Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Kentucky

This particular Cracker Barrel was very short staffed when I visited. I don't know if this is an ongoing problem, or if they just had some people call off sick today, but you could tell they were short on people. With that in mind, the service I got and the condition of the restaurant was understandable. With that disclaimer out of the way, I had a mediocre experience overall. I went to use the bathroom as soon as I came in. The men's bathroom was very dirty. The whole room smelled badly of urine, there were obvious spots on the floor that needed to be mopped, there were paper towels on the floor, and the sink and countertop desperately needed wiped down. After the bathroom, I was seated quickly and my waitress came to take my order within a very reasonable amount of time considering how many other people she was taking care of. I originally ordered the southern fried chicken, but I was informed that was unavailable due to the staffing issues. I ended up ordering the maple bacon grilled chicken with mashed potatoes and mac & cheese as the sides. The food came out much sooner than I was expecting considering there was only one person working the kitchen. The food was somewhat disappointing. The mashed potatoes were lukewarm and didn't seem to be mashed very well, and the mac & cheese was cold despite being the first thing I ate. I had zero complaints about the grilled chicken. It was the perfect temperature and tasted fantastic. I think it may be my favorite lunch/dinner entree at Cracker Barrel. After paying my bill, I noticed on the way out the door that one of the employees had put a sign up explaining the short-staffed condition of the restaurant and stating that they would only be accepting take-out orders until further notice. Looks like I arrived at just the right time to be able to sit down and get a meal. Considering the small number of people working when I visited, my experience was understandable. However, compared to my other Cracker Barrel experiences, this one...

When I am wanting something close to home cooking this is always the go to place. Unique items in the store area.

On my last visit it was very sub par experience.

It was between lunch and dinner time. The waitress must have been new. We did not have silverware on the table, we had to ask for Napkins, after ordering she disappeared for several minutes before bringing our drinks to the table. Just not what I have come to expect from Cracker Barrel service.

My most recent and the reason for adding to my review.

It may be Christmas season, but I don't need the music so loud I have to scream my order to the waitress. The first time. I have every visited ANY Cracker Barrel and not had a manager come and ask how things were. We ordered basic meals and it wasn't a busy time of the day. It was over 40 minutes before our food arrived, we had missing food, and one order was completely wrong. The wrong order was changed without asking if the changes made were good with the person that placed the order.

I guess like every where right now, short staffed makes for mistakes.

Edit for the most recent visit. Server was great, and she was very polite. My granddaughter and I went on a Sunday after church. The place was busy so I expected slow service, I was wrong we were seated without a wait for a table.

My not so good experience was the food. My granddaughter ordered off the kids menu, kids breakfast. No problems with her order. My order was the meatloaf, when it arrived at the table it was on the cooler side of lukewarm, the mashed potatoes were room temperature, the Pinto beans were not completely cooked still a bit of crunch to them. After a few minutes the server came back I complained about my meal and was compensated with a discount on my ticket.

Seems Cracker Barrel is slipping off...

Ate here on Oct 4, 2021 on way back from Florida. After eating here in late Aug on way down to Florida with no problems thought we would eat at one of our favorite chains again. Horrible experience this time. New waitress that could not answer most of our questions. Food was taking longer than usual about 20 minutes and they were only half full or less. Waitress comes out and says they are out of baked potatoes. It was 6 pm. So we take sweet potatoes. Wait another 15 minutes then food comes out. Pinto beans were mostly broth like soup. Cornbread cold, biscuits dry/hard. My hand breaded chicken strips were hard. I asked waitress for dipping sauce like it said on menu or at least ketchup. She said she would bring some barbecue sauce. Asked her where the sweet potato was and she said it must not be ready yet. Left never returned. After 5 minutes When she had finished taking an order from another table I stopped her and asked to see a manager. 5 minutes later the manager ( very sloppy appearance) shows up and asks what the problem is. We explained. He brought out a cold sweet potato and a ketchup bottle that was basically empty. And the lemon pepper trout was black and crusted hard on top from do much pepper. Maybe worst dining experience in my 50 plus years. Most of my reviews are positive I really don't like doing negative. I just do not go back to places but this cracker barrel needs to be brought to someone's attention. I've eaten at cracker barrel over 100 times. Never had this poor of food and service. Cracker Barrel did Reach out to me after this review and apologize and sent me a gift certificate which I used it at the one by my house and as always with local CB I was...