Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Lake Delton

This was the most disappointing cracker barrel I have ever been to. We went on a Saturday night around 7pm and it wasn't that crowded.

Are waitress seemed very polite and friendly, however she just wasn't competent at waiting tables / customer service.

After we were seated and she gave the coloring page menus to the kids at the table, we asked if there were any crayons. She said she thought they were all out but she would go check with the manager.

After getting bringing our drinks out, we asked about the crayons and she said, "oh right" which seemed to me like she forgot to ask.... Which I wouldn't be counting off for except she is the one that offered to check with the manager!

Next up when it came time to ordering our food, she said they were out of the southern fried chicken, and another main dish that one of our friends ordered (I can't remember which ones). She asked for these two guys to order something else but then said she would go back and confirm with the kitchen that they were really out. Guess what? She never came back with any news/updates from the kitchen. Since she was the one that made the offer to check I would have at least expected her to come back and say something like, "I did confirm with the kitchen that the Southern fried Chicken is all out, so I put in your order for xxxx."

I know this part isn't on the waitress but we were all really stunned at the table that two of their signature entrees were out of stock during a Saturday night dinner rush. It seems like poor restaurant inventory management.

There was probably a 15-minute spread between when the first person's dinner was brought out and when my son's dinner was brought out. I had ordered one of the all day breakfast meals from the kids menu. It was supposed to be scrambled eggs, a sausage, and hash brown casserole.

My son is 18 months and sitting in a high chair. His meal was THE LAST one to come out by at least 10 minutes. I would think that an experienced waitress would know to put in the kids meals first and deliver them first.

Here's where I got upset enough that I decided I would write a review:

When she finally did bring it out, she had on a mit and said, "now please be careful this is very hot" and she tried to set it down in front of my 1.5 year old toddler! Who on earth would set down a hot plate in front of a child that young thinking they understood! I had to shoot my hand in between the plate and my toddler to prevent her from setting it down. He'd been watching the rest of our party eat for the last 10-15 minutes and he was ready to dive in! The plate really was very hot.

And to top it all off, the little dish that she said was the hash brown casserole was just a side dish filled with gravy.

It really felt like a comedy of errors from restaurant management, bad (but still polite) wait staff, and kitchen. We usually have a great experience at cracker barrel but we absolutely will not be going back...

Food was okay. But the service ? Horrible. It wasn’t all that busy but of course, they were short staffed which I definitely understand but people shouldn’t show their frustrations of that on customers, it’s disrespectful. We were seated then the waitress Heather comes over. She kinda looked at us and scoffed then continued to wait her two tables . We Waited about 15/20 minutes for her to come over and introduce herself And when she did, she did it a little quickly like she was in a rush then said she would be right back and went to another table . That’s fine. But we were ready to at least order water. She didn’t give us menus until we got the water. Seemed stressed but she only had a couple tables and there was at least two other waitresses running around with her. So we get our water and I ended up with the rocket pop mimosa which was amazing btw, order it!!! It’s not good until the Popsicle melts though. Anyways, we finally get our Order in and wait about 35 minutes for our food, mind you she didn’t check on us after we got our drinks. Didn’t give us the silverware or napkins we were missing. She checked on the other tables but not us. Didn’t ask for a refill on water or offer a pitcher of water for the table of 6 (mind you), just crazy. Food finally comes and still no napkins even after we asked for some. Didn’t give the Apple butter we asked for or sour cream so we asked again. By then she seemed annoyed. Some of us got biscuits, some got cornbread and instead of individually putting it on peoples plates, it was on one big plate. Not sure if they are lazy or if that’s what they do but didn’t seem right. Heather comes back with the rest of our stuff and she asked if everything was good now and we said yes except something with my mom’s food, I honestly forgot what it was but I know that Heather corrected her on what she said which I found ridiculous because regardless it was the same thing, just said differently and it’s disrespectful to try to correct a customer as though my mom didn’t know what she was talking about. So she gets whatever it was and comes back. She then kinda looked around our table and was like “sorry guys we’re short staffed, and corporate just came in so I’m in the kitchen giving them my demands since I’m finally heard” and we’re like uhm yea good for you, except that not really a reason to abandon your table. SHES then said “I’m fighting for myself because they only pay me $2.32 to do this and I barely make tips..” and I just thought wow. Because it was almost like she wanted us to feel sorry for her and try to coarse us into tipping her, which we did although the service wasn’t good. I don’t tip people for them doing their job, I tip them for going above and beyond their job that’s asked of them. However in this case , she...

This place had one the worst service I've had. My party and I (consisted of 7 adults and 16 kids) went to eat there over the weekend while visiting the Dells. We arrived shortly before 8pm and were told it would be a 15-20 min wait. We were also told that we could wait outside as they would be announcing when our tables are ready over the intercom. Our party waited for about 45 min before we were seated. Once seated, because of our rather large group, we were not at the same table (no complaints with that as it's understandable). However, drinks were not taken and brought out to everyone in a timely manner. Some did not even receive their drinks until some of us were already almost done eating.

My table (first to order), which had myself and 3 kids, had our food brought out (about half an hour after our orders were taken) but had no utensils to eat with. Possibly wouldn't have gotten any utensils if I did not let the server know (who had repeatedly walked past our table while we sat there with our food). I included a photo of what my child ended up doing while we sat there without our utensils. The other two started eating their non-finger foods with their hands.

My sister and her husband's table and my brother and his wife's table were 2nd and 3rd to order, were last to receive their drinks (about 45 min after seating). My other brother and his wife's table were last to order but had received their drink before my sister.

They all waited over an hour for their food to be brought out. My table had already finished our food when their food was finally brought out. One of my brother did not get a steak knife with his steak, although after asking the server to bring a steak knife out, she never did. He ended up using my used steak knife to eat.

Drinks were never once refilled. Both my sister and brother had asked for a refill on their drinks (since we all sat there waiting so long for the food, most of us went through our drinks) and only 1 drink was refilled. My sisters country fried steak sat out for so long that when her food was brought out, the top layer of her gravy was hard and smooth to the point where she ran her fingers on it and the gravy did not leave any trace on her finger.

Side note: my sisters table did not get their food until close to 10pm, maybe after 10pm and the restaurant was to close at 10.

We spent over 2 hours there and majority of it was waiting.

Food tasted mediocre and service was most definitely horrible. From someone who also works in the hospitality industry, this place has horrible service and I would never recommend this place nor will I...