Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Elkton

2 Friday nights ago, Elkton, MD location - absolutely disturbing from beginning-to-end! Did wait-ahead in advance of arriving. Got there & while many employees passed by, we stood waiting with NOBODY else waiting for at least 10+ minutes. No acknowledgment when we were seen even by the girl who ended up seating who passed by several times.

Rather than seat us at a clean, wiped table (they were not busy); free of water underfoot (looks like a spilled clear liquid high enough to wet shoes up to the sides); and free of smooshed bacon one seat; a dirty napkin on another; and a 3rd seat with cheese and jelly on it, we watched as dishes were removed & a light wipe with a filthy cloth (table still had debris and was now damp!) was given to table only. I mustered, “There’s a lot of water underfoot. I can’t sit here. Will you please seat us elsewhere?” She ignored me and expected me to sit down. I then outright said, “I need to sit somewhere else and told her why.” The girl looked stunned!

Geez! Why is she looked stunned when the paying customer is stunned when this is how they’re treated!

Doesn’t end there. We are moved to a new table. We then wait, as if they’ve determined they’ll make us wait since we’ve complained. We sit for another 10 - 15 minutes with nobody greeting us or asking for beverage orders. One server comes out & buses tables next to us all while we go unserved.

A woman with a very short, gray hairstyle finally comes over looking as if she’s royally pissed about having to serve us. She is unfriendly and unapologetic. We choose in that moment to be kind anyway.

We then wait for beverages for another 10 - 15 minutes with our server not in sight. I decide to relay the situation to the manager, Dereck. He could easily be cast as the Villain in many stores based on his nasty demeanor, behaviour, countenance, and general look as if he’s sucking on a lemon as he bears with having to listen.

He gave pinched sour-mouth look as I described table situ and “ummm hmmmm” -no apology. Then I see drinks are now at the table (probably heard me yell toward the back “manager, please!” prior to get Dreadful. Dereck).

Oh, I see the drinks have arrived. “Yes, go! Go! That’s what you were so worried about -go now!” WTH!

I asked, “are you being sarcastic?” He responds, “aren’t you?” I said that I had not a single moment of sarcasm while he continues to dish it out. He said, “well, your drinks are there. And, you got the best server in this place. Go!” Ok, she did not treat us in a way to indicate kindness, promptness or greatness. Did not bother reminding him of that.

I say, “you truly do not care. I’ve relayed my experience including the strange table situation and you offered no apology for even that which was legitimately gross.” Through clenched teeth, “I’m sorry” slithered out in slow form and with obvious disgust.

I told him that’s not a true apology and it’s obvious he could care less about customer concerns. Request his name & he had moment in his eye of “oh, sh*t” & then gave it.

I went to the table; told my husband; and we left. People spend hard-earned money to go here and this is the best that can be offered even when they’re not as busy as they typically are.

Dereck’s volatility and lack of care about the cleanliness of table we were taken to for seating made it clear to me that even eating any food order there would be a huge mistake under his watch!

Not sure how he’s management material & also unsure of where the servers who care...

I eat at Cracker Barrel quite a lot. This one was very disappointing. I arrived at 2 o’clock. There was absolutely nobody in the dining room, except for a couple of girls at another table that I think our employees on their time off. I waited at the hostess stand for several minutes, they had to call the hostess to see me again there was nobody there they set me at a table in the window that was sticky. It had a fork under the table. There was fingerprints and food on the glass window, where I said, I sat there for maybe five minutes before the waiter came to the table. He seemed nice enough. I told him I needed a minute. He said he would be right back. He proceeded to go to the table where the two young women were sitting And stood there and talk to them for a solid 10 minutes until I waved him over to take my order he seemed impatient like I was bothering him. I told him that I wanted the chicken strips, mac & cheese, greens, pinto beans, and a glass of water. He came back a few minutes later with the water he didn’t bring the cornbread, which was fine. I went and walked around to the store use the bathroom came back Waited on the food. I could see him talking to his friends at the table then what seem to be the manager came out and hung out and talked. I sat there after being in the store in the bathroom for another six or seven minutes for this food which just seemed like a long time to wait, considering it was absolutely nobody in that place, but me when the food came out, the pinto beans were hard as a rock. I kept waiting for him the waiter to come back over so I could say these are not cooked he never came. I waited for a water refill never came back. I had to wave him over about 15 minutes later and say I need to check and these pinto beans are not cooked right he said what do you want? I said some turnip greens when he brought the food back, he forgot my cornbread I had placed an order to go. There was no Napkins. There was no cutlery. There was no pancake syrup. There was no butter. Nothing for the order to go when I went to leave and pay at the front of the hostess kind of was like oh have a good day. I think she could see that I wasn’t very happy when I got to the front to pay in the middle of filling out the survey on the register The cashier lady reached over the counter and hit the red button that I was done, and I explained to her that I was unhappy and I was leaving a survey and she just sort of shrugged it off. I was very unhappy. I opened up my to go food this afternoon at work for lunch and it was just really gross. The whole experience was really bad. I’ll probably never go back to that Cracker...

Was quite disappointed and frustrated on this trip to crackle barrell. My husband is a rewards member and had 2 rewards for sharables. We asked several times would we be able to use both free rewards in one visit. The waiter reassured us we could, he even went to check with management. He returned again reassured us we could. We ordered 2 free sharables with our lunch. Upon checking out we were charged for one sharable (the higher price one) and the other was free. We questioned this upon checkout and was told the cash register doesn't allow them to give 2 free ones. Please please have better communication and teaching resources for the staff. So everyone is aware of what customers must know. It does not say one per visit on the reward. While we were there we went online to try this and online it lets you order 2 sharables and there was no charge. This only added to the frustration. When we let the staff, including the manager, aware of this they told us online ordering was different than in store. Staff was not compassionate nor caring. We were told pretty much we would of been better off ordering the sharables online. I have been to crackle barrels in the past....after this experience needless to say you lost 2 customers. It's not about the money , it's more about the service we received from the checkout staff and manager. The waiter we were told was new and we were very patient with him. He had several tables to wait on at once. We had to ask for napkins as there was none on the table....one of my food items was missing,I mentioned it to him and he was very happy to meet my need. We were not offered any refills on drinks during our time there. We were ok since we could suspect he was new. ( The manager confirmed this when we talked to her about the sharable ) When we talked to the manager, she told us she denied telling him we could get both sharables free on one visit. Very frustrating. We have crossed crackle barrels off our list of restaurants. Good luck to all your customers as I can only hope they aren't...