Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Henderson

After a recent fiasco of a dining experience at a Cracker Barrel in southern VA (literally the worst service I have ever received), my wife and I felt we had recovered emotionally enough to warrant an attempt again at our local CB, where we've never received a bad meal or service. Sadly we were magnificently underwhelmed yet once again.

Dinner started auspiciously enough. We were quickly seated, greeted, and received our drinks along with a basket of biscuits. Our server, bless her heart, had to make three trips back with drink refills before we had decided on our entrees; blueberry pancakes, Oreo cheesecake pancakes, and shrimp n' grits.

We placed our order and the wait began... We waited. We waited some more. My wife began to check her watch, and then set a time limit before we would just pay for our drinks and leave.

Our server dropped off the bill, saying that we could pay this whenever we pleased. I mentioned to my wife that it was odd to receive the bill prior to receiving the food.

Three minutes before that cut-off moment, the breakfast foods arrived. The bacon, overcooked and brittle. Everyone's eggs were cold and congealing. My shrimp n' grits were MIA and the cheesecake pancakes were tepid. Our only entree that was acceptable were the missus' blueberry pancakes. Our server promised to check the kitchen and get back to us. She didn't. I think she was embarrassed. I would have been too.

Eventually I flagged down someone who appeared to be in charge. She wasn't, but promised to check with the manager. She returned to report that the shrimp were frozen, but that my meal would be out in 2-3 minutes.

Now I've cooked shrimp from frozen, which takes about 8 minutes. It doesn't take 40 minutes. Then the power went out. The oil lamps cast a romantic glow through the restaurant, but not at our table. Our oil lamp was as empty as my stomach. I'm sure the person loudly praying from the host station helped bring back the power back a minute later.

The manager came out to apologize that my meal was so tardy and offered to comp it for the inconvenience and lack of communication, also offering up free desserts for the table. I mentioned that I would like to have my tea refilled. Please. She didn't.

Now eventually, our server did bring out my shrimp n' grits. The shrimp were cooked perfectly. The grits OTOH were thin and watery, not rich and creamy as advertised. The "zesty creole sauce" was overly sweet like a jam, and not savory at all. It was not so much a skillet of shrimp n' grits as it was a sweet jambalaya soup. I ate the shrimp, and finally, thankfully, received a tea refill.

I guess the manager wanted us out of her dining room as fast possible, because no further mention was made of the desserts. Instead, the server apologetically brought out a check with my meal removed, and 25% discounted from my wife and son's dinners.

No one asked us if this was an acceptable alternative. Likely we would have agreed, but weren't given the option by the manager. We did see her on the way out and she asked if my shrimp n' grits were okay. I told her they were not, but the shrimp were good.

I gotta say Cracker Barrel, you broke our hearts a little (a lot) tonight. We were willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, and chalk our prior experience in VA up to random chance. Tonight however showed us that your quality and service issues have become endemic to your culture. Will we return? I'm not...

Monday 10/11/2021 I was on my way home to Va. after a long weekend at a church convention in Charlotte NC. This convention usually takes place around the same time every year and on our way home we usually stop at a Cracker Barrel restaurant where we’re most oftentimes pretty pleased with our meals, the cost of the food and the service we receive. Although I don’t believe we’d ever visited this particular one before. This story is pretty long but necessary to tell. We arrived there about 6:15 pm. and we were seated almost immediately, soon after a young lady came to the table and seemingly polite ask for our drink orders. After getting them to the table she started taking our food order she was asked by one of us If they had chicken pot pie, she replied yes. She took all the orders to the kitchen and 30 minutes later she came out to say it was taking so long because she was waiting on 2 sides. About 15 minutes later she came out and said they didn’t have chicken pot pie and ask what else would the person like to order, the person said that’s ok I don’t want to hold up your food so I’m ok. One of the people said get the chicken and dumplings that’s sort of the same thing so she agreed. Well about 10 minutes later two women came to our table and asked which one of us “cursed out” her waitress. We in turned looked at them simultaneously and said WHAT, and then one us said oh you must have the wrong table ma’am they left the table without saying another word. They then returned very shortly and said we are going to have to ask you to leave because we don’t tolerate these kind of behaviors. By this time I was terribly upset so I stood up and in a very calm voice I said to her, first of all we are on our way home from a church convention no one at this table cursed nor were we rude to anybody and further more we no longer care to eat at this restaurant. We then proceeded out of the restaurant. This was a predominantly WHITE staff and we were all BLACK one man and three women ranging in ages 51 to 72 years old I felt disrespected firstly and secondly I felt discriminated against. I am now in the process of contacting the corporate office to make them aware of this terrible ordeal. I have never in my 71 years of life felt so humiliated. Unless there are some changes made in this store soon I would not recommend it too anyone...

Typical Cracker Barrel. Our server was a bit absent. We asked for a mix of biscuits and corn bread with our meals but the bread never came out. When our food came, the person who brought it...who was not our server...asked if we needed anything else. We said "the breads". She said she would tell our server. About 5 minutes passed and the server finally came back. We asked about the bread again. He seemed confused that we did not already have it and said he would check. We never saw him again until we were waiting for our bill so we could leave. (That was a 5 minute wait) Meanwhile, plates full of biscuits and cornbread were coming out of the kitchen and being happily delivered to every table but ours. Our drinks were empty also, since he was disappeared for so long. When he finally returned we asked about the biscuits, and the look on his face was that he forgot. No apologies, though. Instead, he matter of factly asked if we wanted them to go. No, we just would like the bread deducted from the bill, since biscuits or corn bread were part of both our meals, not just add-ons for the table. He said the bread was free. We explained it's not, since the menu specifically said they were part of the meal. He said that he couldn't deduct it because it was free. We insisted. Eventually he comped our drinks...nice since he didn't refill them during our meal anyway. He was very flustered over it all. Again, never once apologized for ignoring us for our entire meal or for forgetting the breads. Worst service by a server at a Cracker Barrel I have experienced. I don't ever not tip, because I know they don't make a lot of money, but where u would usually tip 25%, I...