Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Jacksonville

Visited this location on I95 & JTB in Jacksonville, FL. We've been customers of this chain for years. You can usually always get a hot plate of food with delightful and good service. This was a rare occurrence in that the service was abysmal, and the food was disgusting and terrible. Unfortunately, I'm not exaggerating. We were seated by a hostess who wasn't thrilled about being there. She tossed the menus and silver in one stack at one place setting and there far more empty tables than seated ones. The server seemed to be a cheerful light in a dark room initially. She was anxious to take our order and suggested some add-ons that we declined. We ordered breakfast, a meal Cracker Barrel is renowned for. The drinks were delivered in less than 2 minutes. When the food was delivered, I was rather shocked. My over easy eggs looked as they had been trimmed. There were chunks missing from the whites. The chicken fried steak had been slimed across the plate. Slimed because the bottom side was soaked in grease, and the breaded skin was hanging off of the meat. The classic cooked apples were dry? The biscuits were small, overcooked, and the gravy was old. The food was hot, but the gravy had a film over it. It obviously had been sitting for a while. Once I was able to get the attention of our server, I addressed the appearance of the food. It took a few minutes just to get her attention. It shouldn't have been a surprise to her, she delivered this hot mess. She removed the meat and eggs and left the rest of the food?? At first, I assumed she would return to gather the other food we advised her of. It took a few minutes to get her attention, the other servers were observed walking the dining area with their heads and eyes down so as to not make eye contact, even though I attempted to obtain their attention. There was obviously no teamwork at play here. No server should abstain from looking at the guests, nor should they walk through the dining area without working both ways in that if you have a coffee pot in hand, check the other tables you are passing, assist your fellow servers. Remove empty plates and inquire how the meal was. This is simple server etiquette. As a prior fine dining general manager, if a dinner was returned for any reason, 1st you made certain the new plate looked better than the previous, and I served it with my apologies. Not here. Not only was the 2nd plate worse than the 1st, the manager was nowhere in sight, and they were not busy. The 2nd chicken fried steak was overcooked to a hard brick. Additionally, a few tablespoons of pure grease were presented under the undercooked over easy eggs. The server quickly returned to our table and checked on the plate, and was shocked again. She was the one who served it. It shouldn't have been a surprise. My servers wouldn't serve a plate that didn't uphold the standards of the dish. If the 1st plate was poorly cooked, why would you serve a 2nd dish in worst condition?? Did they think I was going to settle with this presentation? Maybe the cook couldn't have done any better?? I find that hard to believe. If my tips were based upon the quality of the food I was serving, I ensured the food was what I would serve my family. The server apologized for the food, adjusted the receipt, and apologized for the manager not attending to this "hot mess."The manager was finally observed in the kitchen stretching as though he was bored with being there. Based upon the disposition of the manager's actions, it was no surprise that the staff was just present. Fortunately, this was a rare experience for this chain. I do hope the restaurant sees this review. I left my name and number with the cashier. Chaplain T...

I come to this cracker barrel every Saturday, and usually I have great service, particularly from Judith, we love her!! Today however, our breakfast was ruined by the most passive aggressive, rude server we've ever experienced, Heather. It all started when my husband and I decided to split an entree. Her attitude and tone changed immediately, presumably because she assumed we were cheap, and her tip would be lower based on the bill. Now I am a former server, now FOH restaurant manager myself, and we always tip ten dollars or more, no matter how low our bill is. We just weren't that hungry today. So we ordered a grandmas sampler with French toast and a couple extra sides. The breakfast comes out with pancakes. No problem, it happens. We politely informed Heather that we had ordered French toast, to which she replies, again, passive aggressively, "oh... I heard you say pancakes." I order this every Saturday, and I knew for a fact that I said French toast. But whatever, willing to let that go. She took away the pancakes and came back 5 or so minutes later with the French toast. Cool. Everything is good, except Heather felt the need to push the issue with us again, repeating herself, saying she heard me say pancakes, and "I even repeated it to you, so I don't know what happened" she did not, in fact, repeat anything. She just wanted to keep pushing that she was right and we ordered our food wrong. Why act like this?? Mistakes happen and it's not a big deal, but why act rude and push the issue to your guests? It accomplishes nothing but making people upset. We later got the bill to find that we were, infact rung in for French toast, which means we ordered correctly AND Heather entered it correctly. So what was the point of all the hostility over some pancakes?? Ridiculous and unprofessional. We finished our meal and we6re drinking what was left of our coffee when Heather came over, asked if there was anything else she could get us (for the second time.) we said no. She came back not even 5 minutes later, asked us again, and took our coffee cups, that we were still drinking. We're not campers, we were there for less than 10 minutes after we finished our meal, and just wanted to finish our coffee and enjoy our morning. Instead we were forced out by a rude server who wanted nothing but to flip her table. It was early in the morning and the restaurant was quite empty. Overall we are shocked by the level of rudeness we experienced in Heather. We felt judged, rushed, and loathed the entire time we were there. I do understand needing to make money, but to treat people like this is unacceptable, and people do pick up on the nastiness, wether it is blatant or passive. In the end, she only hurt herself, because her tip would have been much larger if she had just been even a LITTLE bit nice or accommodating. I hope this review gives management a little insight on what is actually happening on their floor with this server. If this were my employee, I...

I would give a zero if it were an option.

This store has absolutely no accountability.

I ordered a Thanksgiving feast to be delivered.

It started when I viewed order options for large gathering online. I called this location to place an order after confirming they did deliver and could deliver Thanksgiving eve.

So after waiting 17 min to speak to a manager (I was told only they could place the order) a manager gets on and tells me I should order online. I explained I knew what I wanted and would like to just place the order. I was told that I should go online as otherwise she would have to enter in all my payment and delivery information, that it was easier if I did it.

I placed order online. I leave delivery instructions and time I'd like the meal delivered. Tip was mandatory.

I received call the day prior to delivery to make a changed as an item I ordered was not available.

When an hour past the delivery time 5-7 PM, arrived and no order was delivered I called the restaurant. I was placed on hold for 40 minutes. A friend went outside and food was left on porch. No one knocked on door, rang the doorbell (as instructed when order was placed), just food left for who knows how long.

So food found, manager finally answers does not apologize, instead tells me to take it up with doordash. I explained I did not order with doordash, that order was placed on their website. She stated they had nothing to do with it. I asked to speak with General Manager and was told he would call me back.

No call, called early Thursday, as I needed to know the time food was delivered to know how long it sat outside if it was safe to serve that day. Waited again on hold to be told I don't know, all the managers are cooking and too busy to talk. I was assured I would receive a call back that night. No call came that night or any other.

I call Saturday, again, sit on hold and am told again the GM will call. Nope.

I call Monday and ask for the general manager he's on vacation until the December 7th. No longer willing to wait for answers and accountability I call corporate during their listed hours (You will absolutely love this), you are prompted toward selections when you get to complaints and you finally feel you will speak to someone, a recording tells you to go online to submit a complaint.

This company is so poorly run from top to bottom. Absolutely NO ACCOUNTABILITY. Yet.........they have mastered the art of being completely...