Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Camarillo

EDITED Not a review about the food — this is about Pokémon cards and poor customer service.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been trying to get Pokémon cards for my son, who’s been excited to open some packs together. I was told by multiple employees at this Cracker Barrel location that they do carry Pokémon cards, so I started calling in regularly to check when they’d be available.

Last Thursday, I was told a truck was unloading inventory and to call back later. I called later—same answer. This happened again on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Every time I called, I was told the truck was still unloading or to check back the next day. It struck me as odd that a single delivery truck would be unloading for several days in a row.

On Monday morning, I decided to stop by in person. One helpful employee tried to check and then quietly mentioned that “a lot of employees like Pokémon,” suggesting they may have bought the cards themselves. I was surprised—shouldn’t customer-facing stock be made available to actual paying customers first?

Another employee—one I’d spoken with over the phone—came out and confirmed they were sold out. When I asked how, given I was just told the previous night they were still unloading, she again repeated that “employees like Pokémon.” I asked if there was any policy about staff not purchasing items before customers, and she plainly said, “No, we don’t have that rule. They can buy what they want.”

This was very frustrating. I had called for days and followed every instruction I was given, only to find out staff had likely bought out the product before it ever reached the shelves.

To be clear, the issue here is not just missing out on some cards—it’s the misleading and inconsistent information I received over several days, and the store’s apparent lack of a fair policy around employee purchasing. I’ve filed a report with the BBB and plan to contact corporate, as I don’t believe it’s fair or ethical for employees to get first access to products—especially limited ones that customers are actively seeking.

Disappointed in the experience. I truly hope Cracker Barrel takes this seriously.

NEW REVIEW

I wouldn't normally do this given how everything went down but I must say, Cracker Barrels corporate offices are on top of things. Autumn from cooperate took care of this matter, help a box of cards for me and also gave me a free meal voucher. I wasn't quite sold that they're made things right but yesterday, my family and I took advantage of the free meals and I must say, I very much enjoyed the food and service and overall atmosphere. I'm changing my review to a 4 star and I'd do 4.5 if I could... the food and service and overall handling of this situation...

This was my first and probably last time going to cracker barrel. My boyfriend and I were so excited to try this place as everyone always has good things to say, so we decided to go out of our way and drive over 1 hour to this location. As we got there, we had to wait in line for about 15 mins just to see and talk to the hostess. That was fine, no big deal. We got seated and waited another 10-15 mins for our waitress to see us and come over to our table. We then ordered our drinks and appetizers. That was another maybe 10 mins. Got our appetizers first, then drinks about 5 mins after that. Our waitress came back for our orders and we all ordered, my boyfriend ordered a side salad with ranch and she decided to say well "there is a ranch right here on the table is anyone going to use it ? We don't want to waste things" and to be honest that threw us off guard because we were using that ranch for our appetizers... I'm not sure why getting another ranch for his salad would be a problem, but I guess it was. So we laughed it off and continued having a good time with good company. We got our food and mine and my sisters good was look warm at best, boyfriends was cold. He wasn't going to ask for it go back but we said he should since he got the chicken and Dumplings and it should be hot and comforting. (Mind you his food was all on 1 plate... meal and sides...that should be in its own bowl and NOT mixed together with his side dishes which were mashed potatoes and mack and cheese).. they brought it back and it came back maybe 10 mins later and it was warned up clearly by a microwave. The outside bowl was extremely hot but inside was cold, yet again. Also the food runner had her finger in his food and mine, I know it gets busy but maybe ppl should wear gloves when running food out. So we sent it back and asked for it to be taken off the bill completely. She said she could do that, came back and advised us it was taken off but asked if she could leave the bill because "she was getting kicked out" again that threw us off guard because usually places would hand the table over to the next waiter or waitress. But we said ok that's fine we were leaving anyways. We asked for boxes for the items we didn't finish and went to pay. Cashier was nice. We told him of the experience we had and he asked us if we would like to speak to a manager, My sister said yes and he then said well I'm just a cashier I wish there was something else I can do to help. We then waited and walked around waiting and noticed no one was coming. So we just left as we had a long ride ahead of us. Again this will be the first and last time I probably come... which is sad because I had really really high hopes...

I have been wanting to go to a Cracker Barrel for quite sometime - the one time we tried, the wait to be seated was an hour and a half, so we just went somewhere else. We finally made it, and we came at a good time because we were seated right away - which was almost a little disappointing since I wanted to check out the little shop at the entrance of the restaurant. But it was ok, we were starving and I was able to check out shop after we ate.

The waitress was very nice and got our drinks right away. I had their Arnold Palmer (they had another name for it, but I can't remember the name) - it was good and not too sweet. She also brought us a basket of biscuits and corn muffins. We tried the corn muffin first and it was so dense and dry. I suggest you just ask for a basket of biscuits because they were tasty. Skip the corn muffin - didn't seem like even a ton of butter could help this dry little muffin.

I had originally thought I was going to order breakfast for dinner - they serve breakfast all day - but then I spotted the hamburger steak, which is one of my favorite dishes, so my hubby ordered a breakfast and we shared our meals, so we could try different things.

Let me start out with the hamburger steak - I got the fries and Cole slaw as the sides. The sides were good, but the hamburger steak was awful. I had ordered it to be prepared medium, and it was pretty much well done and dry - and it really didn't taste like much. I had also gotten it smothered, but that didn't help with the dryness. I wouldn't recommend this dish at all!

My husband got the eggs, fried chicken and grits. He said that the best part of his meal was the eggs. The chicken was so dry!

Unfortunately this visit was a big disappointment! Today I checked the Yelp rating for this location and saw they have 3 stars. That's just a meh rating, and I can see why.

I think the best experience was shopping in their little Country Store. I hate to say it, but I don't recommend...