Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Hillview

Saturday night (7-10-21) me and my ex stopped into Cracker Barrel for dinner. I had gotten online to check the wait time and even placed us on the list; this didn’t matter considering we still had to stand in the long line because the way the hostess center is set up is NOT COHESIVE with the traffic going and coming.

The first issue we encountered was we were not given any menus, because they didn’t have any menus— according to our waitress they gave them to the bigger parties 🙄😶😳

So I ask her why there wasn’t a menu for every chair they have for customers which made sense, so I instructed her to walk over to the manager that I did note was helping out in anyway he could (bussing tables get menus etc etc) and ask him how I’m supposed to figure out what I want for dinner if I don’t get a menu

She did exactly what I ask because this was a little ridiculous but I also understand because we are opening after a plandemic

We ordered our food which was delicious… we gad the fried pork chops with 2sides

The problem I have besides the menu issue is the portion issue— now we got there around 1900 with a few hours until they closed but this was uncharacteristic of Cracker Barrel

I ordered 2 additional sides at a cost of 2.99 each. I ordered dumplings pintos corn and Mac and cheese. I had 2.5 dumplings 🥟 at a cost of over a dollar per dumpling… I literally got a smidgen of Mac and cheese and a half of a little bowl of pintos

Now I do understand restaurants are trying to come back but this is not how you come back with customers that frequent your restaurant (even during the plandemic)

Oh yea I about the salad (they were out of lettuce 🥬 so I switched to pintos) I ask for an order of sliced onions and you see what I got— I don’t mind paying for the sliced onions 🧅 and I guess she just grabbed what would go on a salad 🥗 ??

Plus the were also out of Apple butter something Cracker Barrel is known for

Technically I gave y’all a 2.5 but that’s not possible… I do understand about some things but not the portion sizes give me more than a spoonful if you’re going charge me sooo much...

Honest review here, was a server in a past life and can empathize with the industry and the current struggles.

However, as we waited for dinner (took 40 minutes) I noticed the manager just standing around with his hands on his hips constantly. Plates of food were piled in the window, no less than 30 and he was just standing in the doorway. One gal was helping and doing an amazing job expoing.. our server went on break, which means her boss ( standing with his hands on his hips) should have run her food. He didn't. So, when she came back she was frustrated and from my view into the kitchen I noticed the plate with the broccoli had been sitting there for 20+minutes😮😳 Food was warm because of the heat lamp, but that manager should have been helping.

Fast forward to check out; the gal taking payment was having a mental breakdown screaming that she wanted to go home and no one cared that her power was shut off due to the storms and the femal manager next to her was just nodding.

Why are all the managers not helping? Did the industry change that they are above helping?! This is not a fine dining establishment (still my favorite chain restaurant though) and this is not hard work. Yes, people are rude in customer service but that's always been the case. Usually managers have supported and helped employees. This is very sad and unfortunate. Second time we tried to eat here in the last 6 months and almost identical experiences.

Won't be returning to this location. However, HIGHLY recommend the waffle house down the road for superb service and...

I wish I could give a negative rating. We ordered online and the website said it would be ready in 30 minutes. We got there on time, told the lady behind the counter we were there and waited... and waited... Finally after about 15 minutes, the girl came back and asked us again what the name of our order was so she could go back and check on it. We told her. She came back and said that although she had our ticket up front, the kitchen claimed not to have it, so she was going to take our order and have us wait while they made our food. By this time, it had been more than an hour since we made our order, so we asked for a refund. She went to go ask about getting us a refund. Some guy (I'm assuming the manager) came out and checked an order that had been sitting and waiting, unclaimed, for about 15 minutes. It was most of our order. It didn't have our drinks and for some reason, my biscuits and gravy were missing the biscuits. The guy went to go get everything that was missing and came back with biscuits (in a bag, without a plate) and then had to go back for more silverware because they'd only given us one set of silverware. (I later discovered that the one they DID give us was open.)

Long story short, when we got back to our hotel, the food was cold, my son's hamburger was pink in the middle and his side of corn had been replaced with fries. Oh, and this is what congealed gravy looks like when you poor it on top of biscuits, in case you've ever wondered.

Worst Cracker Barrel...