Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Madisonville

I normally only do positive reviews but the experience here 6/8/2023 was so bad that as a manager of a large business myself, I feel someone needs to look into these issues. At 8:05 pm I places a To-go order at the host stand. The lady there attempted to get the to-go specialist whom never came. She then proceeded to place the order herself. She was very friendly, helped me make my selection and said it would be about 15 min. I shopped for a bit then decided to check on my order 45 mins later when it still wasn't out. The boy at the counter ignored me my first round in line and waited on the woman behind me instead. I patiently waited and finally was able to pay and inquire as to where my order was. He said it was being held in the back due to being out of apples. I chose a different side and was told it would be out shortly. Another 15 mins later I was given a side of greens. I asked where is the actual order?! He seemed confused but claimed it would be out again. By now I've waited an hour for a Togo order. He then proceeded to complain that the Togo server was slow and couldn't keep up and wanted him to do her job which he wasn't going to do. By this time they were closed and there were others waiting for their orders also. He became irritated telling all of us it's not HIS fault she can't keep up. He also complained that someone let in another gentleman who was waiting outside for his order he had placed 45mins ago, stating they were now closed and he shouldnt have been let in to get his food. When we all were becoming agitated waiting (at this point its almost 9:30pm!!) he finally stormed off to the back and brought all of our food up that had apparently been sitting in the back ready for who knows how long. Two of us ordered chicken and dumplings which literally is already prepared and should have been out within 15mins tops. I had just driven over 600 miles and didn't feel like sitting in a restaurant to eat for an hour hence the to-go order. Yet I was there standing around almost an hour and a half anyway, exhausted and hungry to receive cold , subpar food and an attitude. I tried to be patient and polite. When I decided to pay after waiting 45 minutes already the counter boy had some issues with his drawer. I told him no problem, I can use a card instead of cash. Asked how much longer for food, he then checked. His supervisor was there at that point so maybe that is why his attitude was still fine. It all went downhill fast from there. Since we all got our food finally at once (when he stormed in the back to finally retrieve it himself, as I feel he and the Togo server had some sort of stubborn battle over who would do what for the previous hour), we then all left at once. Another gentleman leaving asked me if i noticed how rude the counter boy was too. Oh indeed I did. I'm not sure what is going on here but management needs to look into these employees behaviors and work ethic. I arrived back to my hotel finally TWO hours after leaving to grab food to open the container and see one scoop of cold dumplins, no chicken in it. Cold green beans and my replaced side of cold greens the boy brought up and set on the counter earlier. Honestly I would've been better off hitting a drive through but typically enjoy CB when traveling. This location needs immense improvement. To top the whole bad experience off, I waited so long that I purchased a coffee mug and essential oil that I paid for early on. Apparently I set it back down when he brought the side of greens out (receipts in the cup as I wasn't given a bag) and must have left it in my agitated and exhausted state when i was finally given the bag of food. Since they were closed I went back during the day hoping someone set it aside for me but of course it was nowhere to be found. The front supervisor on that shift did help me look and was pleasant but just aggravating to add more lost money to the...

Me my wife and daughter went to Cracker Barrel for the first time for Thanksgiving dinner because it was just the 3 of us this year and honestly was cheaper to go there than to grocery shop cause we all know eggs are 400$ a dozen now days but we did this for the first time and it was a grade A+ experience. The food was great and the service was on point. Only downfall was they were out of a few things but they were super busy so that’s to be expected. I would have liked to have full access to the menu because I love the chicken fried chicken but I understand why the limited menu but with all that said the worst part was the other customers. I watched a table of 10 tip there waiter 5$ and they were loud and obnoxious and was even giving my daughter stupid looks all because she was laughing. It’s like people don’t care and they think there entitled to everything in life and that Waitress was working her butt off to get them everything they asked for. The man that was staring at my daughter was complaining about them not having Dr Pepper and gave some speech about how if he was running the business he would’ve made sure they had plenty of Dr Pepper. OK keyword there if he was running the business so obviously he wasn’t running the business and he didn’t look like the type that had worked in the food business before, I on the other hand have been a general manager at two restaurants and I understand that sometimes especially in this economy you run out of stuff that’s just part of the business and if things didn’t cost so much maybe they would have had Dr Pepper but who knows we are the customer and we do not work in the back and do the financial numbers on running that business so why do people think they can just throw their opinion out there on things they have no clue or understanding about. I do not post things often I hardly ever do reviews , and I’m not the social media type but for some reason, I felt like I could not keep my mouth shut about this experience. Hats off to the waiter and waitress that allowed these people to talk to them like dogs and they still served them with a smile and at the end of the day, a table of 10 with people that looked like they had some pretty good money , laid a five dollar bill on the table. That waitress probably has kids and has Christmas coming up so sometimes it takes a person with a big heart that wasn’t even served by that waitress to pull her aside and say I noticed that you had a table of 10 very obnoxious bumpkins tip you five dollars so here you go ma’am I have an extra $50 in my wallet. It’s not much but add this to your tip. All in all the food was great. Our service was great. The management was great. The atmosphere was great. The fireplace was scorching and beautiful, but the customers were horrible and I hope and pray that some people will stop being so obnoxious and rude to the people that actually ran this country, when the pandemic was going on and multiple businesses were shut down not everybody’s qualified to be a doctor or a lawyer or some powerful running back from a team that can’t win two games this season but yet gets paid $4 million a year if not more. We have veterans on the street People dealing with addiction and mothers and fathers running up credit card bills just to pay their mortgage and yet we have spoiled rotten brats making millions of dollars shaking their butt on TikTok shooting a basketball in a hoop and fighting in fixed fights against 50-year-old Hall of Famer and would probably not lend a dollar to a man or woman struggling in today’s society. Hopefully things will get better in 2025. God bless our troops. God bless our service workers, our policeman and our first responders, and God bless America. Happy...

