Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Columbus

Normally, I am a HUGE fan of Cracker Barrel. And I suppose that I still am EXCEPT for THIS COLUMBUS location 🤬! I apologize in advance for this extremely long review, but it's necessary to give details to understand the situation

There is usually a warm, friendly atmosphere and greeting in Cracker Barrel restaurants, and I say again that holds true in every other CB I've been in, and that's a lot! However, this particular location in Columbus, GA, is the complete and utter exception! I've Never been treated so RUDELY or had such POOR SERVICE as what we experienced at this location. We were there on Sunday afternoon, June 23, 2024. I'm adding that so that CB is able to look back on who was working on that day and they will know who this points to. First of all, the 'hostess' , was the beginning. I've never known a CB or any other restaurant to REQUIRE ALL members of a group be in the restaurant, ready to be seated before they will allow ANY of the party to sit. I'm disabled, walk with a cane and simply wanted to sit and wait for the remaining people in our party to arrive. We, my husband and myself, were told under no circumstances would we be allowed to sit at the table until we had every person in our party in the restaurant. I then requested a cup of coffee while we waited but there was an issue with that as well. As if I'm going to abscond with their cup or something, Idk. Rather than being amenable and allow us to sit and wait inside where it was cool than in the ridiculous heat outside, they said,"no, we cannot allow you to sit, until every member of your party is here to be seated." At this point, the remaining people in our party were 3 (yes, THREE!) MINUTES away and they still refused to allow us to sit🤬!! When they arrived, I wanted nothing more than to leave and go elsewhere, but since we were already there, everyone voted to stay because they were hungry and didn't want to wait even longer. So much for that! When we were finally seated, and yes, we had to wait on them after all that! We were finally seated and yes, another WAIT! I simply couldn't believe that it would get worse, but it did. Another 12 minutes goes by before we see a server-and before you ask, the restaurant was no longer full, far from it. The lunch rush, was all but gone by then and there were several tables empty, so it's not as if the servers were covered up with customers-that I would have understood. She took our drink orders and I finally got my cup of coffee-it was barely tepid, not hot in the least, my husband ordered a Blue Moon and she brought him a can, NO glass, no bread ahead of the meal like they usually do. The food came out in stages, so we weren't eating together as one normally does. The service was pitiful to say the least. I apologize again for this being so long, but it was necessary to make my point. CB needs to know about the service, or Lack thereof, at this location. The food wasn't a lot better; the vegetables were over cooked ot more like they'd been there for hours and rather than make fresh, they served dried out, over cooked food. I'll not let this experience keep me from going to CB, just THIS LOCATION in Columbus, GA! This reflects on CB as a whole, but that is why I have been so specific. There are people who have never been to CB and if they experienced the same type of service or anything close to what we did, then you have lost customers! They tell others and you've lost more, etc. They don't and may not ever get the true CB experience if they compare that to all the CBs and never go back and that's just wrong. I hope CB will take the time to look into this and make changes so that this doesn't happen to...

Out of all of the experiences at Cracker Barrel, this was by far the worst. This was also immediately confirmed upon checkout.

While speaking with the cashier, she asked how our visit was. I explained that it was the only bad experience we've actually had at Cracker Barrel and do you know what she said? "I've heard that alot lately."

Now, you know what made it so bad? Here ya go...

We arrived on a Sunday around noon (Yes, church goers are a thing, but please hold). The wait was relatively short for what we expected and we were sat shortly after.

Our waitress, a blonde generic woman with glasses approached our table after explaining the reason for the wait twice within 15 minutes.

After finally attending to us, she took our drink order and again left for 15 minutes before she returned without any drinks to now take our food order.

From that point forward she must've walked by our table no less than 8 times while attending to another table who had clearly just complained judging by the impeccable service they were receiving.

She would occasionally walk by and explain one reason or another for why the wait was so extended, one of which was "We just lost our grill cooks". A good reason, if it were true. After she bestowed complimentary biscuits upon us (which are literally ALWAYS complimentary) while again apologizing for the wait, we requested napkins, a simple task, really.

