Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Clayton

Good Morning! My family and I had the privilege of visiting the location in Garner, NC this morning to celebrate my mother's 71st Birthday bc this is where she wanted to eat. As a party of 11 people, we arrived at 9:30am and was promptly greeted by the hostess who was very nice and able to get us checked in with no problem. She said we next to called and it shouldnt be long. So we waited inside to be seated bc it was slightly chilly outside and bc we had children with us, including an infant child. We were then asked to vacate the area we standing in bc of it being the walkway. This was not a problem, so we then went outside to wait. I asked how much longer our wait was going to be and they said another 15-20 mintues. Once again not a big issue bc we were there to celebrate my mother and we had a bigger party. I was then asked to come back in to confirm if the area they were going to seat in would be okay bc it was going to be separately at two different tables however located behind one another. At this time we were just ready to eat, so i told them this was fine. They had a table for 4 and then a table for 6 plus the highchair. As we were seated the occupants next to the table of 4 left. The waitresses came out and and we asked if the other half (6) could move over to that table of 6 since it was directly beside us and so we could all sit together. She then said she would have to ask her manager. She then came back and said her manager said no bc they were about to seat someone there. This was puzzling to me bc at that time no one was sitting there and i thought this could be a simple switch considering we had just sat down and we hadnt placed any orders, including drinks. But once again we adapted and was going to make the best of it. However after placing our order and waiting 45 minutes we had not received our food. The people that did sit beside us at that 6 person table, ordered their food, got their food, ate their food and was about to leave. This disturbed us and we asked what the hold up was for our food. We could not get an answer other than it was coming. This is unacceptable service that gave us all an uneasy feeling, so we decided we needed to leave. At that point it was 11:30, 2 hours after arriving and we had not eaten. And anyone with small children should know how kids can get when they are hungry. As we left i asked to speak with the manager. While speaking to the manager about this experience a guy slipped and fell on the floor bc someone had spilled something and they had just moped the area. The manager immediately went to attend to that situation and left mr standing there before i could finish speaking with her about our experience. Therefore that resulted to me writing this post. I know things happen all the time but this was by far the worst experience ever, especially bc we were there to celebrate my mother. And when it's this many issues at this particular establishment/location, this is where i think there needs to be some management training to help develop and train the other team members. There were too many hiccups here and as a black family, i don't want to think that it had something to do with race but this was too much and we won't be...

Review #3 Had a good experience today at this Cracker Barrel. Using the $15 gift certificate sent to me after my review #2 about bad online order experience. My wife and I decided to have breakfast this morning at this Cracker Barrel, because it is only 3 miles from our home. Arrived ahead of the morning crowd. Got seated immediately. Had a friendly waitress. She arrived quickly after we were seated. Because of Covid, they have reduced seating capacity. We each ordered breakfast items with coffee. I also ordered orange juice. They only have large glasses of orange juice. Food was well prepared and hot. Everything was good. So, I am giving them 5 stars for this visit.

Review #2 Well, it has been 2 years since my previous 1 star review. Today we thought we would try Cracker Barrel's Free Deliver coupon that we received recently in the mail. Went to their online ordering web page that listed menu items. Tried to order first meal, grilled chicken with two sides. Went to add meal to our order and were told that an item was not available. Didn't say which item. Tried again with same grilled chicken but different sides. Got same result "an item is not available". So, then tried to order their meatloaf meal with two sides. Tried to add that order and got the same "item not available. Got fed up. Had spent almost 30 minutes trying to order online with no acceptable items. Phoned the store to order takeout. We had wanted the online feature that would let us select a pickup time and pickup curbside. Talking to the takeout order lady found out that whatever I ordered from her was not available for curbside pickup. I would have to come into the store to pickup my takeout. Then I told her that I didn't want our meals immediately, but 2 hours later. She said I should call back closer to the time I wanted to pickup my order, otherwise she would have to put in the order right now and it would have to sit getting cold until I came to pick it up. I also told her about my problem with online ordering. She said that there was a limited menu, so the items I wanted were probably not available, even though the web site said they were available every day of the week. THAT DID IT. I told her to forget it and I would order from Ruby Tuesday. Ruby Tuesday is right across the street, and I have been ordering curbside pickup from them for the past 3 months. So, my Cracker Barrel reviews of this store still stay at 1 star.

Review #1 Have been going to Cracker Barrel for past 2 years for their Friday night cod fish fry dinner. Last night I went and was very disappointed in their cod fish fry dinner. It appears that they have gone from lightly battered fried cod fillets to "four Cod fillets, hand-dipped in their own special batter and fried". What I found was four large pieces of fried batter, each with a thumb sized piece of fish in the center. Complained on leaving to the manager and showed him my pile of breading. He said cook messed up and he removed my dinner from my bill. I don't think the cook messed up. If their training is inadequate it leads to messed up. But the size of the fish fillets was that of large minnows. See my photo of the left over coating. I pealed it off to reach the small...

I placed a to-go/pick up order for dinner. The food was less than appealing, it was horrible! The food that I received was not warm, had a harsh/old taste and was given in half size portions (for example - a table spoon portion vs a serving spoon portion).I decided to call the next day and share my experience with a manager. I was told that my name would go in a "log book" and that I would get refunded. I shared that I do not live close to the restaurant and that I would stop by next time I was in the area.

When I stopped by, I encountered a General Manager (Ryan Clark) and shared my experience with him. Once I said that I was there to pick up a refund, he aggressively told me that he was not going to refund my meal. I asked him more than one time if he could look in the "log book" for my complaint (name), he raised his voice, spoke over me and kept saying "no, he did not need to get the book because he was not going to refund my money". I asked for his manager's contact information. He became more mad and kept telling me that he was not going to refund my money, he could not give his manager's contact, that he would take my information. The conversation escalated such that customer's started to noticed there was a disagreement going on. Trying to deescalate, I walked off and looked for another manager. I encountered the "gift shop manager" named Jason. I asked if he could help me with getting the District manager's contact information. He turned me away saying that whatever Ryan told me is the answer, that he was over the gift shop and had nothing to do with it. While I had stepped away speaking to Jason, my male friend spoke to Ryan asking why he would not provide his manager's name. They went back and forth for a couple minutes until Ryan eventually gave the information. I am not sure why Ryan would not give it to me but gave it to my male friend. Perhaps he has an issue with women that has a voice. I never raised my voice or became disrespectful to him, but yet he did. Being that the food service & customer service was extremely unprofessional, I will not return to this restaurant. I hope you enjoy the $25 that you essentially stole from me.

Ryan, as a general manager you have a lot of work to do! Based on the way that you treat the customers of this restaurant, I am POSITIVE that you treat your employees the same way, with no respect. You should also spend some time being concern about the caked up dust on the ceiling, (some people have allergy issues), be concerned with wiping down the restaurant's furniture & decor (tables, chairs, cobwebbed artifacts, fireplace) Covid is still a thing, and keeping common areas (to include outside) cleaner, versus being combative with customers over a refund. Customer service is a responsibility that is in the general manger space, and you royally failed on this...