Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Buckeye

We were GREATLY disappointed with our breakfast at the Buckeye location on 1/2/2024, and the general lack of enthusiasm overall in the staff we observed and interacted with, EXCEPT for our server Melissa who was excellent and did the best she could, given the circumstances. ZERO stars honestly with exception to her.

Waited with 2 other groups nearly 10 minutes to be seated, even though there was a cashier in the store area taking inventory who couldn't miss us, and informed nobody customers were waiting. Nobody greeted us as we waited, until a server doubling as the hostess finally appeared. Saw this occur numerous times with others as we sat for our meal, some groups simply left after 5 minutes or more of staning there, waiting to be acknowledged.

Sat in a section with only 3 other tables of single customers, and took 10 minutes to have or order taken and another 5 minutes for coffee to arrive. The wait staff was obviously short and overworked, even given a restaurant with only about 12 tables seating no more than 30 customers.

Everything was served lukewarm at best, with undercooked bacon as well as partially RAW EGGS when we ordered them "over medum". Informed our server who was properly apologetic, but neglected to offer to take our plates back or replace them with correctly cooked food. Sausage patties were also dry as a bone inside, so they must cook them ahead and then hold them on heat or reheat to order.

Spoke directly to the manager prior to paying our bill, he was wearing a dirtied cook's apron so obviously he was working the kitchen. His inital reply was to ask "did you send them back?" and later finally apologized with "that should not have happened" (gee whiz, ya' think??) after a lame excuse about "the cook must not have his grill up to temperature". We told him we'd informed our server to alert the kitchen staff that they were serving raw food, and his rnon-reaction told me he knew full well what had occurred, and was just playing dumb. Then he left and that was it.

No offer to reduce our bill or adjust it for our partially eaten meal. Honestly now, am I to believe as the customer that it's on ME to request such an accommodation?

He didn't bother to check our plates which were still waiting to be bussed as we walked by our table as we walked away.

He apparently expected us to pay full price for a meal and an experience that was about as poor as it could get.

Suddenly, the root of the problem became crystal clear.

Whoever is managing that location needs to be replaced, and the owner of that restaurant should be ashamed to hire whoever is leading that location.

Please fire your current management and get professionals in there who can correctly train staff to uphold and put into practice what we've come to expect are the high standards of a Cracker Barrel restaurant.

Once more for emphasis:

PLEASE FIRE YOUR MANAGEMENT AT THE BUCKEYE...

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store 606 S Watson Rd, Buckeye, AZ

My sister and I decided to go to Cracker Barrel on Sunday, December 11, 2022 for lunch. We drove to the Buckeye, AZ location and was seated in the appropriate. The waitress came over and asked what we wanted to drink and handed us the menus.

The waitress brought our drinks over and asked what we wanted to eat for lunch. My sister and I placed our orders and proceeded to start drinking our beverages. We just moved here from Georgia and had found since this was our second time to this location that their processes were a little different. The first time we came was on Thanksgiving Day for lunch and found that the manager was not as customer service conscious as the ones in Georgia. For instance, I do not like sweet potatoes and wanted to switch the item on my turkey lunch to one that was more likable to me (maybe, cole slaw). The manager stated that at his store, they do not switch items around since it can become time consuming. However, when I went to the Kennesaw location in Georgia, that I have been doing for almost 20 years, it was never a problem. I did not say much at the time, but thought the manager’s ruling was questionable.

After waiting for almost an hour for our food, I asked the waitress, Beth, if we could get some biscuits since we were hungry. She stated that they were about to come out of the oven in two minutes and would bring them to us at that time. About ten minutes passed and no biscuits. My sister stated to the manager that we had been waiting for a long time and could he help us out. During this time period, the waitress made sure the table next to us was waited on and checked out – not us. The manager in turn started yelling at us and was shocked since we are senior citizens and had not caused no problems at that time. In turn my sister stated loudly to the manager that we were hungry and was diabetic – he did not care. My sister and I got up from the table and asked if we should pay for our beverages and the manager said “NO” loudly so the entire restaurant could hear. We left the restaurant and went to Burger King instead to eat since we were very hungry. This is elder abuse and very unprofessional for both the manager and the waitress. We want some sort of accommodations for what Cracker Barrel...

Not so great service. Very disappointed in customer experience. I love going to Cracker Barrel for the southern vibes and experience.. but the past 2 times I went to this buckeye location it was terrible service no warm greetings the hostess at the front to seat guests does not smile and greet the guests.. they had zero welcoming tone! It felt they didn’t want to be there and it was a bother to find us a table. The woman who went to look for a table made a harsh tone to find us a table and felt inconvenienced she didn’t speak to us and indirectly telling the other woman hosting customers for tables.. she said she didn’t know and she will see with a slight sigh and said we may have to start making guests have wait times again .. and we were just left standing to the side for almost 10 mins with out her saying it will be a wait or even let us know she was still working on it.. it was very weird and uncomfortable.. it was a little narrow and crowded to just stand at the host desk and gift shop.. I’d rather of her say “it’s going to be a wait” so I’d maybe sit outside with my family.. well when I finally spoke up she asked who we were again ? As if she was taking our request for a table.. and we got sat down immediately. We were not given any children’s Menu considering we had 2 little ones..so I tried to wave a server down to ask for 2 kids menus with crayons and the lady said they are out and the kids menus are in the regular menus .. Which is fine but it’s a family restaurant and they normally have crayons and activities to color to keep kids being fussy if they see a family with children they should give a heads up so we are not waving and waiting on service to ask for a children’s menus .. they could mention it right away n not leave the customer thinking they just forgot to give us kids menus.. our server sally did not check on us at all though our dining.. I had to wave someone down to get us refills.. the pancakes tasted burnt and Smokey they normally are so soft and fluffy and buttery but it had a burnt n smoke taste. Overall customer service felt very unwelcoming. Considering it’s the second time I felt this way here .. I will drive to Goodyear to try a different location for next time we chose to eat at...