After another 10 minutes of waiting, this time for folded pieces of paper, we resorted to asking another apparently more competent waitress, who aptly delivered them. * I should mention that we did get our drinks by this time, so not all hope was lost. *

After the biscuits were wiped from existence, we sat idle for probably another 20 minutes before one of our table members had enough. She went to the manager, justifiably so, and asked why no napkins, food, or other items had arrived before returning to the table. The manager approached shortly after and explained that there must've been some miscommunication between the waitress and the kitchen. When asked about the previously stated exodus of grill cooks, he advised that this had nothing to do with the wait and that he had only seen a time of 25 minutes since our ticket had been entered (it was entered 50 minutes prior). The manager apologized before leaving and our food arrived within 5 minutes.

Each plate had eggs which were ordered between sunny side up and over easy. What was observed appeared to be a slop of white and yellow custard with a watery discharge. While attempting to eat the meal, every "hot" item was cold to the touch and 3 out of 4 people didn't even eat their meals.

The waitress returned after letting us mourn over our food for another 20 minutes before arriving with the check. The food, clearly untouched and visibly inedible went unnoticed by our waitress. One of us expressed our dissatisfaction at the cold puddle of eggs and the inappropriately long wait time before she (the waitress) felt obligated to go speak with the manager and explain that her customers weren't happy. She returned to our table, apologized yet again and handed over the check.

A dollar-fifty ($1.50) deducted from each meal, reducing the original check from $74 to $68. If I could give zero stars...

I came in from out of town and treated my elderly mother to this restaurant/ store because she'd never been. First, their food is always delicious, service by wait staff is usually wonderful. My mother strolled the store after lunch and fancied a few items. In the end I bought her a blouse to wear for Christmas. It was crocheted on the top layer and had a small snag. I assured the lady at the counter it would be fine as it was so small a little fix would be easy. There was only two blouses like it left. One looked waaaay to big for my mother so I opted for a medium instead of small so it wouldn't be too small. Joke on me. Mom got home, tried it on, too big. She went back to the store to exchange it and Emily Mcbride, the store manager interrupted the exchange between my mother and another employee who told my mother on the phone prior to her arrival, a exchange would be simple and to bring it on in. First Emily said she couldn't exchange it because the remaining blouses had a snag too. My mother said she didn't care about the snag. Emily then said no again and that she needed to send it back to the vendor. Huh? So we can buy a snagged shirt but not exchange for one? When my mother insisted she didn't mind repairing it, Emily then demanded a receipt. Clearly a control situation was happening. Here we are a few days later, I have the receipt in my possession, but I'm leaving town in a matter of hours. So I called explained as much. Tyler assured me my mom can bring it in no problem. I asked if I should find the receipt and send a pic with mom just in case. He said sure that could be helpful just in case they give her problems again. He took my mom's name in case I couldn't locate the receipt. I call my mom and told her to have my brother drive her in right that second so Tyler could help her. She goes. Here comes Emily Mcbride. She interrupts again. Tyler explains everything, again, then shows the receipt to Ms Mcbride which is not good enough for an exchange she says she must have the bar code. Then storms off and becomes too busy to answer my call. I can't for the life of me figure out why she singled my mom out twice. Every store on earth will exchange an item without a receipt, item for item, and at worst case give a store credit. No one asked for cash back or anything of the sort. She went from shirt needs to be returned to vendor, to needing a receipt, to needing a receipt with a bar code. I'm truly convinced my mother, appearing with a black and white mixed son may have rubbed her the wrong way. I've experienced that kind of discrimination in my lifetime and this sure feel familiar here. Whatever the issue, she made a simple transaction ridiculously difficult. I will not boycott Cracker Barrel, but I hope to never encounter Emily Mcbride. She should be ashamed of herself. She should not be in a management position as her judgment is clearly skewed. Maybe give Tyler a shot at it. He showed an eagerness to help and remained calm, and professional, and applogetic throughout what must have been a difficult exchange to be in the middle of. Thanks Tyler. I do appreciate you...