Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Lufkin

It's been a few years since my wife and I went out to Cracker Barrel for dinner. The last time was when we lived south of Houston. We ate at the one down past Baybrook Mall. I think it had been a few years since the last time before that. I had noticed quite a few changes in the quality of the food and service there. My wife and I were not happy, that last time and had decided we wouldn't go again. Like I said that was a few years ago.

We're in Lufkin now. Last night we were wanting something pretty simple but not fast food. She suggested Cracker Barrel. After some debating, we decided to give it another try. It was a different location, so maybe it would be better. The parking lot had quite a few cars but wasn't full. This is usually an indication for us that it might be good.

Going in, of course you go through the gift shop. I'm still sure that they spend more time and money with this aspect of the restaurant than the quality of service. But the gift shop is nice and I always want to look around longer than I should. We were seated quickly, at a table in the middle of the floor, a little too close to other customers for my liking. There were tables open still along the walls and the divider in the center. My wife agrees with me, that customers should be seated in the booths and tables by the walls, before taking up tables in the open floor.

Our waitress came immediately to check on us and introduce herself. Took our drink orders and then went on so we could look at the menu. First thing my wife saw was they had buttermilk pie as a featured dessert. I love buttermilk pie. We both do. Really I love pie, period. So that was an easy sell for me. I decided I would eat light to save room for the pie.

My wife went for the sampler meal and I decided to be adventurous and chose the Rainbow Trout with steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes with white gravy.

Now, the last time, at the location south of Houston, our main problems with the meal were that our sides were put on separate dishes, leaving a lot of open space on the plate. This was very weird. Neither of us are those kinds of crazy people that don't like their food to touch, so this made no sense. This was not the case with our meal last night. Almost everything was on the plate. She had ordered the baked apples as a side and it was in a separate little bowl and that made sense. All of my meal was on the plate, nicely arranged, with a little cup of tartar sauce, for my fish.

She wasn't really happy with her food but ate most of it. The ham was dry and I could see that from my side of the table. She described the meat loaf as, "I don't know how you can mess up meat loaf." She ate it but I imagine it wasn't great. My wife is my favorite cook and makes the best meat loaf I've ever had in my life! So if she thought it wasn't great, I trust her. The sides were good all around. Great potatoes! And I really liked the broccoli. My fish being grilled, looked like it had been warmed up. It had the skin on and my first taste was too fishy for my liking. The skin came off pretty easily and that improved the taste big time.

One of my wife's biggest pet peeves when dining out, is that she doesn't like her glass to sit empty for too long. And that was happening. She bases 90% of the tip on this. At another restaurant in town, there is a very happy Vietnamese waitress. She gets about $100 every time we go there. This waitress was not getting that.

It is our judgment that Cracker Barrel's desserts are about the best thing on their menu. The entrée portions may be wanting, but the deserts are plentiful! And amazing! That buttermilk pie was fantastic!

Edit: I don't post reviews because I want something free. My reviews are about information, not just for the public but also for the business. When there is a problem or a flaw, I mention it, so that the management can insure it doesn't happen to someone else in the future. I don't coupons or gift cards or anything like that. This...

My daughter requested that we come here for her Birthday. Our first stop was the gift shop. As soon as we entered, we was pleasantly greeted. My daughter had went straight to where she seen something she wanted, in a previous visit, but couldn't find what she was looking for. The ladies working in there noticed we where on a mission lol, and came over to see if we found what we were looking for. My daughter told them she couldn't find what she wanted & one of the ladies told us to hang tight, she went to the back of the store, and a few minutes later, appeared with exactly what my daughter was looking for. It made her soooo happy, and I was very thankful for both of the ladies' help!!! Afterward, we went to the dining room. There were not a lot of ppl in there, so I figured we would get great service. Unfortunately, that was not the case. We ordered fried pickles for an appetizer and our drinks. We got our drinks and waited. About 15 mins later, our waitress came by and took our order. I ordered the fried shrimp, baked potato & salad. She then told me that she would get the salad and baked potato out to me first, I declined and said I would prefer to have it all together and then followed up with asking about our appetizer. She just said ok, snatched the menu I was handing her, out of my hand, and walked off. My daughter and I sat there playing the little game that was on the table to let time pass. A family of 4 had gotten seated at the table right behind us while we were waiting for our appetizer and now needed drink refills. The waitress immediately came to their table to tend to them, got their drinks, and had taken their order. She never stopped by our table again. Some more time had passed, and the next thing I know, the ppl behind us are already getting their food! We still hadn't even gotten our fried pickles or a refill! We had been in the dining area an hour with nothing but our drinks. I was ready to go at this point, and so was my daughter. We got up and left, went to the gift shop to pay for our drinks, and the items my daughter has picked out and was ready to leave. While at the counter paying for our stuff, one of the ladies that helped us in the gift shop earlier asked if everything was OK, and we proceeded to tell her about our experience. She immediately apologized and informed us that the waitress had JUST turned in our order for the fried pickles, they were cooking as we spoke.....AFTER AN HOUR, SHE JUST TURNED IT IN😤 They insisted that we take the pickles, free of charge and apologized once again. After that, we left and went somewhere else to get better...

I have been eating religiously at this location for three years. Always sit in Margie’s area as she is an absolute dream of a server. This morning we end up with a new server as I was told Margie’s area is full. The server advised us she has been there 5 years and she would take care of us. So it started out good. Took our orders brought our drinks. We advised her that my wife has an egg allergy and that her eggs would need to be on a separate plate. She said no problem. Well off she goes, all our drinks are empty 10 minutes later. She is no where to be found. Finally my wife flags down another server with a coffee pot. She refills my wife’s drink. 10 minutes later Margie sees my drink empty and comes over from her area with two fresh glasses of ice tea for me. Five minutes later food comes out. With you guessed it eggs on top of my wife’s food. I reminded the server who takes the plate and 2 minutes later returns with eggs on a separate plate. ( we know the eggs were removed and then the food brought back out) no way to retire fresh food in two minutes. My wife tells me that’s ok I will only eat the pancakes. The pancakes we realize that had never arrived. We again get the attempt our server after another 5 minutes of waiting to see her again. She said no problem the cooks are behind and they will be out soon. My daughter and myself are done eating and still no pancakes. So after 20 minutes of waiting I asked if there was a manager working as we had not seen one doing rounds or assisting on the floor as normal practice at this location. She said yes and brings out a very rude and condescending female manager. Before I can explain she says I already removed the food from the ticket and the entire problem was the cooks fault. I tried explaining that eggs on food should have been caught by the waitress as well as I had seen numerous pancakes leave the kitchen since waiting on my wife’s. She insisted that the waitress was in the right and it was the cooks fault. It wasn’t until I threatened to call the district manager did she start acting like a manager but at that point we were leaving extremely aggravated. As I was paying for the rest of the meals I told the cashier that moving forward I would only eat there if Margie was available. She tells me that’s when she eats there Margie is the only one she will seat with as well. Honestly if this store only has one waitress worth the darn perhaps they need to look at their staff and possibly rehiring. I know they need to remove this manager who hides in the kitchen all the time and doesn’t make her presence know to the public as every other...