Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Marion

With the current economy being so astronomically expensive, we eat out less and less. We are definitely more selective about where we eat. Today was for a Celebration of Life, so the place wasn't a choice. We are usually disappointed by the lack of service [everywhere]. Since "the epidemic," most "service" people don't seem to want to work anymore. NOT this time! The young man hosting was pleasant and seated us immediately! Our server Courtney was nice and very efficient, she never let my husband's coffee cup get empty! She checked on us often enough that we were never wanting or waiting for anything, but she also wasn't there so much that we wanted her to go away! We received a good amount of food, but it was a smaller [and more expensive] portion than we used to receive [at Cracker Barrel]. It is rare that I don't take at least half of my meal home because I am too full to finish, but I ate all of it. My husband usually takes home a quarter to half of his meal and he also ate everything. We weren't stuffed or hungry when we left, so that is good. But, for the price [our check was just under $30 for the two of us, before the tip] ouch. We both drank ice water and my husband also drank coffee. I ate Grandma's Sampler Pancake breakfast. The ham was overly salty with gristle and fat [yuck!], the pancakes were flat, not fluffy like I remember [and tasted like grease from meat], the bacon was fatty [my fault-I forgot to ask that it be cooked "crispy"], the sausage patty had a weird texture and no taste, and the "scrambled" eggs were served like an empty omelet. The fried apples were good. My husband ate the Old Timers breakfast. He said the hash brown casserole was better than he remembered, his over-medium eggs were cooked perfectly, but were greasy, his bacon was also fatty [his fault-he also forgot to ask that it be cooked "crispy"], and the gravy for his biscuits was overly "lardy" tasting. We both agree that the quality of the food is less than it used to be. The meal was largely disappointing and we aren't used to that from Cracker Barrel. I love the Cracker Barrel Country Store and took the opportunity to do a little Christmas shopping while we were there! The ladies at the registers were very friendly and helpful! One helped me get signed up for the Rewards Program and that was great! [Because it wasn't working on my phone.] She also explained how the Rewards Program works! Overall, the Employees made it a great experience, even though the meal itself [the reason we were there] was disappointing. The ladies' bathroom was clean. My husband said, although "the men's room didn't stink, it could've used some cleaning below the urinals." Overall, for this visit, "Thank you, Cracker Barrel, we give you two thumbs up for your...

I would like to give a huge virtual hug to Manager Elizabeth, Server Hailey, and everyone at Cracker Barrel in Marion, IL that made 9/24/2022 successful. This was my first time visiting this particular restaurant. I invited a very dear friend/church member (I call her Auntie Yo) to dinner and she asked to eat at Cracker Barrel. Auntie Yo is a warm and generous woman who volunteers with Alzheimer’s Association in honor of her late mother (Mary F. Johnson) and does a number of other things in the community. When I learned that today she would be speaking at an event for Alzheimer’s and it would have also been her mother’s 103rd birthday, I wanted to make sure Auntie Yo was not alone and would feel loved and appreciated. I called Cracker Barrel and spoke to Manager Elizabeth who was immediately willing to help me make sure Auntie Yo felt special and could also celebrate the birthday of her mother today, affectionately known annually as “MFJ Day” by Auntie Yo’s family. When we arrived, we were greeted warmly by the hostess and seated immediately. Our server, Hailey, was super friendly and made sure that our order was perfect. Both of our meals were delicious and we had plenty to bring home. Auntie Yo and I enjoyed our dinner and the delicious chocolate cake we were treated to in honor of MFJ Day. On the drive home and in a text message a little later, Auntie Yo repeated how much she really enjoyed the evening. I can really appreciate a restaurant team that will help celebrate the life of a loved one. No matter how old you are, you are always somebody’s child. Happy 103rd MFJ Day! If you are ever in Marion, IL, I highly recommend that you stop by Cracker Barrel for a bite to eat and a little shopping. They have takeout options too. Tell them Kindra...

We live near this Cracker Barrel store and have for nearly 3 years and they’ve been the most consistently bad Cracker Barrel store I’ve eaten at in nearly 25 years of eating at their stores in various locations we’ve lived and while traveling. They’ve had numerous changes in management in the past 3 years — I know because I’ve met 3-4 different ones — and they’ve yet to improve except the occasional burst of adequacy.

Typically, the problems we have are with the wait staff who put the orders together. They’ll commonly leave things out, package things together in ways that shouldn’t be packaged together, or not contact you when it turns out that they’re out of something and just let you show up and figure out how to change your order when it should all be ready and waiting for you.

This last occasion was a Friday night and we both got the coastal sampler. We got there about 3 minutes before it was supposed to be ready and still waited about 20 minutes for them to get it ready for us. We thought, “at least it’ll all be hot.” WRONG! We got it home and it was room temperature. Not really warm but not like it had been in a refrigerator or anything like that. All of it. To top it off, one of the orders of fish was all broken into bits and looked like it had been dropped or thrown against a wall so that it was in literal pieces. We put everything in the air fryer for 6 minutes to get it to an acceptable temp just to eat it. If it takes that long to heat it to a basically edible and...