Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Owensboro

I'm torn, and not entirely sure how to rate my experience. My family and I went to eat on a Sunday afternoon. As we went later in the afternoon, but before the dinner rush, the restaurant didn't have a lot of customers. So we were able to get a table almost immediately and were tended to by a waiter within a minute of being seated. He was polite, attentive, and took our drink orders quickly. However, as soon as he returned (also within just a couple of minutes) with our drinks, a waitress appeared beside him and told us she would be taking over for him. That's where the experience went downhill... Our new server was the exact opposite as the young waiter we started off with. She rushed us to order then took off, not to be seen again for almost 45 minutes. She didn't offer to refill our drinks or give us any update as to why our food was taking so long in an almost empty restaurant. When she did reappear, it was to unceremoniously drop our plates in front of us then immediately turn to the table behind us to start rushing them to order. Thankfully, our original waiter came by to provide us with the silverware we were missing, bring condiments, and fill our drinks. Our waitress saw him essentially doing her job and was quick to correct him and let him know we weren't his table (I assume she was making sure he knew he wouldn't be entitled to any of the tip.) but did nothing to offer to take over or help him tend to us. While most of the food was hot, plentiful, and tasted good, I was a little concerned about the catfish I ordered. The thickest part of the filet just wasn't cooked thoroughly. In a perfect world, I would have returned it to the kitchen rather than risk a food-borne illness from undercooked fish but the waitress would have had to check on us for that to have happened. So I ate the sides and rolls and made do with that. (But still paid for the fish!) Other than our horrible waitress and my undercooked fish, the rest of the food was amazing and the atmosphere very pleasant. I would definitely return and believe a future visit may easily earn additional stars. I would just make sure I didn't have the...

Hi,

So I have had it with Cracker Barrel. This is the second time within a month I have gotten terrible service and bad food. The first time, I sat down in the restaurant for well over 45 minutes without getting any kind of attention from the Waitress. I was never greeted, acknowledged, or asked what I wanted to drink or eat. Finally I just got up and left. The second time which was last night, I sent my mother over to pick up some food for us for supper. She got there at 6 to order. They said it would be about 15 minutes. She looks around, and about 45 minutes goes by and she's still waiting. When she asked about the order, they were rude and responded saying half their grill wasn't working and she needed to be patient. So she decides to go outside for a minute, and that's when she noticed that they were going to be closing at 7 for a Christmas Party. She went back in and waited til about 7:05, and then asked about the food again. They continued to be rude disrespectful. She told me that they were trying to get everything done so they could have their party. She starts to walk out, and the manager said that he would lock her out if she left. She asked if she could go get something out of her vehicle. He was rude again saying that they were closed and didn't have to let her back in. All this could have been avoided if they had either told her about the early closing, or had the food ready sooner. She finally gets the food about 7:15, and proceeds home. When she gets there, we take the food out and discover that some of the food was undercooked, and some things were overcooked. Basically the whole meal was inedible. We ended up throwing the whole thing away and going to get something else. Thank you Cracker Barrel for ruining our supper and any chance of us ever coming back to...

Had been a while since I'd eaten at Cracker Barrel. I ordered the Country Boy Breakfast with sunny side up eggs, steak tips, casserole, apples, and biscuits and gravy. We also ordered a thing of fried pickles for the table. Those took about 15 minutes to arrive. They were actually quite nice. After those it took maybe 25 minutes or more to get everything else. It felt long, we were seated around 6:40, ordered not too long after, and didn't get main dishes until 7:30.

The complete portion of steak tips is as shown; I felt it was rather small, but in all fairness the whole dinner doesn't actually cost that much and is altogether a lot of food. Steak was cooked fine, more on the medium-well side. Not chewy, tasted good. Eggs were as expected and also good. The apples were good. Unfortunately, they had forgotten my casserole and gravy, but the server brought them out quickly after I mentioned it. The food was mostly just warm, the casserole hot. Steak and eggs were more like room temperature really. As far as the food goes, it was all good, nothing to complain about, but also nothing to write home about either. For about $11 it was a pretty good spread.

There were some minor issues with the rest of my party. They forgot to bring out two sides of coleslaw, and also the chicken for the chicken and dumplings had run out. That's nothing anyone can control, so not really a complaint per se.

Service was good, we were taken care of and the waitresses were very nice.

Ultimately, I am giving three stars because while the food was fine, it was only fine, and not anything special (except for the biscuits which are amazing). The longer wait and the initial forgetting of several items keep me from...