Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Jackson

Been here 1,000 times and will probably come back. Cracker Barrel is a classic and jackson doesn’t have many food options. The staffing issue in Jackson, TN is so sad right now. That is very obvious with this restaurant. We came for dinner on a Sunday evening around 4 pm. There was a 25 min wait. We ended up waiting closer to 40 min. They only had one section open splitting it between 4 servers. This gave servers approximately 4 or 5 tables each. I am a server, and I don’t think this is an overload for a fast casual dining restaurant. We told our server when she came to get our drink order that we had been outside the whole day and were going to drink a lot of water. This was to prepare her to bring something to the table for us to fill our own waters if she would be busy and unable to..we ordered dinner my parents requested biscuits with their meals and I requested cornbread. We sat for a while with empty water before we asked the manager who was helping the servers for more water. The sever brought out our food and said she had bad news that it would be 10 minutes on the biscuits. My parents said that was fine and I said can I go ahead and get my cornbread. The server returns with 3 pieces of cornbread on a plate. I only eat one because that’s all I wanted. We finish our food and still no biscuits. My dad loves the biscuits it’s what he comes for so again manager was passing by and I ask him if could check on the “biscuits and gravy”..my dad then says no it’s just biscuits. The manager comes back with a plate of biscuits and gravy anyway. We’ve sat again for several minutes without water and our server comes over to deliver our check and says “since you asked my manager for the biscuits I had to charge you for them” when we responded they ordered biscuits in the beginning and we are confused. She said “yeah but I brought you cornbread and I was just gonna sneak and give you the biscuits but we’ve been told we have to charge for everything so now I have to charge you because the manager knows”…I told her “I ordered cornbread not them”and I am confused as to why she is charging us extra for something that came with their meal. She said “it’s just difficult to explain”. Ultimately it seemed she was upset possibly we asked the manager and wanted to make sure we knew she was charging us since she gave them cornbread even though they didn’t order it and not to mention no one ate the other two pieces…she never said the biscuits aren’t ready so I have to substitute cornbread..just dropped the cornbread off I thought it was all mine to be honest. Overall we could have dealt with this whole experience except the servers attitude. It is never acceptable to speak to guest like that if anything the cornbread should have been given to them for having to wait their entire meal for the biscuits and still ask for them. It was literally bread and she wanted to charge us $5 extra dollars instead of being apologetic for us having to...

For some odd reason as a child bdays at Cracker Barrel has always been my Brother’s choice. It’s his favorite restaurant and he still frequently visit throughout the year to include on his bday decades later as an adult. He’s a truck driver 25+ years now and Cracker Barrel had become the place where family can meet and greet him as he passed through. Cracker Barrel has always been an establishment we depended on for decent meals within a wholesome environment to see him. He’d visited Cracker Barrel’s all over the United States for many years and I had to sadly witness his disappointment from the awful service and food preparation timing of Cracker Barrel CBO284 in Jackson, Tennessee. We attempted to meet up and dine here with him on his lunch break on September 20, 2024 However, he had to revert to having his order to go after receiving his order a whole hour and fifteen mins after he’d initially ordered. Not to mention the poor senior citizens seated in the dinning area well before us and hadn’t received any of their orders as yet. It was a very sad and unfortunate site to see. My Brother was embarrassed, for Cracker Barrel as he’d never witnessed such rude, poor customer service and bad management at Cracker Barrel. It seemed as though the location certainly had the manpower to operate sufficiently. But….unfortunately, the employees initiative was lacking significantly and management communication to both customer and employees was obsolete. Furthermore, he spent a little over $61 for his meal alone that he had to eat cold because his lunch break was only for an hour and being already an hour and fifteen mins past his allotted lunch break spent awaiting food he was late and had no time to eat his “freshly” made order. There was, no time to enjoy the meal. He had to pack it up and rush off only to later on eat it cold. Although, this was something he had never experienced of all the Cracker Barrel establishments that he’d enjoyed for so many years all over the United States and every year for his birthday he was so upset that he swore off Cracker Barrel.😱 It’s so unfortunate to witness this location be a deterrence to his decision to ever visit a Cracker Barrel again after knowing how much he had loved this place all his life. I highly suggest Cracker Barrel CBO285 in Jackson, TN contact HR/corporate and request some much needed training and guidance on operations at this location. Management definitely needs adjusting if a loyal customer repels after already knowing of what the franchise to be for many...

Revised after the below reply. While filling out the requested more detailed review, I've realized that I was far too generous with my initial one, so here's the more detailed one:

This was on 04/01/25 at ~6pm

We were seated immediately, so that was good, but were then ignored by the wait staff.

The restaurant did not seem crowded, there were only two other tables occupied in the section. One was a large party (eight or more) the other (a party of two) was literally right next to ours, and seemed to have been seated shortly before us. There were two servers working the section, they were cooperating on the large party. One of them came to the table next to ours three or four times, took drink orders, brought drink, utensils, bread basket, and such, but never spoke to us at all. She did make eye contact with me a couple of times, but looked away quickly, and EVERY time she left the other table she turned to her left (we were on her right).

I don't know if that table wasn't supposed to be seated, or what, but the more I think about it, the more intentional that disregard seems, and I can't figure out anything we might have done to inspire it.

We declined to actively pursue the servers' obviously grudging attention, and left after twenty minutes with no other interaction with the wait staff beyond what's described above. Since they'd never even spoken to us, there was nothing to pay for, so that was simple, at least.

This is not how a restaurant that wants to stay open treats customers.

I remember going to Cracker Barrel as a child in the '70s, before it had expanded beyond the Eastern half of Tennessee. It was a 14 hour drive from where we lived to the nearest one, and I looked forward to Cracker Barrel the whole way. I've been an enthusiastic customer for most of five decades.

I understand the rising prices -- everything is going up way too much -- and I understand, some, the drop off in food quality, that and the prices are connected, of course. I do not understand, and am not at all sympathetic with the underwhelming service that has become the norm at this location, and which seems to be the norm for all the locations I looked at reviews of.

Last night was a new low, however, and we will not risk a repetition of it again any time...