Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Mesquite

I went to the Cracker Barrel in Mesquite, TX on 9/19/24 at about 8:15p.m. We had a party of 4. It was going to be me, my parents (who are senior citizens) and my uncle (also a senior citizen). When we got there, I dropped my parents off at the front door because my mother has a hard time walking and went straight to park. When I came in, which was only about 2 mins after them, my mother said that the hostess is refusing to sit them until the entire party arrives. There were literally three maybe four occupied tables in the entire restaurant, no one waiting on a guest list or standing around to be seated. My uncle was just a few minutes behind us. I understand that rule applying if there was a wait, but there was no one waiting at all. When the hostess arrived, I explained to her that 3 of the 4 guests are here and that my uncle is close behind. I asked her if we could go ahead and sit because of my mom hard time standing. She said no, that everyone has to be there. Now I understand the flow of a restaurant, peak hour and rushes but there was no one there so my dad asked "can we please just sit down?". The hostess let out this long sigh of annoyance and turned her head away from my dad like she didn't hear him. No one else had her attention. No one else was there and it was quiet and she heard him. She just flat out ignored him like he wasn't even there. I then said well can you sit a party of 3, since there is four chairs at each table anyway, and when my uncle gets here he can just join us. She said no. Not until everyone is here. Even a party of 3 must be sat at a 4 top because the entire restaurant has 4 top tables. I understand if we had a large party that required 2 tables but we were a party of 4 and 3 were present. It made no sense. So I asked for a manager thinking he would make some sense out of it or be able to manage and when he came out he said this... When I told him what was going on, he told us that he has to treat each customer the same whether it is busy or not. If he sat us now with 3 people here and not 4 that he would be descriminating. He said because "the black people" come in here and complain because in the past he has sat them without their entire party and then the next time they come, when it is busy and he can't sit them them without their entire party, they get upset so now everyone has to wait for their entire party whether it is busy or not. What did he just say to me? Did he seriously think that this was an appropriate excuse for anyone? I am not black but my family is hispanic and white. Why race even came up is beyond me but I had enough of that so I did interrupt him because I was blown away by that comment and had enough but before I could continue he cut me off and shushed me and told me no let him finish. He then proceeded to tell the very rude and eye rolling hostess to just sit us but I was disgusted by his reasoning as a restaurant manager and told him we were leaving. I told him I was contacting corporate because the way he is running this restaurant is absurd. I know I am not entitled to just walk in and sit down at a restaurant if there is a wait or they are busy. I am very understanding but they had 3 tables. I am a manager at a restaurant myself and would never treat a customer this way. We love our business and would never leave customers waiting unless we absolutely have to. I hope audio and video is reviewed to hear the ordeal because it was outrageous and I can't believe either of them are trusted to deal with...

It was one of those times when my mom was too weak to walk, so she sat on the walker as I pushed. A man who I found out later was the manager, was annoyed with the walker as soon as we crossed paths attempting to get to our table. Our waitress had the worst attitude as she first approached our table. She ordered our drinks. She brought my coffee but nothing to stir it with. I asked for silverware she brought mine. My mom began to cough so I asked for water, and she brought moms. I asked for another silverware and another water. I told her we weren’t ready to order, she became more frustrated. I watched as she asked another waitress to take over our table, I confirmed this with another waitress. I approached a lady with a tablet who seemed to be managing something, and asked about our missing silverware and water. Our waitress spoke with the same lady, and they simply pointed and laughed. Then our waitress spoke with the man who was annoyed at mom, me or the walker, and she pointed and they both laughed. If it wasn’t that I was in the presence of my mother, I would have either walked out or cried whichever came first. I finally asked the waitress who had been offered our table before, to please take our table. She said she had turned down the offer before from our waitress telling her she had her own tables, but that she would gladly take us. She apologized after listening to me, even though none of it was her fault. I felt for the waitress having to take on our table on top of what she already had going, so it was time to ask for the manager. As I approached the lady with the tablet, she didn’t wait for me to ask, but instead asked if I wanted to speak with the manager. I said yes. To my surprise, the manager was none other than the frustrated man I had twice seen before. He said something out of frustration to her and walked back to the direction from which he came. He never came to our table. We got our food, but why would my pancakes have bits of fried onions and a chunk of tomato underneath? I shared that with our new waitress asking if it was possible that our food was sabotaged. She took the blame for the onions and the tomato stating that, it probably all fell off of moms plate, mom’s order didn’t have tomatoes though. I appreciated her and didn’t think she deserved any more from me, so I left it alone. Our lunch was 30ish dollars and I tipped her another $50, after insuring she didn’t have to share with others, of course. Again, mom was with me, so we were there over an hour longer while we shopped the store and yes, spent more like we have on our other Sunday visits to Cracker Barrel. I have never experienced this treatment anywhere. Was it race? My mom on four wheels? I’ll never know for sure, but maybe the slowly-pushed walker. I’ll find the next nearest Cracker Barrel for future visits, only because I will not return to the Mesquite location, and because my mother loves Cracker Barrel, and I...

First time at Cracker Barrel in several years as we don’t live near one anymore. The food was good, although the homestyle chicken not as tasty and crispy as I remember. Our server, Walter M, started out good. I asked how the sugar plum tea was and he said it is very sweet, so I asked for if could do half the sugar plum tea and half unsweetened tea and it was perfect. One of my daughter’s got the chicken strips with a loaded baked potato and Mac n cheese, and the menu said it came with pickle ranch. My other daughter got the chicken fried turkey meal with a loaded baked potato and a fruit cup. The menu stated it came with cranberry relish. I ordered the homestyle chicken with loaded hash brown casserole and mashed potatoes with sawmill gravy. Our order comes out with no pickle ranch, no cranberry relish and no sawmill gravy. We let the food runner know and several minutes later our server brought out the ranch, relish and sawmill gravy. He seemed annoyed and said besides refills do you need anything else. My daughter asked for a little more gravy for the chicken fried turkey as there wasn’t much on it. So then he says anything else? In an exasperated tone. I said not that I can think of. He brings me another tea and obviously this to me he didn’t do half unsweetened as it was extremely sweet. The glass had a crack in it until I had drunk half of it. I glanced over to another table and saw someone eating a biscuit and realized we also never got our biscuits/cornbread basket. When the server was walking by I caught his eye and said we never got biscuits/cornbred. Again he looked put out. I was going to mention the cracked glass but didn’t bother at this point. He brings the bread basket and I saw it had butter but I recall there used to be jelly and honey packs on the table but I didn’t see either, but again I didn’t ask as the server already seemed annoyed. When he brought the check we asked for two to go boxes. And at that point I asked for my plum tea in a to go cup. I can understand the restaurant was very busy. But we had four missing items from our order and I don’t appreciate the attitude when asking for the items. I used to waitress. I normally tip at least 20% if not more. I left 15% because he soured our meal with his attitude. Almost $65 for lunch in this economy is a lot to pay to receive poor service. The four stars on his apron were a surprise considering...