Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Janesville

We like Cracker Barrel for its consistency in food as we travel. The food is usually good. We were seated right away and after 10 minutes the waitress came by and asked if we were ready. We said in a few minutes. It was her first day and I thought she was very bubbly and happy. She will make a fine waitress. Her name is Ciera. It took another twenty minutes for someone to actually take our order and it ended up being the manager. We were there around 6:00 pm on 10/13. So now it is 6:30. It seemed a lot of people were waiting a long time to order and get their food. The manager asked what we wanted. I ordered the Grandma’s breakfast which comes with a side. My husband ordered the Mama’s breakfast which does not come with a side. She insisted for him to ick hash browns or fried apples. He really didn’t want any, but 3 times she kept asking him and pushing it being pretty rude. She seemed distracted. I even tried showing her the menu that it wasn’t included and she just said “hash browns or fried apples”. So he gave in and ordered hash browns. When she left he said “Did you see her ignore what I was saying? I better not get charged for that.” After another half hour we finally got the food and it was good except for the pancakes. We normally like their pancakes but they were full of black charred pieces and tasted like burnt. The good side of mine was on top of mine but my husband’s was very dark brown on both sides. We didn’t want to complain because we didn’t want to wait another length of time. The waitress came back with the check and before she handed it to us, she said “I’ll be right back”. Turns out she caught the added charge for the hash browns and brought a new check. I commend her for her observation and service, and was on top of getting coffee and water. We left her a good tip. By the way, my husband went through 3 or 4 glasses of water within that hour. When you’re on a trip, you want to be on your way after a meal, so it’s not good to make people wait so long. Enough said. Wish I had taken pictures of...

I recently took my kids for breakfast, and once again, left impressed by the service. The quality and consistency of service at a restaurant is, in my observations, the sole determining factor of restaurant's survival/success. This Cracker Barrel's owner(s) & management team are keenly aware of this and are arguably masters of this concept! I can give two great examples from my recent visit. First, and most impressive to me on a personal level, was captured in this picture I covertly took over my shoulder. The Hostess, Heather, picked up where my son left off (he "ran to the bathroom" aka excuse to look at the toys) in teaching my four-year-old daughter how to play checkers in front of the big fireplace. She made my daughter's morning and put a big smile on my face, too!

I haven't even mentioned the atmosphere, quality or taste of the food, or price and as a customer I am already happy. This is what I'm talking about as far as service making or breaking a restaurant! I could end it here, but you read this far so let's keep going.

My second example is that most everyone commenting here says Cracker Barrel has good customer service. I have noticed over the years that they have not rested on their laurels, but have doubled down on making people feel welcomed; connecting with people; and offering a level of service rarely found at other establishments. This is becoming a hallmark of this Cracker Barrel. I have to say this 'hallmark' is nicely complemented by tasty food, good prices, and a great gift shop.

What allowed CB to weather the closing of GM, the Great Recession, 2yrs of major road reconstruction right outside their front door, and rash of restaurant closings in the last 10 years are the little things --like service. Little things, like the genuinely cheerful lady welcoming us when we arrived. Little things, like the hostess that juggles a four-year-old checkers lesson with prompt seating of people when they come in. Now that I think of it, I guess they're not so little when they...

Use to come here a lot, decided now that I moved back in the area I'd start going back again with my new and growing family... but I thought wrong apparently. I heard wait times were bad recently but we watched 2 tables next to us come in 15 min and almost half hour after us got their food (1 wrong from what I overheard and another upset they had to wait so long) before us and left, I know this especially because I checked their check in reciept time before we left. After ordering 2 rounds of appetizers and finishing our drinks (1 hour and 26 min later) I told what appeared to be a lead (she had a headset in and was helping out multiple areas) we wanted our check to leave as we were assured our food would be out before the third appetizer we ordered (which was obviously wrong) which we then got and finished and continued waiting. She said she'd get our waiter and then as our waiter came back she had the receipt with apologies and excuses of she didn't know what was going on, but assured us the food we never recieved after 1.5 hours was taken off at least and to not worry about paying for that part and only what we did recieve would be on the check. I didn't even care about asking for a manager or a discount/credit like most people I assume would want as we were now so behind for our day while having to go get food still for our family of 5 that I was very upset and just wanted to leave. While waiting to pay what upset me even more was I heard a waitress tell a elderly couple that the wait time was 15 min or more as they probly already know people like to sit around here for like an hour or 2 eating and chatting, which is so very contradicting to what service we recieved and seen. To have them tell customers it's other customers fault there's a wait time is so very disrespectful and rude after being treated the way we were. I'd say the appetizers were good but honestly we were hungry and got so frustrated waiting that we were just happy to have food and it'd be a lie to say they were either...