Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in O’Fallon

I love the store, especially the Christmas section. This is the 1st time at the O'Fallon location and 1st time eating at CB in a LONG time. Going back, we were excited cause we loved the food but we were disappointed at overall with our visit. No one at the stand to be seated. I had to walk back by the kitchen to ask if we seat ourselves and the young girl gave me a dirty look and had an attitude the whole time we were there. There were 4, 5 maybe 6 people (young girls/ladies) just standing around where the computer is that the food order is put in and NOT ONE came to our table to get our order or drinks. It was about 8 minutes that we finally had an older man/server that came to get our orders. Our drinks took a long time to get to us, too! When I was ordering my food, I had "Grandpas BRKFST" & asked for hash-browns with onions and he said that can't be done. So, I just ordered plain. My husband had chicken & dumplings w/ loaded fries and had asked for some kind of broccoli cheese casserole. As we were waiting, we had already drank all of our drink and could not get anyone to help, stop to ask if they could get us more tea & coffee!!! Both of our EMPTY cups were at the end of the table. I finally stopped the lady that sat us at our table cause she kept walking pass us and ignoring us. When I had asked her, again with her dirty looks and attitude. But with another waitress, young lady, she filled my coffee after she waited on her table she was serving and brought my husband his tea. LONG STORY SO I'M GOING TO MAKE THIS SHORT... My food was awful! No taste, gravy was ok but the country fried steak was bland and dried. The hash-browns were burned, and I could only eat the inside where it wasn't burned. My husband got 'bacon mac n cheese' instead of the broccoli cheese casserole. We asked where it was and the old man waiter (Jim J Michael is the name on the receipt) he said "I guess we are out so you got the mac n cheese!" & he walked away!!!! This visit was the worse, the food was awful, your staff was ugly awful!!! We will never return to this place nor any cracker barrel locations!! ONE MORE THING. I TRIED TO DO A SURVEY AND IT ASKS FOR "ACCESS CODE" WHICH SHOULD BE LOCATED IN THE BACK OF MY RECEIPT AND ALSO SHOULD HAVE A SECTION WITH THE WEBSITE FOR SURVEYS. WELL, LOOKS LIKE CRACKER BARREL OLD COUNTRY STORE TOOK THAT SECTION OFF THE RECEIPTS. I GUESS I KNOW WHY!! I wish I could give a negative 5 or no star!! Worse...

We dined at the O'Fallon, MO location after a hospital procedure as we have dozens of times over the years. We have always had exceptional service. The restaurant is always clean, service is exceptional, and the food is amazing. This visit was the exception, and I have never made a bad review before. My husband and I arrived at 10:30, just a bit too early for Chicken and Dumplings. Our waiter was very sweet apologizing that it was a lunch/dinner only option. Not to worry, I would add it to go! At 11:15, I ordered it to go, and asked for our check. Again, our waiter was wonderful, and took care of putting in the order and promptly bringing our check. I paid via the app, and we waited about 30 mins at our table. He came back and apologized for the delay, stating it should be just 10 more minutes, so we told him we would be in the store shopping as to not hold up a table. He smiled and said he would bring it out to us. At noon, I checked with him at the hostess booth, and he apologized again for the delay stating it was going to be another 10 minutes. He had been so nice, I didn't want to get upset. This would put us at over an hour wait...(For what should have been ready at 11am per the menu) At 12:15, I went to the hostess booth and asked for a manager. A woman named Sherry stated she was the manager in training. I told her we had been waiting for over an hour for our to go order, and showed her our receipt. I kindly asked her for a refund at that point because I had somewhere we had to be at 1pm. She then took my receipt, called over the headset asking for my order, and said, "I'll be right back, let me seat this table first" (There were 2 hostesses standing there that were also seating people, and NO LINE.) I had already been waiting for this long, and instead of apologizing, or giving me my refund, she again put me off, and acted as if I were bothering her. WOW. My sweet server came out at that same time with my To Go order, and apologized for the wait again. Had it not been for HIS kindness, and attentiveness through this, I would not be back. I wish I hadn't given her my receipt because it has HIS NAME on it and HE deserves a GREAT review for his service. If she is planning on being a manager, I hope she gets better Customer...

Update:. (9/29/2022). To say I have come to your restaurants for more than 25 years would be an understatement, and to say that I have come back to eat one menu it may also not be. In all fairness, I have ate your Thanksgiving meal, so one sided is not completely true.

Tonight, I found a changed menu, one without the Sunrise Sampler! I found this completely upsetting because you have a menu heading called "Classics" that didn't have anything quite like it. For many years, I came here with a friend, until his passing, and enjoyed this meal. After his passing, never could I come without reminiscing about my friend.

I know this sounds crazy, even in my own head it feels that way, but when you come after decades of joining an old friend, I know I am feeling loss.

I hope you will consider this error and bring back a favorite!

So on top of this, we have been sitting here for 20-25 minutes and our waiter comes out and tells us that they were out of two of the four entrees we ordered. When our food did come out, most of the food was cold.

The bright side to our meal was that our waiter was awesome. He never stopped trying to satisfy. He was really good!

Update:. (May 2022) I am really disappointed with how this restaurant has turned out. No longer are the days when you can count on a hot meal and good service, instead we have turned to tired excuses.

We are short staffed is a lame excuse when you control the amount of people sitting down in the restaurant. I even accept a longer than expected wait for food but it needs to be hot and fresh.

The food was so bad, the mashed potatoes were congealed into a solid puck. Meatloaf was cold and dry. The portion size was inconsistent between the four meals at our table.

The manager gave us the option of eating the present food and it would be free, or he would remake the meal. The food was so inedible we sent it back. Granted, the second round came out as expected, but why did it take a second time?

After having been a customer for as long as Cracker Barrel has been open in this location, I can say this is the singular worst meal and experience I have had in...