Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Fenton

We have lived in the area since 2007 and have always had great experiences. The last few times we came have not been great. Tonight was the final straw hence this review. I had possibly the worst restaurant experience of my life tonight.

We did the online check-in with an estimated wait of 15-20 minutes for a party of 6. We ended up waiting 40. They had no menus as they were all in use by what we were told. The hostess was less than social. We definitely felt like an inconvenience to her.

We were ready to order almost immediately after being seated. The waitress took our order and about 10 minutes later she came back with drinks. She said the kitchen was backed up and it would be a while. My mother asked if she could bring out our biscuits while we waited. She said yes.

About 30 minutes later she came back. All of our drinks were empty and asked if we wanted a refill. We hadn't even received our food yet. That shouldn't have even been a question. Still no biscuits. She said she was checking on our food and it would be fresh when it came out.

After an hour and ten minutes after we ordered, our food arrived. We had 3 adult and 3 kids meals - 1 of which included a biscuit. She brought out 3 biscuits and 1 corn bread. I've never received less than 2 per adult meal.

My mother was missing her coleslaw and tarter sauce, my husband was missing his BBQ sauce and fried apples, my daughter was missing her biscuit.

Then the real problem came. My daughter's French fries were not cooked through. Our food was either overcooked or cold. My chicken though...🤢🤢🤢 I took one bite into it and immediately spit it out. It was cold. I look and it is COMPLETELY raw inside. An hour and 10 minutes and the chicken comes out raw. So I sent it back and told her to just take it off our bill. She never sent a manager over. Never acted like anything was wrong with what just happened. Then she bounces out of the kitchen with the bill and said she took it off.

I go up to to pay and the manager rings me out. He says "next". I hand him the bill. Never asks how my meal was, how the service was, or anything. Just simply going through the prompts. Not even a have a good evening at the end.

I went back to the table while everyone finished up. No one finished their meal and my mom was waiting for a to-go box. It took her another 10 minutes to bring it out.

On the way out, the manager was standing at the register with no customers so I went up to inform him of what had happened. Nothing! No response. No apology. Nothing!

I have been a customer at this location for almost 15 years. I won't be back unless I have someone tell me things have changed.

I'm that customer who is very easy going. I try to have my order ready when the waitress comes. We know everything we need when we order - sauces, etc. I tip a minimum of 20% for meh service but I've tipped up to 200%. I understand that everyone is short staffed but this entire experience was just...

There were 2 of us. It was a Saturday night so I expected to wait a while to be seated. However, seating happened rather quickly - within about 5 minutes after I gave the name. That was the end of expedient service. Sat at the table for at least 15 minutes, if not more, before server ever came to offer drinks. Had she not come when she did, we were going to leave. When drinks finally arrived - again, at least 10 minutes later - was told there was no more lemonade for the evening. Huh? It was just after 6. No more lemonade? How difficult can it be to make it! Oh well, took iced tea instead. Asked what the night's soup was. Server had no idea. Had to go check. Came back about 10 minutes later and told us it was Chicken Noodle. Great! That would be fine. Each order a cup. Came about 15 minutes later. No napkins or spoons. Tried the soup's noodles with a fork. Soup was far less than hot - barely lukewarm. Called server over after a while and asked that the soup be heated and to bring napkins and spoons. Told her we probably ought to order so we could get a meal sometime before next week. She took the order and came back with napkins and spoons warm soup. Part of the meal order arrived about another 15 minutes later along with an apology. The loaded sweet potatoes were not ready. Waited again for another 10-15 minutes before they came. Was never asked for a refill on drinks. Probably would not have happened had one of us got up and went to the server asking for more to drink. Brought more iced tea -- SWEETENED - even though we were both drink un-sweetened. Decided it was not worth the effort to ask for it to be changed. Ironically, the family sitting next to us reached over at some point and said how bad their service was. They probably would not be back. This is not the first time this has happened. This is the 3rd! Once, after waiting for at least 30 minutes and seeing others,who came it well after us, getting their orders we left. The only positive thing about this evening was the Chicken Noodle soup. It was and is always good. The rest of the meal left much to be desired.

Will I be back? From now on I will call ahead and see if one of my favorite servers is working. If he is, I will be back. If not, I will look for alternatives. The young lady who was assigned to serve us was even a 3-star employee. I suppose she could have been a 4-star except the must have flunked the part on service - both food...

We came here as a family one night after most all places are widely open and most restrictions have been lifted. We didn't have long to wait before we were we're set at a table, and our order was taken fairly promptly as well. We were hoping to get roughly the same experience we've always gotten when coming here before which has always been fantastic. However things not really started off that well. First after our order was taken and the first parts were delivered we didn't get any of the typical customary biscuits or cornbread. I can understand if this was due to pandemic shortages however our waitress did not inform us of any such thing, it just wasn't given to us and when we asked she walked off and never came back until our food was done. When the waitress delivered our food the order was correct, and she asked if there was anything else she could get us. In response to this I asked for another bottle of syrup as I had ordered a dish with three pancakes and the single bottle of syrup was typically just shy of enough for my liking and left things a little too dry and sticky. The waitress shook her head in a positive manner and said "sure of course I will get that right away", and walked off never to be seen again until she brought the bill. So the food quality was vastly worse than it ever was before. The eggs were very dry, the pancakes were extremely flat and overcooked, and the bacon was both overcooked and undercooked with one piece that was cooked to the point where it looked charred and another piece that part of it looked raw. The plate of chicken and dumplings that was ordered was mostly just dumplings and not very much chicken at all. The flavor was there but the chicken was not. I had loved going here with my wife in the past. Unfortunately the time with my wife is very limited now, as she is suffering from bad health and has been under long-term care for quite some time. I wished that our experience here would have been better so that it would have been another memory with my wife when she's healthy enough...