Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Franklin

10/16/2024 ☆☆

After driving for 9 hours, I'm looking at Cracker Barrell's $30 million a year billboard advertising. The "Winner Winner" brought the "chicken dinner" to mind. I stopped at the Cracker Barrell in Franklin Tennessee. This was the first time since 2020.

The waiter was promt and immediately advised "no bone in chicken." So "No Winner Winner Chicken Dinner".

After reviewing the menu, I saw the buttermilk, battered chicken breast, and two sides under the "early bird special" (order placed at 5:24 PM).

Requested the buttermilk, battered chicken breast, and two sides for $9.99 between 4PM to 6PM. I'm pointing to it on the menu.  But they also have a two buttermilk, battered chicken breast meal with two sides for $13.69.

I request and pointed to the single buttermilk, battered chicken breast around 5:15 PM (previously mentioned). My requested sides are fried okra and pinto beans, with dice onions for the beans. I then requested the loaded hashbrown casserole at $2.09 under the Vegetable N' Sides section, pointing it out. I felt I was clear since the waiter failed to question me! SO, I'm around $12.00 for the meal. Wow, to my surprise, they have another on the menu for $3.49.

The pinto beans and chicken were hot. The corn bread muffins were slighty warm (butter would not spread), fried okra cold and the loaded hashbrown casserole appeared cold, the slices of process cheese (really process cheese) showed it had minimal melt with bacon pieces. And I got a bowl of sliced onions with chow chow (whatever that is). Trying the loaded hashbrown casserole verified it was slightly closer to cold than warm. The majority of the fried bacon pieces were bacon rind (gristle & extremely disappointing).

The fried chicken must have taken a very short dip in the buttermilk (maybe just walked by it), and the flour provided a poor excuse for a batter crust. Many convenience store fried chicken have a better taste & batter crust than Cracker Barrell served today. The cornbread muffins, the fried okra, and the loaded hashbrown casserole were shameful. Whoever reviews the meal quality leaving the kitchen really dropped the ball.

Then the waiter dropped off a ticket for a party of two for $40.00. When I saw it, i knew my ticket would be incorrect, I questioned him about it, and he replied, "Sorry wrong #." He presented the inflated price ticket. My $12.00 plus tip meal was $19.00 plus a tip meal.

I guess I should have read my 2020 review. No improvement, no comments from Cracker Barrell!!

08/05/2020 Covid-19 Ongoing. ☆☆☆

They allowed dining room service with plenty of spacing. But signage state mask required.

I had the fried chicken dinner, with two (2) sides. I ordered the Hash brown casserole, which was bland and slightly warm, fried okra very good, but it was warm. The two (2) buttermilk biscuits were also slightly warm but couldn't even melt butter. I didn't know Cracker Barrel...

I would give this place a zero stars if I could. The server I had was rude and snappy. She also never checked in on us. Not even once. She asked us immediately when she got our menus if we were ready to order and we said we needed a few minutes and she just walked away without saying anything, which is whatever. I figured she was busy. When we actually ordered it was loud in the restaurant so I didn’t fully hear what she said. She asked if I wanted biscuits or cornbread and I all I heard was cornbread so I said yes and she looked at me like I was stupid and very rudely said “which one?” I was taken aback and asked her to repeat the question. She huffed and restated it really sassy. After ordering she did not come back at all to check on us. Even dropping off our food she did not say a single word to us. Never asked us how our meal was or if we needed anything. She forgot our biscuits and corn bread but gave us no time to actually tell her. She came by and dropped our check off and ran away without saying a word. We had to hunt her down to ask her to bring the cornbread and biscuits. I was very upset. I told the cashier and they asked for a manager to come and no manager was available besides the retail manager. The retail manager didn’t even want to hear my side of the story. She looked at the ticket and saw who the server was and immediately started defending them. Telling me this was a seasoned server and one of the best they have and they’ve never had a complaint. Which is WILD. This is by FAR the worst service I have ever had. I tried to tell her what was going on and everything I said she just had an excuse for. I told her about the server forgetting the biscuits and cornbread and she cut me off and told me they’re not complimentary anymore. I told her she asked us which one we wanted and then she said well there was a shortage on biscuits so they took a while to cook… ma’am she literally forgot them. She told me she forgot them. She brought us our check without giving us the biscuits and she never said anything about it???? The retail manager took one of our meals off as “compensation.” This experience makes me never want to go to a Cracker Barrel ever again. I will never forget how bad the service was here and I will surely never be...

Visited CB on our way to an event in Nashville on Sunday. We were seated rather quickly for a large party, however things took a turn after we ordered. While waiting I had 3 young girls that needed to use the restroom as it was a long ride. Upon entering the restroom there was no toilet paper in any of the stalls and a lack of tidiness. We walked out quickly and told the hostess who stated that she would have to find someone as she does not deal with those things. She walked over to the register where 3 CB female employees were and informed them of the issue. After standing and waiting for a few minutes and watching 2 of the ladies sharing personal pictures on a cellphone and watching my toddler doing her potty dance I approached tn he ladies and said that we needed toilet paper now. The one female followed us and gave us toilet paper and I had to put it on the roller in the bathroom just before the toddler almost wet herself. Then the female lied stating she had just arrived and had not had time to check the restroom. Yet she had just told another employee she arrived at 130pm which was 2 hours earlier than our arrival. Our waiter Connor seemed new but was friendly and doing a decent job of taking care of such a large crowd on his own. However, when our food came out (salads and entrees) all at once the female servers that came out to help starting taking over and getting everyone confused as to whose meals were whose. Then they started speaking to him as if he were inferior to them. We also heard one of the female servers criticizing him to the manager. He was doing fine until they came out. The food was decent although the gravy was barely lukewarm and the toast was not satisfactory. Coffee was bitter and 2 of our party said it was the worst coffee they have ever had at CB (and we've been to many). Our bill was over $200 so I don't take this experience lightly. We have been to this location before and had much better experiences. (Isaac is a great waiter we have had in the past.) Not what I would expect from a Franklin, TN...