Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Lafayette

I've been a fan of Cracker Barrel for years. And while traveling the country I have never had a bad experience until now. This has been not only the worst Cracker Barrel experience, it has been my worst restaurant experience I've ever had.

Management: poor, outright missing from this location (needs immediate HR attention, training)

Hostess/manager? Unprofessional. After waiting with three other groups for over 20 minutes in line, finally was addressed and when she went to seat us, she literally walked us around the restaurant looking for a table that had been bussed (she had no clue where to seat just the two of us, and found us a table after walking us around the dirty tables.)

Server: Not exaggerating, took over 15 minutes to be greeted and asked for our drink requests. No water offered or brought to the tables. Took another 15 minutes to recieve a coffee and an iced tea (again, not exaggerating the time). Server brought the drinks, said she would be back.. nope. Another server stopped by and asked if we had been taken care of. We informed her we hadn't, and she offered to take our order.. we asked for the meatloaf and chicken combo, and a maple bacon grilled chicken. She wrote our order down on a small cardboard box she was carrying.

After about 10 minutes, a different server comes to our table ( "did you order the meatloaf?" Yes we responded. "We're out of meatloaf." Deadpan.. no solution offered. My friend asked to see the menu again. Then ordered a different chicken platter.

Another 20 minutes roll by, my coffee and her iced tea empty for at least ten. Had to ask another server for refills as we didn't see ours, well, didn't even know which one was ours.

At about an hour of this, still no food.. I was tempted to just walk out, this has been the most unprofessional and untrained staff I have ever experienced. But we had already invested so much time, and hoped that the food would be worth the wait and terrible front of house experience.

Meal: borderline disgusting. Didn't finish the meal, the chicken was rubbery and had the smell and texture of being cooked on a dirty grill. I had ordered a loaded baked potato as well.. and the skin looked old, and it literally smelled rancid. Also the chicken I ordered wasn't even prepared with the green onions as advertised.

This Cracker Barrel could easily qualify for Gordon Ramseys kitchen nightmares. As eating here was exactly that.. a nightmare. The absolute worst dining experience ever!

It is the first time I have ever felt compelled to leave a $0.00 tip and a rating of zero. We didn't bother to complain to management, as it was painfully obvious that management is missing from this location.

After reading other reviews here, I can see that this is not isolated to just us. This location has a track record of very poor dining.

I have always enjoyed Cracker Barrel, it has been our 'go to' while traveling because we have always had great experiences.. until now.

Corporate: this location needs to be trained and a staff/management restructure. This location does NOT represent your brand in a...

Stopped in at 1:45pm on a Wednesday with a party of three. There were not many ppl in the parking lot or store. We were told it would be a 20 minute wait. Ok, no problem. Give us time to stretch our legs from being in the car traveling and use the facilities. Well twenty minutes turns into thirty and then into forty and then into fifty. My husband kept asking how long and what is the problem. He was told it will not be much longer. There were numerous empty tables and looked like four servers and two at the hostess desk and two at the counter. What is the hold up. Meanwhile the place was filling up. Finally they seated us. Our waitress came up and first thing she said after hello was- please be aware that anything you order may take up to an hour to be plated. Everything right now is an hour behind!!!! What the HECK??? My husband explained that we had already waited 57 minutes just to be seated. While she was talking to us and getting our orders the tables began filling up. We noticed several empty dirty tables and lots food items on the floor. I guess there was no bus boy and no table washers or floor sweepers available. Bottom line they were short handed, I guess in the kitchen as we saw plenty of waiters etc. Our food took about another 35 minutes to arrive. But several ppl seated after us received their orders, ate and left. It was not one of our better experiences at a Cracker Barrel. We sorely disappointed in the lack of respect for our time as patrons. We should have been told at the time of arrival that there was a problem so that what is normal an hour and half stop would not become a three hour and fifteen minute detour. My husband said he felt like we were on Gilligan's Island!! Ugh Then I purchased four shirts. Got home and they left the dumb magnet tag on it!!! Just so disappointed in the service there. I can't recommend this location on any level...

I went after church today with a few people and I was kinda just a tag along. The people were with me were pretty picky. The tea wasn't sweet when it arrived and the people started to complain. ( I'm not a complainer I've worked at a restaurant before ) .

The people at my table left a mess and I was helping the server pick up their mess every chance I could because it's no big deal. The hostess was a sweet girl looked like she was very happy go lucky.

There was a young man that I brought over to the specials menu by the hostess and I asked him what his favorite was and he recommended the honey butter chicken he was really nice and that was a good recommendation.

My server Elizabeth was very kind, she fixed every complaint that the people at my table were making. She brought fresh sweet tea, she even offered cornbread for free with a smile. She brought the food out and cleared the table and I helped her pick up their mess. I was kind of embarrassed at my companies behavior.

I gave the server Elizabeth my name ( Robert Presley) because as we left I realized she was so kind and did all of that work and I was a guest on this trip and they didn't tip her.

There was also another sweet server she was so polite and pretty, I didn't get her name but she was Latina and vibrant ( what a looker )

I know in the restaurant business it's hard to make everyone happy and I just wanted the staff to know that you all did a great job. Cracker Barrel is a great first job and I think the general population forgets that we're all human and we all start somewhere and I'm happy to see great service. It's hard to please thousands of people with millions of taste buds and palettes. I'm sorry I wasn't prepared to tip I was a guest.

I'm also glad at this location it's still the original Cracker barrel and not the one they decided on after a night of binge drinking and...