Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Gulfport

My first experience at Cracker Barrel!Food was good service was like a countdown to a meteor impact. I'll tell the whole story as it happens.

So we walked in, my girlfriend and I, was greeted right away and seated in the corner pretty secluded. I enjoy the distance and privacy so it was nice. Turns out we were so secluded, we waited atleast 15 minutes before anyone came to asked if we were helped.

Order: -chicken fried steak (4.8/10 exist) 'turnip greens (6.6/10 good but for my girlfriend) -hash casserole (8.8/10 Best thing there).

Girlfriend ordered from the "breakfast all day" menu which consisted of: -3xEggs "over medium" (2.7/10 overcooked) -Steak tips (7.3/10 Great, well seasoned) -Cinnamon apples (6/10 good if you like apple pie filling and also decent if you're forced to pick something different)

So she tried to order the hash casserole with turnip greens but she was denied the turnips. "Why?" you may ask, well due to ordering a breakfast entree you MUST order sides from their breakfast menu so she ordered cinnamon apples. I noticed she didn't want to, so I ordered the turnip greens and swapped with her.

I don't get why she was limited to a breakfast only side when everything was available. The place wasn't busy whatsoever, it's dinner time so all sides were available, was not even offered an uncharge to make it happen. Whatever, we got our drinks and order in.

We see a couple more tables get filled, we got out drinks and then my girlfriend (chef) whispered to me, "they got their food already, and they just got here. Normally you cook food as the orders come in." I thought nothing of it, then another group comes in and they get greeted seated and served. We ended up passing the time playing peg solitaire and sipping on the ice as it melts because I'm a thirsty boy and the refill didn't happen until the food came out 20 minutes later.

We ate, the bill came out and server disappeared so we ended up just using the "scan to pay" QR code. I just ate our leftovers because the girlfriend did not want to wait another 15 minutes for a box. Girlfriend smiled and joked, "I'm not leaving a tip." She ALWAYS leaves atleast a 25% tip. She works in the industry and she left a 20% cash tip, she understands that tipping can be people's livelihood even if the service sucked.

Now let's talk about their gift store. This is my first time ever going to Cracker Barrel. I felt like a kid again, good and bad. You know the feeling when you're a kid and you go on a field trip to a place and there's a gift shops with random little toys. It was just like that but in this case the field trip chaperone is obviously stalking you, making sure you're not stealing or breaking anything. I noticed the older lady working there would not break a clear line of sight with me. If I walked somewhere she would shift around to where she can see my whole body and I made a game out of it to myself. I purposely kept walking behind places and watch her quickly pace around with her work tablet and everytime we made eye contact I would converse with her. I didn't take any offense because she did this to the next couple as we slowly made our way out. She is probably just taking her job too seriously.

Overall experience: 3.7/10 I will not be returning to this location again Food is good but it's not good enough to put me...

We just finished dinner on Veterans Day as my spouse is a Veteran and thought it was a good idea to go out to honor him. This was a terrible experience! I ordered a loaded sweet potato and a cup of creamy chicken veggie soup. First my sweet potato was hard. I’ve been cooking for years, and know a sweet potato cooked in the microwave is not good. This was the third time I’ve ordered a sweet potato at this location, and each time I say, “I’m never ordering again because they’re always hard.” I sent it back. Here’s a tip: Bake sweet potatoes in the oven. It makes their natural sugars come out and that’s what makes them delicious. If cooked properly, in the oven, you barely need butter much less all that other goo. Microwave cooked sweet potatoes don’t bring out the natural flavors. So, when I finally got it, obviously it had not been washed before cooking as there was grit on my plate and where it had been cut open the grit from the skin was inside the potato. If you have leftover potatoes, make sweet potato casserole the next day or day after. Just like you do with the chicken and rice on Mondays is turned into broccoli chicken cheese rice casserole on Wednesday. My husband had already finished eating, drank all of his tea, and we had to remind our server that I was waiting on the potato. And we finally got cornbread when she brought the potato back. I must say the cornbread was really good and hot. Unlike most times when it’s hard, cold and dry. That soup was awful! I’m not sure who came up with that recipe, but it’s terrible. Thyme definitely does not go with that concoction. Yuck! We eat at this particular Cracker Barrel all the time. Normally during the day, and always in Jenn’s section, and we never have a problem. However, we’ve gone there at night about four-five times over the past two months and all but one was good. We ordered breakfast one night and literally the eggs, sausage and pancakes tasted like they had been cooked or reheated in the microwave. Was awful! Oh and one of those nights we got up and left after sitting there 15 minutes without anyone acknowledging us because the server for our section was engrossed in a conversation at the table next to us. When we stood up she just glared at us. Didn’t offer to be right with us or nothing. Just let us leave. Which we wouldn’t have sat back down after that. I think the night shift may have a management issue because day shift isn’t like this. Also one night we were told we couldn’t have coffee because the coffee pot had already been dumped and washed. I’m sorry but if you have “open until hours” posted then the menu should be available. I mean have a residential style Mr. Coffee or Bunn for such situations. I get it, you want to go home as soon as possible, but restaurants are in the service industry and if you work in the food industry you’re there to provide a service especially being located right off the interstate of traveling people. Not to mention us local folks. You can repaint, remodel, but it appears staff needs an overhaul, motivation incentives or similar. We won’t stop coming, but hope you’ll check these concerns out. And we tip very well. Even in times that are not so up to snuff because we realize the server can only do so...

First, the young lady that took of our table (mine and my son's) was excellent. She was very personable and ensured that we were enjoying our eating experience. She visited the table several times and was quick to bring us the sundry items we requested. She, like almost all the servers we have had at Cracker Barrel, have been very good at their service techniques and are, I believe, a meaningful access to the Cracker Barrel operation. Second, the food was good. My son enjoyed his meal very much. Most of my meal was good but the meat seemed a little over cooked (I had the catfish). As a catfish meal cannot be realistically cooked to everyone's singular desires, I am not disappointed in the meal but had expected the fish to be a little more juicy and less hard on the exterior. Third, the atmosphere is always pleasant in appearance but a trifle chilly for some of the older customers. Regretfully, I have found that as I have aged my tolerance for a chilly (undoubtedly comfortable for most of the customers) environ has reduced considerably. I understand the need to make the atmosphere comfortable for the bulk of the customers and, respectively I will try to remember to bring a light weight jacket to my future visits. Lastly, my wait time for a table was very good but my check out time was slower than should be. Had I been behind a number of customers and there had only been one cashier, I could have understood the wait. However, I was behind only one person, a Cracker Barrel employee, and the time to check out the employee was much too long. The employee seemed to question the validity of the check out process for their meal and, as such, the conflict between the employee and the cashier added significantly to the check out time. As a service-oriented manager for a number of years, I felt an employee-to-employee check out conflict should have been handled outside of the customer environment. Would I recommend the Gulfport Cracker Barrel to others, absolutely; will I return to visit the Gulfport Cracker Barrel, without question, yes. Would I have wanted a better experience, yes. Overall this review should be determined positive but small improvements could be made and are noted in...