Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Naperville

So... there I was... driving around on an Early October Morning after seeing a Scarecrow Contest in a little town by the River known as St. Chalres... Those scarecrows gave me a hunger for a Good Old Fashion Country Breakfast with Freshly Harvest Fruit. I had not noticed how far I had driven just dreaming about how nice a Breakfast like that would be... WHEN SUDDENLY... (by the way, there is always a SUDDENLY, in any of my reviews)... now where was I... OH oh... SUDDENLY... I saw a sign that meant GOOD OLD COUNTRY FRESHNESS AND QUALITY... just ahead on the next exit... And so... I DID... Now once inside... a kind gentleman gave greeting at a welcoming station and then he showed me to my seat. I wanted to remember this moment so I asked to be seated by the window where the light was a little better for my camera... And before I knew it... A LOVELY WAITRESS WITH PURPLE HAIR that I found very attractive said hello and took my order. When she brought my coffee she also gave me ice water and told me that my order will be right up. I could smell the Freshness and Quality as I tried to play with the little game sitting on the table and... well... I LOST AGAIN... BUT THEN... (here we go again)...... SUDDENLY... as I lost the game... I won because my Breakfast had arrived. And it was FANTASTIC. It was the STUFFED CREAM CHEESE PANCAKE MEAL with Fresh Harvest Strawberries in a Strawberry Glaze, Powdered Sugar and Whipped Cream. It also came with Farm Fresh Eggs, Tasty Country Sausage and a Fantastic Country Flavored Hash Brown Caserole perfectly prepared. And then the Lovely Waitress asked... "IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE I CAN GET YOU"... She was so nice I wanted to say to her... "YES... YES THERE IS... YOUR COMPANY AS MY DATE FOR BREAKFAST"... Hey, maybe you have a date that you can take there for breakfast. Oh they have a store there also and the both of you can shop for Old Country Items, you just don't see anymore. They can be items that will hold a Great Memory, of a Breakfast Moment, to Remember.

Below is my first visit.

You know that feeling you get when it's the Weekend... and it feels like your going over to Grandma's House for her Homemade Weekend Breakfast?... First the Lovely Waitress takes your name and they will email you once your table is ready... But it's the Weekend and there are Old-Fashion Novelty Items in the Gifts Store for that Shopping Craze while you wait... Once seated... your drink order arrives followed by your meal. This is GRANDMA'S SAMPLER BREAKFAST that almost seems like Grandma made the Butter herself... Such a Back Home Again Country Taste... Once you get over looking at how Grandma seemed to have made the ONE OF A KIND TASTING PANCAKES... You see what seems to be Farm Fresh Eggs... along with a Flavorful Hash-Brown Casserole. Followed by Smoked Sausage and Crispy Bacon... And another nice thing is that once you have finished your meal... you can go shopping for more of the Back Home Novelty Gifts... Now keep in mind that Grandma wants you to come back......

We were slightly disappointed in our visit and meal for a few reasons. I asked the waitress if the steak dinner was the same ribeye it had been since the menu just said steak and was told yes, but when it came, it was not a ribeye as the waitress said. I believe it was a New York strip steak. It was dense and not super hot. The carrots didn't taste as sweet and buttery as normal they seemed bland and cool. There were only 2 desserts to choose from, and we ordered a peach cobbler, which came cold and overly tart. Our waitress after explaining my mother was blind, continued to slam her plate, coffee, biscuits ect down. Even after saying you dont need to slam things down, you can simply say what oclock you have set it. Like hands on a clock. Our waitress had to continually be reminded of items we requested, and lastly, our waitress decided to show us a photo she insisted she felt strongly looked exactly just like my blind mother. The insult was that the woman in her photos appeared to be someone who was easily 15 to 20 years older than my mother with considerably thinning hair and a wheelchair. The woman alone was pretty but did not look at all like my mother. My mother, once we described the photo, said if we didn't feel like the women looked like her, the Waitress must have felt since my mother was blind and the family member in her photo was in a wheelchair that was the link for the waitress to feel they were alike. We don't see "disabled" in our family because several of us are. But at the same time, we don't need a total stranger insulting her age and ability like that. My mother is 68 with thick lightbrown and blond hair with a seeing eye dog. The woman in the photo was easily in her late 80s with very thinning red hair. It was, I think, an attempt to be kind, but the result was making my mother question several times if she looked like she was in her 80s and were we just being nice since a total stranger would take such efforts to pull up more than one photo and insist this elderly woman was her doppelganger. It put a damper on our meal. Let me be clear The woman was a very pretty elderly woman, but she did not look anything like she was 68 years old or like my mother. I do think she meant well ,it just came across...

Well.....we went on Thanksgiving afternoon, just the wife and I. We knew it would be a long wait since I called ahead of time and asked the wait time. When we got there we signed up on the list and visited the Country Store while we waited. The restaurant was full and the store was packed with people. Lots of people were whining and complaining about waiting for a long time, even though they were told it was going to be a long time to wait. IT. IS. Thanksgiving. DAY. DUH! So we were seated in about 90 minutes. Everyone, including the host and manager was friendly and polite, especially considering they had to deal with a bunch of pain in the butt, whining people, Karen's at the register, a poor soul who tripped and fell on her face and had to be rescued by paramedics, she was a nice lady and we all felt bad this happened, especially since she seemed to be a nice customer, unlike some others in the restaurant. After all this we were seated and the most polite, friendly, nice food server named Jill came to our table and asked for our order. After the usual questions she promptly brought out our drinks. Our meals arrived about 15 minutes later. Jill refilled my coffee without being asked, brought extra napkins which we needed, and did a bunch of other little nicesties like checking back extra to make sure there wasn't anything else we needed. Jill also did all of this while being absolutely over burdened on the holiday, with a bunch of customers that I definitely wouldn't want at our house for a coffee, I tell you what......if it wasn't for food server Jill and others like her that work at the Cracker Barrel I don't think the place would do as well since most of the food is very average. We did enjoy the Vegan sausage, the corn muffins were excellent, and the coffee was good. We will be back not really because of the food, but because of the service. Thanks for being open on Thanksgiving, and thanks to all the people who gave up their holiday to serve up meals. That is a huge sacrifice. Thanks again Jill for the best service...