If scientists ever discover time travel, I imagine they’ll do it at the Madisonville Cracker Barrel. Because apparently time stands still there. Dirty dishes sat on the table behind us for the entire time we were there. It took at least half an hour for our meal to come. At some point, you stop paying attention to how long and just sort of start praying for the sweet embrace of oblivion…and this is the place for it. All the great religions ponder where we go when we die. But none mention the Cracker Barrel. I think that’s the answer. I mean…heaven, hell, purgatory, reincarnation as a lady bug…are any of those real? Who really knows. But the Cracker Barrel certainly exists. Usually right off the highway next to a sad, empty plot of land that once housed a big box store or truck stop.

Somehow, the place always has numerous (I counted, like, ten) employees randomly walking around but not doing anything…and, I guess, not allowed to do some of the essential Cracker Barrel tasks. We waited for about five minutes at the host stand. At which point someone said, “I can’t seat you, but I’ll get someone who can.” Apparently, it takes highly specialized skill to pick up laminated paper and walk to a table.

Well, maybe it actually does. Since you have to navigate a landmine of spilled silverware on the floor, the random employees walking around yet not doing anything, and brooms and dust pans just sitting by tables. Mmm…nothing makes me hungry for good home cooking like eating with a pile of dust and a big wooden stick right on the floor beside me! Fun fact…I tripped over the broom and dust pan on the way to the restroom. I guess that was my fault though. How silly of me not not to expect custodial equipment to be right next to my table. Oh, speaking of the restroom. They just had a big old tub of hand soap, with the lid open, sitting there on the sink that you sort of had to pour out yourself. Which wasn’t easy because it was about ¾ empty. Stay classy, Cracker Barrel. I guess it must be a whole other special test to take to be qualified to pour soap into the dispensers.

Anyway, back to the host stand adventure…another five or ten minutes passed until someone who, I guess, had taken the “hold paper and walk at the same time” test at the Cracker Barrel corporate headquarters came out and took us to our table. I certainly hope the five or six people behind us didn’t have to wait for another member of the “I have the special qualifications to hold paper in my hand” club to show up.

By the way…this wasn’t even a busy time. It was later in the evening. There were maybe a couple of other parties besides us (the people behind us at the host station waiting patiently for that hero to emerge who was deemed qualified to hold really long paper as they dodged falling silverware and dust pans). I would imagine getting a meal during the lunch or dinner rush at this place takes roughly the same amount of time as fighting a war in Vietnam. Except instead of the sounds of artillery, you’d hear the endless barrage of silverware falling to the floor. Oh…so much dropped silverware.

The catfish was pretty good, though. Which it should be. Because I assume it was fresh. Because, the time it took, I figure they went to an ocean somewhere, got on a special boat with a longshoreman named Willie who wears one of those big yellow rubber coat/hat combos, caught the fish, brought it back, and fried it up. Maybe that’s where all the other people were who are allowed to hold paper and walk at the same time…out fighting a Nor’easter in the fishing waters off Newfoundland. Hey, if you’re looking for a great meal for New Year’s Day…as long as you show up to get seated by Dec. 26, this might be the...