Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Little Rock

So, we went to this Cracker Barrel because our cousin who is a pilot had a layover in Little Rock and we were actually going to get to see him on Thanksgiving. Well... This was a bad choice. First things first, though there were MULTIPLE open tables for large parties, (there was 9 of us) we had to wait an hour to be seated. When we WERE seated, the server took forever to get our drink orders. Now is where the first issue comes in. The restaurant was running a limited menu, this we could deal with. However, on one of the table tents that was on our table as well as on the holiday menu they seated us with they were pressing a huckleberry tea. (If you have never had a huckleberry tea, let me recommend it.) Upon seeing this I was STOKED to get one. Well... Our firecracker of a waitress, Sabrina, informed me that they had no huckleberry tea. (All sarcasm implied as she was slower than the 7 year itch) I had to settle for peach tea. (Not nearly as tasty, but, not terrible.) Next, we were rushed into making our orders. 5 of us ordered the chicken fried turkey with various sides, the rest ordered chicken fried steak with various sides. "Firecracker" walked away and was not seen again for 20 minutes. When she returned, everyone was still in their same spots, but, she couldn't remember what drink went where. Once again she disappears and we are left sitting there for another 20 minutes. About 5 minutes into her 20 minute "break", another 9 top family is seated in our area and their drink orders are taken and filled almost immediately. At the end of her 20 minute "break" she brought us baskets of biscuits and cornbread. Meanwhile the other 9 top is getting their entrees and we are all sitting there with empty glasses. After asking her if it would be possible to get drinks refilled, she℅ rolled her eyes and trudged off to the back of the house to get sweet and unsweet pitchers to refill our drinks. The bread is now gone, we have no beverages and we are STILL waiting for our food. After waiting another 10 minutes, she shows up with our drink refills. She tops off 6 of 9 glasses and walks away for another 10 minutes at which time she brings our entrees. Meanwhile, my wife is clearing empty glasses and plates off of our table as our waitress obviously couldn't be bothered with. The only thing that was right on any of the plates was the proteins. Nobody had their correct sides and EVERYTHING was cold. We choked down our cold food as everyone was hungry, but, it was NOT even good. Now it is time for dessert. Once again, I ask for something on the "house speciality" table tent. It was a slice of cinnamon roll pie. Again, I am informed that ANOTHER special is not available. And again our waitress vanished into thin air. 10 minutes later she arrives with paper plates with various slices of pie that were all right out of the fridge and were not even attempted to be warmed up. 1 star, would...

I want to preface this review that I am giving it with a heavy heart as my Wife and I love Cracker Barrel.

We first went to Cracker Barrel 34 years ago at the first one ever opened in Lebanon Tennessee and loved it so much that we ate breakfast there the next morning.

This particular location on Shackleford Drive we had went to about a year ago and got such horrible service and food that we said we wouldn’t go back there. Fast forward a little over a year later and I decided to try them again and it was worse than the last time.

I ordered the Grandmas Sampler which is supposed to come with a sample of sausage, bacon and either sugar cured ham or country ham which I told the waitress that I wanted the sugar cured ham as opposed to the other one. All I got was ham. No bacon, no sausage and when I pointed it out to the waitress.she argued with me and said that I asked for all ham. I could have dealt with that but it was about 7 or 8 little almost bite size pieces. I also didn’t get the hash brown casserole that was ordered with my meal even after pointing it out to the waitress. The worst part is everything was lukewarm or actually cold.

My wife’s meal was actually worse than mine because she finally got the salad she had to ask for twice after originally ordering it in the first place. She ordered a loaded baked potato that came with only a little cheese sprinkled on top. No butter, no sour cream and it was also cold. She ordered greens and asked for cornbread which never appeared and after asking and explaining to the young girl waitress what pepper sauce was ( my wife goofed up by telling her it was peppers with vinegar in a small jar) she first brought malt vinegar, the after explaining it again the waitress for some weird reason brought vinaigrette salad dressing. At this point I had taken 2 bites of cold eggs and had pretty much lost my appetite because everything was cold and pretty much nothing was even close to correct, so we asked for a Manager and explained everything and she said she would find out what happened. We waited a few minutes with no response and just told our waitress to give us our ticket so we could pay and leave. $38 and change for a meal we couldn’t eat. I had to stop and get my wife a burger on the way home because she was still hungry, I on the other hand was too upset too eat.

I will go back to Cracker Barrel at some point in the future because we really do like them but never...

While the food was fantastic, and the lady who seated me was too, the server, who started off nice enough, quickly became inattentive and rude. He became irritated when I didn't know what I wanted as soon as I sat down, nor again 30 seconds later. So I randomly picked something since he seemed rushed. When i got my food, I only got half my order, for which I attempted to flag him down for, and he only glanced at me briefly before stating. "I'll bring you some ranch". He handed me my check before asking, "did you want a box?" When I said yes, and the rest of my order too, please, he rolled his eyes, pointed finger guns at me, and then went to the back.. his body language indicated he was irritated. When he finally returned, he dropped the take out box on the table and walked away... started talking very sweetly to the full table next to me (I was eating alone). Oh, and the Cole slaw was vile. (That was part of my order I had to ask for halfway through the meal. When he brought it, he dropped it on the table and it splattered..) it looked and tasted like there was no seasoning or sauce... so it was just a bowl of wet cabbage...

I find it relevant to mention that I ordered online for take out while I was waiting for my in store order, thinking it should be ready by the time I finished eating, as the pick up time said 20 minutes. Well, 35 minutes later I finally finished my meal(lengthy due in part to server inattentiveness mentioned earlier) and went back to the front counter to ask about my online order. It wasn't ready. I ended up waiting another 25 minutes wandering around the store for my order, where one of the gift shop employees started to be suspicious of my hanging around and started eyeballing me and asking me over and over if I needed help.

However, when I got my online order, and went to pay for my in house meal (I bought a mug as well) the lady behind the counter was very polite and kind, and almost made up for the earlier experiences.

I've eaten at other locations and never had these problems before- I hope they resolve the problem so others don't experience the...