Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Gainesville

My wife had memories of stopping in here when she was younger so she wanted to go again and unfortunately it resulted in an experience that left a lot to be desired. There wasn't a lot of people there so the wait time wasn't very long at all but once we were seated then time slowed down. Despite there only being a few other people in our section the waiter was very slow in taking our order and bringing the drinks. While we were waiting for our food, which took an incredible amount of time longer than we expected for the crowd size, we watched our waiter deal with an older couple across the aisle from us who had gotten their order messed up resulting in them getting food they didn't order try and explain they didn't have time to wait for the restaurant to correct their mistake because of the time spent waiting on food already and we were able to see the disgust on his face every time he walked back to the kitchen you could tell he despised having to deal with his customers. When our food finally arrived it was basically all a disappointment, my steak was way over cooked and tough, the fries tasted like they had absolutely no seasoning, my wife said her fish tasted bland also. The shrimp tasted like the kind you get at Wal-Mart in the frozen food section. Overall it was not the greatest experience we've ever had and we have no plans of ever returning being as there are plenty of other place...

My wife and I love CB. We dont eat out much anymore so it was a big treat to go on a Saturday night date after the movies. The entire experience was disappointing. Upon entry there was a smell in the front area like many people had not bathed. There weren't many customers so maybe the staff? We sat at the table with wonderful wait staff. The next disappointment was the dinner I had been waiting for almost 3 days - they were out of! How can CB be out of chicken and dumplings at 6pm? My wife got catfish, okra and the nee onion fingers. I got the blueberry pancake special. The onion ring fingers were cooked from frozen, very unpleasant. The okra was cold and the fish was frozen/old? My wife couldn't eat it all. The pancakes were so tough I could barely cut with a knife and partly burnt. The bacon was crispy but so dried it tasted like they had used an air fryer to cook it. I couldnt eat all mine either.

We thought at least we will be saved by the cor bread and biscuits. Nope. Both seem to be a completely different recipe and the biscuits tasted like they hadn't been out of the can long enough to get baked through.

Long story short, maybe they changed all the recipes, cutting costs to make more profit, maybe the cook was having a bad night or maybe we are just the last ones to learn how bad CB has become. Yet another good idea ruined in the search for something other than good food. We will not...

Here we go again...I hate doing this...BUT...this place had gone down for a while to begin with. Like 4 years ago, you could tell by the service. Anyhow, this time it was worse. The wait was long, the tables were filthy, the hostess was not friendly, I was seated at a dirty table with dirty silverware (I'll come back to this). The menus were disgusting. Dirty. My food and drink order were taken. The server repeated my order back to me AND wrote it down. It was still wrong. Maybe she was tired and overwhelmed.... maybe she was still excited from Christmas...I don't know....but my order was wrong and the quality of food was not good. Maybe if the food was tasty I wouldn't have minded so much my order was wrong. Anyway, when I went to open my silverware, there was food stuck on my fork. Dried up crusty food. I had to use the spoon to eat my steak. I was about to leave but even the check out register was soooo slow. The server took long periods of time checking online my table. I finally called over the house manager...she was bothered with my request for steak sauce and bread. Cracker Barrel is definitely not what...