Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Linton Hall

The food is great and from what I recall, the service is also good. My last two experiences at cracker barrel hand been around their catering service, specifically the heat and serve holiday meals they offer. The bottom line is that their processes around this service is either not understood by the employees or they are just not followed.

Background: The first experience was around Thanksgiving. My wife picked up the prepared food and we realized when she got home that turkey and other important items were missing. The packing checklist on the order was half complete and it is obvious that they don't have a strong handle on it control of their process in this area. The manager offered extra rolls for the hour and a half travel time to pick up the rest of the order. Not ideal but accidents happen.

Yesterday I showed up at the reserved date and time from my order to pick up another meal. There was no one around back where the pickup was last time and where the signs indicate I should be. So I pull around front and call the restaurant. I am told to wait out back. I returned to the back and wait 10 minutes. I get out of the car and knock on the back door with no answer. I finally call the restaurant back and explain that I'm waiting out back and there is no one around to help me. I am eventually put on hold after explaining that I set the pickup time at this time. (23rd @ 8pm, I checked a few times and I also clicked the "I'm here" button on the email.)

After another 10-20 minutes on hold, I walked into the store and asked an employee for the manager or a catering employee and I explained that I am looking to pickup my catering order. He helpfully explained that I need to go out back. Unlike the employee on the phone, he understood my frustration when I explained that there was no one out back and I've been waiting for a half hour or more for someone to assist out back. It didn't help that the frozen items I had in the car from the grocery shop were starting to melt. The employee went and got a manager who was able to find and bring out my order withing a couple minutes and the order was complete.

I left the restaurant and I was still on hold by the first employee so I decided to just hang up.

Again, the food is great and all direct contact with employees make me think they have good customer service. My major complaint is that, even though they seem to offer this service a few times every year, the processes are either not known by their employees or are not...

Let me preface this review with the fact that I rarely leave reviews, but today I honestly feel it's necessary.

From a food quality perspective, you typically know what you're getting from Cracker Barrel. My issue isn't really with the food itself, but rather the lack of attention to detail with takeout orders. Since the pandemic hit, my husband and I have ordered takeout from this location on numerous occasions with completely mixed results. Sometimes our order is fine, sometimes there are minor issues, and sometimes (like tonight) it's an epic fail.

Tonight, my order of chicken and dumplings was accompanied by more dumplings instead of fried apples (which both my husband and I ordered but we only got one). Our entrees were lukewarm after I had to wait an additional 10 minutes beyond the estimated pickup time. We did not receive both orders of biscuits despite the fact that our receipt had visible checkmarks by all the items indicating they had been reviewed during the packaging process. They were out of the Coca Cola Cake we ordered (which was totally fine since we ordered on the later side) but when asked for a substitution, the peach cobbler I asked for was really just cold peach cobbler filling with absolutely ZERO crust (you know, the cobbler part of the peach cobbler). And instead of there being enough to share (which is what we typically do) there was barely enough peaches for one person.

I also made a point of confirming with the employee that brought my order out that everything was in the single sealed (with a sticker) bag, to which he reassured me repeatedly that it was and had been checked. Yeah, apparently not.

Unfortunately, I was unable to contact the manager to complain as by the time I got home and realized the full extent of the issues with our order the restaurant had closed. This is also after a prior incident in which the manager offered to comp our next order because it was so egregiously wrong, but there is no way to do that with online ordering.

As I started off this review, I rarely leave reviews but I am just so frustrated with these repeated oversights with takeout orders. I love the food and the convenience/safety of take out, but I really wish they would be more thorough and pay attention to ensure that everything a customer pays for is with their order...

Came here for Thanksgiving Dinner with my family only to be told they were outta the fried turkey since 11AM this morning. You would think they could and actually would plan better to be able to serve customers what they have heavily advertised on TV. However, someone has for sure dropped the ball and it’s obviously a management down isssue. If the management can’t even plan ahead to order enough food to serve those customers then how in the world would you be able to manage anything else with the store. This was a waste of time. They had a limited menu which was lacking in options being they were heavily hanging their business on the turkey dinners only to not have anything to serve their customers after 11 AM in the morning! This was a sad expierince where I was forced to order one of the limited options of breakfast they had. Not what I wanted but had no other choices! I had not come here for a long time because of similar and hospitality issues in the past and I decided to give them another chance only to be heavily disappointed at best! The waiter was struggling and obviously was new or incompetent. The whole experience was terrible including the wait to not get anything we came here for. We were looking so forward to the fried turkey yet left disappointed! I doubt myself or anyone in my family will be returning anytime soon! That is until they can figure out a way to satisfy customers better and up their customer service skills! I doubt this review will mean anything to them because it’s obvious they don’t care but hopefully somebody will read this and take my opinion to heart and save themselves the horrible experiences I have had at this location at least! TBH I am shocked they are still even open at this point because service here is so bad I am shocked they can survive and stay open here until they fix their issues! I doubt anything will come of this due to the fact that they don’t seem like the let’s make it up to you type but we can...