Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Knoxville

I'm a former Cracker Barrell trained employee from another state... but live n Knoxville TN now & this time, my takeout order n this store was a Huge disappointment to say the least! The food took forever to cook. They were out of what I ordered & waited to tell me 20 minutes after I ordered it & that after I spent over $100 shopping n the gift shop. The mashed potatoes & green beans were old and dirty looking. My fried pork chop was dark brown, which is either over cooked or old oil, not changed in a while, which affected the flavor of the food, & the muffins & biscuits were smashed. When I asked the lady at the checkout out stand to plz double check my order, she said I had to do it. After I did, then discovered half our desert was missing, she said it was because it was the ice cream part of the cobbler & she "thought" they didn't give ice cream for to go orders because it might melt. I explained I paid for it & wanted it as I live close. She haggled about they didn't do it she didn't think. I asked her to plz check & tell whomever I want what I paid for. I also noted with the meals, my ticjet tonight was almost $200; that I'd just got in from a very long, rainy road trip out of state & was picking up supper so I didnt have to cook...& live very close to the store. I asked for my ice cream. After I asked several times, & got employees acting like they don't know what to do,... I nearly came close to returning my whole order & gift purchases & just leaving. Prior to finally getting my order, & nearly an hour had passed, I asked them to check on my order & to plz see why it was taking so long?! A checker got a little snitty with me saying they had on-line orders coming in so they'd get to mine when they could. I'm still recovering from back surgery & I told them I couldn't stand long to wait & that was 1 reason I was anxious to get my order timely. They just looked at me. The place was nearly empty when I got there & "I" had to ask for a chair to plz sit & wait in. They brought out all kinds of orders, but 3 people came in to pick them up.. I'm praying for the stores sake, that those customers paid for their order online - because they just handed the food out without checking or meeting them at the register. Finally I saw 2 other patrons who had been waiting nearly as long as I had, still waiting when I left. I felt sorry for them. Prior to finally getting to leave, I had to wait even longer 4 someone in the back to go out to the big freezer to get my icecream I was told, After an extremely long time waiting, I got my order, I had 2b sure it was corrected & was Finally able to leave. I will NEVER go back to that store to Eat EVER again. The gift shop & young lady working in that area were Amazing, but I came to get food. I realize people have bad days, but this whole experience turned me off Cracker Barrell for good because their name got trashed n this experience as my food was sent out the door with me -based on the crappy, & I mean crappy quality of food, & the time it took to get it. It started getting busy when I left & I was hurting & too tired to make them right the wrong. Just sending my vote that they failed me miserably. This was just Not the quality of Cracker Barrell I've been used to locally or around the country. Food is dried out. If this is the norm for that Parkside Drive Knoxvilke TN store....They need a new...

I have worked in the restaurant industry as a server/bartender for 20 years. I can say this is the first “bad” Review I have ever left on a restaurant in my life, But it is much warranted. We had Maya as our server. She wasn’t rude, and was apologetic throughout the entire “s* show” but more than likely has not received proper training. I ordered a chicken tender kids meal with french fries for the kids.. When the food came out, everything came out except for the kids food. About 15 minutes later, we got the chicken tenders and fries. Another person in my party ordered pancakes and syrup was not brought out with the meal. He asked for it, our server returned later with the kids meal but still no syrup. I ordered the rainbow trout. It came out looking nothing how it’s supposed to look, my water had more flavor, and it just wasn’t prepared correctly at all. Again, being in the industry normally you just stay quiet and eat but I honestly could not eat this. I ordered the old timers breakfast instead. I know 2 eggs, and bacon take less than 5 minutes to cook. 30 minutes pass Maya returns to tell us she put my order in, but the kitchen lost it. Again I have 20 years experience in the industry, and I knew that she just forgot to ring it in. I also have sympathy, and patience for my servers and bartenders so no big deal. I told her I would take it to go. The rest of my party had been done eating for at least 45 minutes at this point. I finally received the go order, but I am missing the biscuits and gravy that come with the old timers Breakfast. I also asked that something could be done with the check whether it be partially or entirely comped considering everyone else had eaten except for me, and I was having to stand around and wait for my to go order almost 45 minutes at this point. Again, Maya is very polite and takes the check and brings it back and nothing was done. I was told that I wasn’t charged for the biscuits and gravy that they didn’t come with the old timers breakfast, which is not true. It clearly states on the menu it is included. As I’m standing there dealing with my situation, someone had been standing there for a good 30 minutes, waiting on their to go order and I overheard an employee tell the person that was waiting on the togo that the manager had accidentally given his order to the wrong person and they had to remake it. We never saw a manager during this entire Visit. The customer service is terrible. I’m not sure what is going on here, but I’m pretty certain that it’s the entire store not one specific person or front of house or back of house.. It seems no one has any idea what is going on? Needless to say, this was probably my worst experience in my lifetime. The worst part about it is there were maybe three tables of guests in the...

Worst visit ever! I was the only one in line to be seated & it took the staff 5 minutes to acknowledge me. When I finally did get seated it was another 5 minutes before my waitress came to the table to get my drink order. I had to tell her that I was ready to order. I ordered the country boy breakfast & my waitress said I will have to check to see if we have any biscuits. We've been out for a while now & she walked away. 15 minutes later she brings my breakfast with cornbread. Keep in mind 1 of the side items that comes with this $15 plate is biscuit & gravy. As she sets the cornbread down she simply states yeah we were still out of biscuits so here's cornbread!!! Now if she had come back & said yes we are still out of biscuits. I would have ordered something else. About half way thru my breakfast she brings biscuits & gravy. The biscuits were cold! Never got my tea refilled. I also asked for an order of the $5 take home meatloaf & macaroni & cheese. Never got that. I waited & waited for my check. Finally she brings it. I go to the register to pay. The guy at the register never said hello, how was your meal nothing except you got a rewards with us. I said 865 & he points to the card reader. I type it in, tap my card. He handed me a receipt & turned away from me. Never got a thank you, kiss my butt nothing. I call corporate to make a complaint & the recorded message said to go to crackerbarrel.com to interact with customer service. So I do, just to type all this out & the ai bot responds I only answer little questions anything else I can help with. I responded no but I will not be back. Response was let me get you a live agent. The live agent comes into the chat only to ask me what I was contacting them for. I responded so I have to retype all of my complaint again. No response from the live agent. I said hello, nothing showed starting to type then stop. I then said anyone there still nothing. Just showing starting to type then stop. After 4 minutes live agent finally states that they were trying to read the previous comments. I said would have been nice if you had said that. I then stated that I was done with cracker barrel. She offers me a free meal & asked if that was acceptable. I said no I am still done with cracker barrel. She then offered me 2 free meals & asked again if that was acceptable. I said no I am still done with cracker barrel to be disrespected by everyone in the restaurant & being disrespected by customer service no. She said do you want a refund. I said no cracker barrel needed my money more than I did and...