender and juicy for example and the staff is always courteous. But not all of the dishes are up to delicious standards.

On Wednesday my wife and I visited the Cracker Barrel of Jackson, Michigan. I had forgotten that two years ago we had decided to not patronize that Cracker Barrel for pretty much the same complains as I log here. And two years ago, we had forgotten that two years before that we decided not to patronize this particular Cracker Barrel. On that basis I do not attribute my complaints to COVID. This is just simply a chronic problem with this particular store that transcends many years.

The big on-going complaint is that they are consistently out of something that we pick to order from the menu. On Wednesday it was mega-out-of-things. I gave the waitress an order and she immediately told me that they were out of that particular dish. I immediately remembered what I had forgotten: We don’t patronize this store. I was sick at myself for having forgotten. I wanted to pick up and leave right then and there but that is not how my wife thinks so we stuck it out. I asked for the Wednesday special, and they were out of that. I ordered something else, and the waitress left to place our order.

The waitress shortly returned saying that it turns out that this second dish was out as well.

Eventually our dishes arrived but the waitress had no silverware for us so had to leave to obtain it. We did not see her again for quite a while. My wife went to the front to obtain some silverware as it was getting to be a few minutes into our wait and the food was not getting any warmer.

I have never experienced anything less than delightful food at any Cracker Barrel, but Wednesday was the exception. I ordered a loaded sweet potato. The “loaded” part was simply two giant marsh mellows. The sweet potato itself was delicious and nicely cooked but that is all that it was. There was no practical “loaded” to it.

I was dreading the check-out because when paying the bill up front the cashier always asks if your experience was good. When an experience is less than optimal, I usually just say that the meal was fine, and I did not want to do the Wednesday. I was quite relieved when the cashier neglected to ask how our experience was. I imagine the cashier was getting sick and tired of hearing complaints and had learned not to ask.

Again, I don’t like leaving only two stars but after careful consideration I decided to move forward with it. Maybe now I will remember for longer than two years to dine elsewhere than the Cracker Barrel of...

My family has been coming to cracker barrel for nearly three decades. We were quite famished from looking at a car over at the Art Mohen Chevrolet dealership. Thankfully Cindy, and Candice helped us out. It's all fairly familiar in the best deja vu type way; possible. Anyway, my mother was really not doing so well, and Cindy stepped up to give her some OJ after the hostess (Unfortunately I forgot to ask her name. I value her efficiency just as much as the rest of you gals.), had sat us. My mother became a lot better, thanks to Cindy's help, and comforting words. My sister, self appointed team captain, informed our group that we should pick out our food quickly. Candice arrived shortly thereafter, and she had a rather pleasant assortment of jewelry. Not to mention a beautiful smile to compliment her attire and style. She was very kind to my family, and we valued her efforts. I'm fairly certain it was one of her first couple nights of waitressing, and I could tell that she was somewhat nervous. I did my best, and I reassured her with an understanding and kind demeanor. At one point towards the end of our outing, I reminded her "It gets easier". Words that definitely mean something to everyone who has ever worked in retail, fast food, or hospitality. She'd mentioned her background is in security, which I thought was really cool. I don't really know the entirety of it all, but my sister wanted to switch entrees with me. I reassured Candice that it wasn't anything on her end, I think it was some sort of "strange hangry haze" myself, and my sister were experiencing. Whatever the case maybe, I was assuredly fully appreciative, and fully satisfied with my meal. I got to eat macaroni with bacon on it. I hope that everyone from last night knows that they are seen, and they are appreciated beyond...

I enjoyed the shopping there more than I did the food. But the atmosphere was nice and so was my company. We did take my mothers granddaughter from her new husband's side there for her birthday. And they did come out with a free dessert and sang Happy Birthday to her. So that was very nice. I had the chicken and dumplings which was okay, I've had better, and I believe my mom had the rice pilaf with a sweet potato and something else which she enjoyed her meal. Her husband also enjoyed his meal but I can't quite remember what he had. The granddaughter had the homemade mac and cheese with she said she orders that everywhere she goes and she definitely enjoyed their homemade mac and cheese. The granddaughter just turned 11. Now when I was in the gift shop area the ladies were very very polite and I got asked several times if I needed any help there were more than two ladies on the floor probably walking around just make sure nobody stole anything as well but besides that they were extremely helpful. They also gift wrapped my item for free. So I just had to pay for it first, let the lady at the counter know and then in the middle of the gift shop area they actually wrap the gift for you so they put it in a gift bag with some tissue and a tag so that was very nice that that was offered. I definitely would come back so I think I'd order something else but the atmosphere was very nice there and they had a lot of meet things in the gift store and the stations were in specific categories or seems so it made it really nice to find what you were looking for if lets say you wanted something for a little girl in pink they had everything right there at that station in pink for little girls. Kind of reminded me of a Hallmark...