Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in City of Watertown

When we arrived on Monday afternoon around 2 o’clock the hostess was talking to a young girl about liking a particular bank. My husband and I waited while they talked for over 15 minutes. Finally the hostess told the girl she was speaking to that they let some workers off because they thought it would be slow but it suddenly got busy. She also said there are 10 tables that need bussed and the waitresses are so busy that they haven’t been able to clear the tables. Finally she found a seat for the girl she was speaking to. She then told us it would be about 10-15 minutes and then she said well I could go clean tables but first I have to go pee. She left and did not come back for another 20 minutes. She then came back from the restroom and told us that the waitress, Cheyenne would arrive in 2-3 minutes and she will take care of the tables and sit us. The hostess then looked into the dining room and saw a table near the door that was almost cleaned so she wiped it off and sat us.

Next to us was a table that needed bussed. She did not clean it but went back to the hostess stand and stood there for quite awhile before other customers came in. The place was a mess and oddly I did not see a manager anywhere. Usually there is one standing by the kitchen entrance. I saw a guy that I thought was normally the manager but he appeared to be working or cooking in the kitchen.

We had a great waitress, she was very friendly and bubbly. We did not have to wait long for our food but our food was not as good as it had been in the past. I ordered the grill chicken large meal which I order every time I go to Cracker Barrel for lunch or dinner. The chicken tenders were tiny and not at all the usual size. They were also very dry and overcooked. My broccoli and green beans were good as usual. My husbands meatloaf was half the size it usually is as he normally gets the dinner size. The waitress noticed it was not the normal size and brought out another piece but overall the meatloaf was still much smaller than normal. His Mac and cheese side was tiny and so was the mash potatoes. Overall we were very disappointed. We actually left hungry.

Cracker Barrel use to be our go-to restaurant but honestly since Covid, it has gradually gone downhill! It no longer carries the Rueben Sandwich they are famous for. In fact they only have 2 sandwiches to pick from. Plus the sides with the meals are so tiny it’s hardly worth the effort.

We use to go to breakfast every Sunday but the pancakes are much smaller, the meat helping is smaller as well and their famous cheese potato breakfast casserole is only about 2 Tablespoons.

I guess we are done with Cracker Barrel! It used to be an amazing place to eat…but...

Wednesday 7pm. Service was poor. Food was very good. Restaurant 1/4 full.

Our server was Amber the Roadrunner. She was so very busy with many many many other tables. Her strategy was to dash past our table while calling, “Doing ok here?” No stopping, no looking back, no pause to hear a reply.

It took us five attempts to actually catch her and stop her. By then, our meal was finished. Her strategy worked well to help her overloaded work volume.

Unfortunately it wasn’t helpful to the customers. It’s not Amber’s fault her shift had too few employees. It was a slow Wednesday night. The managers probably felt it was acceptable to have only two servers.

Our food took an inexcusably long time to arrive. Nearly 40 minutes. No coffee refills the whole time. Just the one initial cup. Which meant no drinks during our meal. Couldn’t catch Roadrunner to beg for refills.

The food was excellent. They actually sell Impossible Sausage for vegetarians. That was very cool for my spouse. He had the sausage, egg biscuits Benedict with hash casserole and fried apples. Very tasty! The hollandaise sauce was unfortunately slopped over the edge of the plate and pooling on the table. I had the new Cheesy Bacon Homestyle Fried Chicken with broccoli, pinto beans, and corn muffins. So yummy! Hot, fresh and looking exactly like the photo lol.

We could not catch Amber to get napkins to wipe up the excess hollandaise that was dripping off the plate. We could not catch Amber to get refills. We could not catch Amber to get hot sauce nor ketchup. The table next to ours tried to help us nab her. They wanted condiments too.

It is understandable that she needed to ignore her customers in order to handle the overwhelming amount of tables she was expected to serve. However, her Cracker Barrel managers should be ashamed of themselves for offering this terrible service to customers. It is the responsibility of management to provide adequate staffing. One young lady should NEVER have been put in this position with more tables than one server can reasonably handle. I blame her managers for inadequate staffing choices.

Next time our strategy will be to order everything up front- including condiments and refills.

Additionally, MOP YOUR FLOORS! The floors were sticky like velcro from the doorway to the men’s room to the dining area. Use detergent. Change the water frequently. Make certain you’re starting a new mop head. Mop twice if you need to.

TL;DR: Order pick up instead.

-DELICIOUS food, -short staffed, -excessively long wait for a slow Wednesday night, -lacking customer service, -dirty...

Canadians here. Thought we would stop for some brunch. We look forward to eating out at restaurants, we're foodies and this is a simple breakfast spot, but dang, it disappoints.

We had to wait for a table 20+ mins, ok that's fine but my God what a nightmare that is waiting in that store! 😆 You can't shop because there are people standing everywhere waiting for tables too. So weird.

Our server was friendly but I don't think she was trained properly? She took our drink order but then we didn't get our drinks for quite some time, nor did we get a basket of biscuits and man I was looking forward to those! Then the people seated well after us had their food order before us...and it was alot of food. We finally got ours after a 45 min wait!

I ordered the apple crumble French toast, husband ordered a hamburger with fries, and my daughter ordered Mac n cheese. Not too crazy right! 45 mins 🙄 we also noticed how the food had been sitting under the heat lamp for quite some time because the server was no where to be found. The lettuce on the burger was wilted and warm and the crumble on my French toast was ROCK hard, literally thought I broke a tooth! 😬 Told the server (when we saw her again) and she said yeah it's always hard because it's made beforehand. And that she would tell the chef. Ok thennnn. Cool, thanks.

Waited and waited for our bill to pay for our- mediocre at best- food. I asked the server if they had to go cups for coffee. She went and grabbed me one, put it in front of me empty and said here you go....ummm lady, I don't have any coffee.. haha I was speechless. Then she finally clued in and was like "oh, did you want a fresh cup of coffee?" Well yeah, considering mine has been gone for 35 mins while weve been waiting. 😆 It was crazy service. She might need a tad more training, just saying.

Then paying was an absolute nightmare, having to go back out into the store part, lining up to pay while you have people trying to pay for their goods and shop. It's just a weird set up. Not for us!

We won't be back to a cracker...