Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Orange Park

My wife and I have been at cracker barrel before. The food and service have always been the highest of quality so I'm not sure what's going on at this particular store. I'll just start at the beginning. My wife called to inform them we had a party of seven for dinner on a Saturday night. We were told there were no reservations but there was only a 5-minute wait. Upon arriving and approaching the host we were told it was a 30 minute wait. My daughter and her family were on their way back to Georgia and on the road for a while already just stopping by to see us and have dinner. Standing at the host stand I could see an eight person round top empty and ready to be seated. I pointed at the table and said okay what about that one. I was told there were many large parties coming in. Keep in mind "no reservations". The rest of the dining room for the most part was empty. But okay so we wandered around the gift shop for a time. Went into the bathroom to wash our hands and it was disgusting. It looked and smelled like a dirty truck stop in some no-name town. Hearing our name called to be seated we approached the host stand. We were seated at the very table I pointed at 30 minutes before. no one had sat there. Not sure why we had to wait 30 minutes to sit at a table that was available the whole time. I have been in the restaurant business for 20 plus years as a chef at a private country club. This restaurant was not busy but it took another 30 to 45 minutes for our food to arrive. Quality and quantity did not match Cracker Barrel standards that we were used to. I'll just quickly say my wife ordered country fried steak and it was grisly and cold. We sent it back for fried shrimp and it came out 8 minutes later completely overcooked. By then everybody else was done eating. Everybody else is entrees we're mediocre at best. I'm not sure if this is a corporate store or a franchise but whatever the case as an owner you may want to check into these quality issues while representing the Cracker Barrel name. We won't be returning to this particular location again. It was a total...

We have a tradition when we take one and only one grandchild the entire day. We decide everything. If we offer any changes, it's rare. We usually get all the information we need from previous time spent together and talks with our own kids, their parents. This day Cracker Barrel made my five year old granddaughter so happy for so many reasons. First, she had us all to herself and it wasn't so busy as to drown her out. Next well the gift shop is the best gift shop ever. If you like gift shops and old fashioned quality then look no further. Really. Such great buyers work for or with this store. Really unique quality and fun selection. Something for everyone. Some candy and things you wont be able to find unless online and there you still won't be able to pick up and hold it in your hand. Iced glass bottles of pop. Every convection. Feminine clothing. Interesting decorating ideas. Nice, nice, nice helpers work there too. The lunch was great with everyone having enjoyed their choices. One bacon and pancakes. One grilled trout. One soft scramble with hash browns. Yummm yummm like grampa used to say on the old Hee Haw show! The huge open fireplace like our great greats used to cook everything in. Super clean bathrooms with paper towels and option. Those super loud hand dryers hurt my ears so I can't imagine how those little ears feel. I know none of my grands like them. Scares them too. What else can I say except thank you to all the priceless unreturnable time that these people, top to bottom, have put into creating and maintaining some I've been trying to hang into tooth and nail. Southern Grace and Hospitality. Two emblems of my southern roots I really miss alot. Leaving an extra plate at the table. Stretching the soup or milk or eggs or bread to spread it out and make due. Using grace over malice and hospitality over selfishness. I guess that enough then. Thanks again for your time and care. I and mine...

(1)I placed an order online to pickup. Not knowing until I called the number to confirm I arrived. That I ordered wrong and had to go inside and pick it up. (2) Next I go inside which in my mind I did not plan to go inside. It was so many people outside so I was a little annoyed). I'm looking for where I needed to go to pickup my order and then I hear my name. (3) I'm not from this area and I've been to several Cracker Barrels, and this is the first one EVER that the food tasted horrible. I always order the fried catfish and these were the smallest pieces of catfish I've ever had, and why were they rolled up on the sides. I dont think they were catfish they were too thin and did not have that actual catfish taste. I ate it but drowned it in hotsauce. They had no taste. Everything was bland. The dumplings, greenbeans, turnips the cornbread muffins...even the dag on fried apples were disgusting and they tasted like water. I tried my friends lemon pepper trout and that had no taste either. (4) The only thing that was good were the hush puppies I got 3 but only ate 1 of them. They all looked like they were fried in 5 week old grease they looked burnt the other 2 were soggy and one looked like it had been maybe touched and was in half. The presentation really sucked. Even the lemon pepper trout was not whole it was broken. I will never go back to this location. I will try not to allow this bad experience to keep me from eating at another location. I am so disappointed. Corporate needs to be notified about this restaurant location; food quality. One more thing I did not get any napkins or utensils either. The food was neither warm nor cold. And I was only maybe a 5 minutes drive to where I was going to sit and eat. I sat in the parking lot and placed my order so I was not late to...